Sawt Falasteen - Warholm in confident swagger towards Tokyo worlds

The Norwegian stormed the 400m hurdles in Saturday's meet in the Polish city of Chorzow in an astonishing 46.28 seconds.

It was the third fastest time ever run over the distance, topped only by Warholm's own world record of 45.94sec and American Rai Benjamin's 46.19sec.

Both of those times were set when the Norwegian won an iconic gold ahead of the American at the Covid-delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Until Warholm broke the world record in that run, nobody had run the 400m hurdles faster than American Kevin Young in three decades.

Four years on, Young's once unbeatable 46.78 is only the 24th-fastest time in history.

In the years since, Warholm, Benjamin and Brazilian Alison Dos Santos have proceeded to redefine the gruelling event.

The trio has pushed each other to ever greater heights, sharing out the global accolades between them.

Warholm now owns nine of the top 23 times faster than Young's 1992 best. Benjamin, who succeded Warholm as Olympic champion at last year's Paris Games, also has nine and 2022 world gold medallist Dos Santos five.

- 'Great rhythm' -

"I had great rhythm and speed throughout," Warholm said of his race in Chorzow.

"The time of 46.28 was even better than I expected. I knew I could do it.

"I mean, I'm in that shape, but to get out there and actually do it. It's just something that has to come.

"I'm very happy and proud that I was able to push those kind of times."

Warholm chose to race both Diamond League meets in China before setting a new world best in the 300m hurdles on his home track in Oslo and then taking a break from competition.

"I still think that my race in the Oslo Diamond League, the 300m hurdles world record is my best race this year," he said.

Training, Warholm added, had been based on building speed and consistency over the last 100 metres.

"Now I think we built the best version of myself," he said in broadside to Benjamin and Dos Santos ahead of the Diamond League finals later this month in Zurich, swiftly followed by the Tokyo worlds.

"It's all a part of the plan. And I think people should never count us out.

"I think we were very smart, me and my coach, and we always have plans, so I'm not as surprised by this time as everybody else."

Warholm will travel from Zurich straight to Japan for a final training camp there.

"I feel like we have a really good plan now, but my target now is that I've trained a lot, so I'm really confident that we did the work, and now it's just to build the shape towards Tokyo," he said.

"I knew that I was very fast in the training camps that I did. It shows that I am on the right way.

"To me this was a very good start to the second half of my season. I think it is promising towards Tokyo."

R.AbuNasser--SF-PST