Warholm wins 400m hurdles as Guliyev bags 200m gold
berlin — Karsten Warholm landed the first leg of a potentially “crazy” one-lap double when he won a world-class 400 metres hurdles battle at the European Championships on Thursday — 24 hours before he guns for a second gold in the flat 400m final.
On a night when Turkey’s Ramil Guliyev produced a dazzling 200m win worthy of the Olympic Stadium that has seen so many historic sprints, Norway’s young world one-lap hurdles champion Warholm prevailed in maybe the best duel of the week.
One of the sport’s rising stars, he dethroned reigning European champion Yasmani Copello in 47.64 seconds, a lifetime best and a European Under-23 record.
In a fascinating battle between style and power, the graceful 31-year-old Cuban-born Turk Copello pushed the 22-year-old all the way, clocking a national record 47.81sec only for the Norwegian’s strength to tell over the final 50 metres.
It set up Warholm, who became Norway’s first world track champion in 30 years in London last year, for an attempt at the audacious double when he goes in the 400m final on Friday.
Laughing about his “crazy” attempt, Warholm had joked before the Championships: “I ran a 400m recently, went home, grew some new balls, thought about it for a second and was like, ‘this can be fun’. You only live once, so I’m going for it.”
Warholm ran both events at the European Under-23 championships in 2017 when he won silver in the flat race and gold in the hurdles. —