Karsten Warholm’s revenge quest on track Premium

The Olympic champion is still annoyed about losing his World Championships crown last year. Having recovered from the injury that hampered his 400m hurdles title defence, the 27-year-old world record holder is building to a peak for next month’s World Championships

It was an unusual evening’s work for Karsten Warholm last Sunday. 

The Olympic champion in the 400m hurdles warmed up in a parking garage in downtown Stockholm so that he could arrive “dry and warm coming to the start” at the Diamond League event. In addition to a cool, rainy evening — not ideal conditions to run flat out in — he had to contend with something he would never have simulated in training: environmental protesters.

They knelt on the track about eight metres from the finish line, holding two banners that spanned from lanes one to six, forcing runners to break through them. Warholm, running in lane eight, had no barrier in his way but seemed distracted, with a fourth apparent protester squatting in lane seven seeming to photograph the incident. He was visibly angry with the protesters as they were led away while spectators booed. His winning time on a wet evening was 47.57 seconds, understandably outside his 45.94 world record set at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago.

After expressing his displeasure at the interruption — “It is permissible to protest, but this is not the way to do it,” he told Norwegian broadcaster NRK — Warholm assessed the performance which brought him a second win in a row, following the Oslo Diamond League. “I felt very good before the start, but the conditions make it a little bit more challenging,” he said. “I felt I had to post another good time, so I am very pleased. I am 100% exactly where I want to be.”

Where Warholm wants to be is in a position to regain the world title this year and break his own world record again. In an injury-plagued 2022 season, he lost at the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon; a win would have given him a hat-trick of world crowns. It’s a defeat that still rankles, a loss that angered him so much that he is determined to avenge it.

Warholm had walked into Eugene with a question mark over his head after suffering a hamstring tear the previous month. He led coming into the home straight but seized up badly and eventually finished seventh (48.42), with Brazilian rival and Tokyo bronze medallist Alison Dos Santos winning in a blazing-fast 46.29 seconds, the third-best time in history. The loss broke a winning streak of 22 races, including 18 finals, dating back to September 2018.

“I’m p****d because I lost my world title and of course I’m going to fight to get it back,” he said after his win at the Oslo Diamond League this June, when he stamped his return to top of the 400m hurdles with a world-leading 46.52s in front of his home crowd. It was the fourth-fastest performance in history and the second-fastest time of his career (behind his world record).