The two world-record holders will go head-to-head over a 100m sprint next month
Norwegian hurdler Karsten Warholm and Swedish pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis are gearing up for an exciting head-to-head sprint at Letzigrund Stadium in Zurich.
Karsten WarholmÂ
The highly anticipated clash will occur on September 4, just one day before the Zurich Diamond League – ending months of speculation about their showdown.
Duplantis, fresh off a stellar performance in Paris, successfully defended his Olympic title last week by setting a new world record of 6.25m in the pole vault.
Prior to this, the 24-year-old had already broken the Olympic record by clearing 6.10m at the Stade de France and achieved the world record on his third attempt.
Mondo Duplantis (Getty)
The two-time world champion has broken the world record on nine occasions and is the first athlete to retain his pole vault title since American Bob Richards in 1952 and 1956.
He first broke the world record when it stood at 6.16m in Poland in February 2020 and he broke it again one week later in Glasgow at the Muller Indoor Grand Prix.
Meanwhile, Warholm, the 400m hurdles world record holder, lost his Olympic title in Paris to the USA’s Rai Benjamin. Warholm finished with a silver medal, clocking 47.06, while Benjamin won gold with a world-leading time of 46.46, and Alison dos Santos from Brazil came third.
After an error on hurdle nine, Warholm wasn’t able to match his season’s best of 46.70 in Paris. He had recently won his third consecutive European 400m hurdles title in June as he broke his championship record with a time of 46.98.
Karsten Warholm (Getty)
The idea for the clash between the pair originated from a video shared on social media in July 2023, where the two athletes discussed the possibility of racing each other.
Now, that conversation has been turned into a reality, with the showdown being hosted in collaboration with PUMA, Red Bull, and Weltklasse Zurich.
Despite competing in different events, their 100m personal bests are surprisingly close. Warholm recorded a time of 10.49 seconds in 2017, while Duplantis clocked 10.57 seconds as a high school senior in 2018.
Karsten Warholm’s career summary
In Walk 2013, Warholm won eight gold awards in the Norwegian Youth Inside Titles. In June at the 2013 Bislett Games, he contended in the 200 meters, completing seventh in his intensity with a period of 22.25 s. Usain Bolt won an alternate intensity at a similar meet with a period of 19.79 s. At the 2013 World Youth Titles in July, he won gold in the young men’s octathlon with 6451 places, an individual best.
In 2014, Warholm contended in the decathlon and specific occasions. At that point, his conceivable future specializations were the long leap, jumping, and 400 meters. His most fragile exhibitions in the decathlon were in the tossing occasions.
In June 2014, Warholm set a Norwegian junior record in the 400 m with a period of 46.31 s.
In July 2015, he won silver in the 400 m at the 2015 European Junior Titles with a period of 46.50 s, 0.02 s behind Benjamin Lobo Vedel. He likewise won silver in the decathlon with 7764 places, an individual best.
In July 2016, while taking part in the semi-last of the 400 m obstacles at the 2016 European Titles, he broke the Norwegian public record with a period of 48.84 s. He then completed 6th in the last, with a period of 49.82 s. In August, he came to the semi-finals in the 400 m obstacles at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Karsten Warholm’s World records and Olympic title
On 1 July 2021, in his most memorable race of the time at Bislett Arena in Oslo, Warholm broke Kevin Youthful’s 1992 world record with a period of 46.70 s.
Warholm later broke his record by 0.76 seconds at the deferred 2020 Tokyo Olympics, winning gold in another world record of 45.94 s, a colossal 1.63% enhancement for the past record – the past progress of that extent was either David Hemery’s 0.82 s improvement to 48.12 s in 1968 (1.68%, utilizing completely programmed time), or Glenn Davis’ 0.9 s improvement to 49.5 s in 1956 (1.79%, by true records including hand timing by the guidelines set up at that point). Warholm turned into the principal European to win the occasion since Volker Beck in 1980. Warholm’s time, the principal sub-46 s time for the 400 m obstacles, was quicker than 18 sprinters in the men’s 400 m without obstacles.
The silver medalist in the last, Rai Benjamin, likewise beat the old record, with a period of 46.17 s; the bronze medalist, Alison dos Santos, was 0.02 seconds shy of the old world record with a period of 46.72 s however joined the other two in bettering the old Olympic record of 46.78 s. Warholm broke the old record without utilizing the new “super spikes” worn by a larger number of people of his rivals; he has reprimanded those spikes as “bologna”