NORWAY’S KARSTEN BREAKS 29 YEAR-OLD 400m HURDLES WORLD RECORD

Norway’s Karsten Warholm broke a 29 year-old 400m hurdles world record in the men’s hurdles beating track and field’s all-time bests pedestal of performance run by American Kevin Young at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics in Spain.

The Young’s record which has stood for nearly three decades met the 25 year-old at the 2021 Bislett Games Diamond League meet in Oslo, but the two time world champion was with an energy which he had a blistering start and crossed the finish line in 46.70, eight-hundredths of a second under the American’s young –long standing mark 46.78.

The home boy, running in his home crowd knows that this summer’s Tokyo Olympic Games is going to be a showdown of the world best, considering the performance of America’s Rai Benjamin who came five-hundredths of a second short of Young’s record at the U.S Olympics trials in Eugene, Oregon, clocking 46.83 less than a week ago. Also, Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba classy performance with three of his races at sub-70, establishing himself as one of the favorite heading into the summer Games. Samba is presently the fourth –best ever and he is ready to compete at the Olympics.

Meanwhile, Karsten was delighted with his performance which now set Young’s long record behind him ahead of the Olympics,

“This is a perfect moment,” the 25 year-old said after the games.

With Young’s record older than the Karsten Warholm, the Norway’s pride feels he needs to keep in shape to perform at the right occasion.

“Everybody’s is talking about this world record that had been standing for many, many years-it’s older than me, actually.

“I knew that I have had fast times in my body for a long time, but it’s one thing to know that you’re in good shape, it’s another thing to be able to go out and perform.”

With the roll call now Karsten as the world record holder having beaten Young’s world record at the 1992 Barcelona Games. The world will beam its attention to the summer games, hoping there will be a tough challenge, just the way Young did it in 1992 beating Edwin Moses’s nine year -old mark 47.02 set in 1983. 

Karsten won gold at World Championship in 2017 and 2019, as well as the 2018 European Championship.