Warholm will win the Gold, Nice payday for Raj today but it was only one meet. He really wanted it today & good for him. Three weeks , rounds , Warholm wins again.
Warholm stumbled coming down over the final hurdle. He won't make that mistake in Paris.
That was barely a blip. I think he was on his way to getting passed anyway. Warholm may have to start pacing his races a bit. That thing where you go out hard with no consideration is a young man's game. He's a couple of years older and he's been through some injuries.
I like rooting for all three of the top guys in the 400Mh, Dos Santos is easy to root for as well, but I am happy Rai won and I hope he wins Gold in Paris.
Warholm didn't trust his new stride pattern at all. I thought that was the standout variable. All season he has been using 14 on 9 and 10. It was obviously a focal point of the offseason.
Fast forward to the pivotal showdown and Olympic preview. Warholm reverted to his long term staple, using 13 through 9 and chopping to 15 on 10.
It wasn't bad at all today. I think Warholm will be happy with it. He knows he needs to go out faster to hold off Benjamin. When he times it properly it's not obvious he adds the two extra steps. Notice that Ato Boldon didn't say anything. When Warholm messes up the timing, Boldon always thinks there were extra unintended steps.
Warholm doesn't trust his right lead when a gold medal is at stake. That's the conclusion. Using 14 he has to go right lead on 9. At 13/15 it's left lead all the way around.
Warholm will win the Gold, Nice payday for Raj today but it was only one meet. He really wanted it today & good for him. Three weeks , rounds , Warholm wins again.
IMHO
Rai also beat Warholm last year in the Diamond League Final. Perhaps that race was the changing of the guard.
If Rai was a better hurdler, he would have been dominating this race as he is the faster flat 400M runner.
That was a very close race and Paris has rounds so no way to tell who will take it. I cheer for all three of these guys because they have lifted the event on the men's side from what was a distraction from the main races for years to one of the two or three most exciting events. I hope that Rai Benjamin gets the medal. He is the fastest 400m flat runner in the field every time out and #2 all-time, so maybe this will be his year.