Brazil's Dos Santos wins world 400m hurdles as Warholm wilts

Brazil's Alison Dos Santos ran the third fastest time of all time to win the world 400m hurdles on Tuesday as Norwegian prodigy Karsten Warholm wilted at Hayward Field.

Dos Santos clocked a championship record of 46.29 seconds, finishing ahead of Americans Rai Benjamin and Trevor Bassitt, who finished in 46.89 and 47.39sec respectively.

Olympic champion and world record holder Warholm led coming into the home straight but seized up badly and eventually came in seventh (48.42).

Warholm last lost a 400m hurdles race in September 2018 in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

Since then, he had notched up a winning streak of 18 races and another four qualifying races in the 2019 world championships and 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

Warholm laid down a performance that is widely considered one of the greatest Olympic track performances of all time when he smashed the 29-year-old world record to win the 400m hurdles at the Tokyo Games in a time of 45.94sec.

But the 26-year-old pulled up injured at the Diamond League meet in Rabat in early June with a "muscle fiber tear" in a hamstring and although insisting he was at 100% going into the race, he missed his usual gas over the final 80 meters.

posted Wednesday July 20th