Karsten Warholm: The race for his 400m hurdles world record
The Olympic champion is back 'training better than ever' after recovering from a hamstring injury that hampered his world title defence in 2022. And once again, the focus is on how fast he will be this season.
Athletics
Karsten Warholm has never lacked self-confidence.
Even at his lowest, the Norwegian track star steps up, fully trusting in his own ability to deliver. That’s exactly what he did in a 2022 season blighted by injury.
He tore his hamstring in his first 400m hurdles race last season at the Rabat Diamond League, just six weeks before the World Athletics Championships.
Despite this setback, he fearlessly made it to the finals in Eugene but was disappointed not to clinch a third world title.
“So going to the World Championships I thought I was good enough to win it but obviously I was not. My self-confidence is sometimes too much!” Warholm admitted in an interview with European Athletics.
2022 may not have gone according to plan for the 400m hurdles world record holder but he was relieved to have signed off as a two-time European champion.
“I’ve been training better than ever. So I don’t think it (injury) is any problem for now. But back then it was a bit annoying. But I wanted to have the European title so I was very focused on that,” he said.
As always, the Olympic champion began his season indoors over the 400m flat. The one-lap provides him with the speed he needs as he aims for a third world title and a shot at the Diamond League Trophy, which he has previously won twice.
Karsten Warhom on regaining full speed after injury last year
2021 proved to be a remarkable year for the king of Norwegian sprints as he impeccably maintained his 'Tokyo shape'.
The double world champion wrapped up his stellar year unbeaten in the 400m hurdles. More precisely, he emerged victorious in all but one of his races, including the rarely contested 300m hurdles and the 300m flat events held indoors.
The sole occasion when his name did not top the final result sheet was after a 400m race in Switzerland, where he finished fourth with a time of 45.51. However, this mattered little.
The sprinter's unprecedented level of consistency and greatness was unparalleled. He was the first athlete to break the 47-second barrier twice in the 400m hurdles, setting a new standard. He revolutionised the event with two outstanding performances in the span of a month.
His season opener at the Bislett stadium in Oslo saw him lower Kevin Young's world record from Barcelona 1992, clocking in at 46.70.
Four weeks later, he smashed his own world record with a time of 45.94, securing gold at Tokyo 2020 held in 2021.
Wrapping up his season at the Berlin ISTAF in September, he maintained his unbeaten streak for the third consecutive season in his specialty race.
The 27-year-old extended his winning streak to 22 races, having not suffered a single defeat since September 2018.
Warholm, who showcased his extraordinary talent at the 2013 Norwegian Youth Indoor Championships by triumphing in eight events, was in excellent form. After a series of indoor competitions, he believed he could go even faster.
However, his progress was abruptly halted by a hamstring injury.
Fortunately, the 2013 World Youth Octathlon champion managed to recover just in time for his third consecutive World Championships.
“I still managed to get back from that injury quite fast, I would say, and then after eight or nine weeks I was back at full speed so it doesn’t set you back a long time long-term,” Warholm said in an interview with European Athletics.
“So going to the World Championships I thought I was good enough to win it but obviously I was not…But after that I figured I would try to get some races in, but I also realised I wouldn’t be in Tokyo shape.”
New season offers Karsten Warholm another chance to lower his own world record
Warholm, trained by his long-term renowned sprint coach, Leif Olav Alnes, began his 2023 season by competing indoors, as he has always done since his teenage years when he split his time between sprinting and horizontal jumps.
“This year I wanted to compete indoors, especially as I was injured during the summer and I missed the racing part. So that’s some of the reason I am doing it right now because I didn’t feel like I got that many races last year,” said Warholm who played football before settling into sprinting as an eight-year-old.
“I grew up doing a lot of indoor races. Growing up with these types of indoor tracks in Norway, I think I am quite used to it as well. So I’m not going to say it will become normal because next year with Paris I have to see if it works in terms of prioritising because as I say there are always risks.”
Warholm has chosen to compete in the 400m flat event indoors.
In February, he achieved his fastest time of the season, 45.31, at the home track in Ulsteinvik, just a month before winning the European 400m indoor title.
His first hurdles race of the season took place at one of his favorite venues, the Bislett Stadium in Oslo. It was at this stadium where he won his first of 15 Diamond League races and also broke the world record in July 2021.
Returning in June 2021, he ran the race in a Diamond League record time of 46.52 to take the gold.
He lowered that time to 46.51 at the Diamond League meet in Monaco on 21 July, beating reigning world champion Alison dos Santos of Brazil, who had to settle for second place.
When he runs, Warholm is relentless. On the track, he is known for his 'breakneck speed’ and pushing himself hard from the start line.
“When the gun goes, there are no jokes for me anymore,” he said in an interview with Athletics Weekly as he desribed his aggressive running style.
“This is all the hours that I put in. I just run with a lot of aggression, but it works well for me,” Karsten Warholm to Athletics Weekly.
“It’s always been me running because I really want to win, I really want to achieve and it’s all this willpower going into my stride. Yes, I think it’s violent. It’s not something that I do on purpose but that’s the way I get out my speed and I think, from the first step, for me it’s a battle to win.”
Warholm remains driven by the same level of intensity in the 2023 season, focused on self-improvement.
Even with Brazil’s dos Santos out injured at the start of the season, Warholm and American Rai Benjamin, who took silver at the 2019 worlds and at the Tokyo Games, and finished second again last year in Eugene, could push each other to run another sub-46-second time in the hurdles.
Benjamin, the second all-time fastest, agrees that “another greatest athletic performance” as hurdling legend Collins Jackson described their Olympic race, is on the horizon.
“I feel like I was sort of the catalyst for all this to happen,” Benjamin said in an Olympics.com interview. “I distinctly remember in 2018, Dos Santos wasn’t really on the scene. It was Warholm and [Abderrahman] Samba, they were consistently running 47 mids, 47 highs, and then I ran 47.0. And then I pop onto the scene and now everyone’s running super fast."