Karsten Warholm gave the packed crowd at the 60th edition of the Bislett Games in Oslo the performance they craved in the latest Wanda Diamond League meeting as he set a 300m hurdles world best of 32.67, becoming the first athlete to better 33 seconds in this event.
It was the final event of a programme that had seen Mondo Duplantis set two meeting records in the men’s pole vault, Kenya’s Faith Cherotich set a women’s 3000m steeplechase meeting record and world lead of 9:02.60 and Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Isaac Nader and Nico Young earn stirring victories in, respectively, the men’s 800m, mile and 5000m.
Racing against the US athlete who succeeded him as Olympic 400m hurdles champion last year, Rai Benjamin, Warholm offered ominous evidence of his 2025 prospects. The 29-year-old Norwegian athlete improved significantly upon the time of 33.05 he set at the Diamond League meeting in Xiamen earlier this year.
Benjamin, two lanes inside his rival in lane five, appeared to have the race in his grasp as he moved past Warholm into the final straight, but he faltered over the final 50 metres as the home athlete drove home remorselessly.
Benjamin nevertheless clocked a personal best of 33.22 in second place ahead of Brazil’s 2022 world 400m hurdles champion Alison dos Santos, who recorded 33.38.
It was the first time that Warholm, Benjamin and Dos Santos had all met in this discipline following its introduction as an official event earlier this year; they now move on to the 400m hurdles at Sunday’s Diamond League meeting in Stockholm.
“The race went well although I was rather worried with how much Rai (Benjamin) was closing on me,” Warholm said. “But I knew I could push on over the last hurdle to home. I usually fade at the end of the 400 so the 300 suits me to some degree but I will be back strong in the 400 on Sunday.”
Duplantis breaks own meeting record
A few minutes earlier, Duplantis earned his customary victory in the men’s pole vault – taking his fifth Bislett Games title – before going on to set successive meeting records of 6.03m and 6.15m.
Sweden’s double Olympic champion, unbeaten since the 2023 Monaco Diamond League meeting, thus improved his outdoor world lead of 6.11m set at the Shanghai Diamond League meeting – having set his 11th world record earlier his year by clearing 6.27m indoors.
Cherotich ran a coolly judged race, moving clear over the final lap to better the mark of 9:05.08 she set in winning at the Doha Diamond League ahead of Bahrain’s Winfred Yavi, who also improved her season’s best as she clocked 9:02.76.
Kenya’s Wanyonyi, the Olympic 800m champion, earned a season’s best of 1:42.78 under extreme pressure. Five metres clear at the bell, the 20-year-old began to look a touch desperate as the field closed on him at the start of the finishing straight.
Yet he would not, could not, be passed and held on to register the second fastest time of the season behind the 1.42.70 set by Botswana’s Tshepiso Masalela at last month’s Rabat Diamond League meeting, with Spain’s Mohamed Attaoui second in 1:42.90 and Algeria’s Olympic bronze medallist Djamel Sedjati third in 1:43.06.
Isaac Nader set a Portuguese record of 3:48.25 to win the first Dream Mile to be held in Oslo since 2022, finishing a couple of metres clear of a wide wave of talent from which Australia’s 19-year-old Cameron Myers emerged to take second place in a personal best of 3:48.87.
Nico Young set a US outdoor 5000m record of 12:45.27 after a monumental race that produced eight other personal bests including two other national records.
While the touted joust at Joshua Cheptegei’s 2020 world record of 12:35.36 did not come to pass, a hugely accomplished field produced a hugely competitive spectacle which ended with the 22-year-old moving past the Briton who led at the bell, George Mills, and pushing on for victory ahead of Ethiopians Biniam Mehary and Kuma Girma, who clocked personal bests of 12:45.93 and 12:46.41 respectively.
Mills was rewarded for his true grit with a British record of 12:46.59, eclipsing Mo Farah’s 2011 mark of 12:53.11. Switzerland’s Dominic Lobalu also set a national record, placing 10th in 12:50.87.
Alfred launches title defence with a win
The first 100m of the season for Olympic champion Julien Alfred underlined her enduring power as she got her Diamond League title defence off to a winning start with Usain Bolt watching on in the stands.
Despite being beaten out of the blocks by the Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith, she won in 10.89, slowing over the final few metres.
Ta Lou-Smith was second in 11.00, with Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith third in 11.08.
Isabella Whittaker of the United States won the women’s 400m in 49.58 ahead of home runner Henriette Jaeger in a national record of 49.62 and Britain’s Amber Anning, who clocked 50.24.
Dalilah Muhammad of the United States won the women’s 400m hurdles in 53.34 from Slovakia’s Emma Zapletalova (54.44). US heptathlete Anna Hall was going well until falling at the last hurdle – happily without serious harm.
Leyanis Perez Hernandez of Cuba managed only two scoring efforts in the women’s triple jump but the second of them, 14.72m, was enough for victory ahead of Jamaica’s Olympic silver medallist Shanieka Ricketts (14.57m).
The men’s triple jump saw Jamaica’s Jordan Scott earn a notable win over Portugal’s 2021 Olympic champion Pedro Pichardo thanks to an opening personal best of 17.34m, with the latter athlete managing 17.06m.
Cuba’s Reynier Mena won the men’s 200m in 20.20 from Timothe Mumenthaler of Switzerland in a personal best of 20.27, with Canada’s Tokyo 2020 champion Andre de Grasse third in 20.33.
Victory in the women’s javelin went to Japan’s Olympic champion Haruka Kitaguchi with a fifth-round best of 64.63m that took her past Serbia’s Adriana Vilagos (63.78m).
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics
