San Francisco Frontiers - Masterful Warholm revels in perfect 'comeback story'

The Norwegian, who set an astonishing world record of 45.94 seconds when he won gold at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, first came to prominence when he won his first world title in London in 2017.

He backed that up in Doha in 2019, but post-Tokyo he suffered a hamstring injury from which he rushed back in a bid to push for the podium at last year's worlds in Eugene.

Warholm made the final in Oregon, but faded badly to finish seventh in a race won by Brazilian rival Alison Dos Santos.

"I had a tough season last year, I was injured, so to come back here and get my medal back is very nice," Warholm said.

"It's a good little comeback story."

Warholm clocked 46.89sec for gold in the Hungarian capital, with Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands taking silver in 47.34sec and American Rai Benjamin claiming bronze (47.56).

Dos Santos hit two hurdles hard to see his chances of a podium place evaporate, finishing fifth.

- The race was mine -

Warholm admitted "you never know how it's going to go", before adding that he was confident of victory after seeing his main rivals for gold race out around him.

"If they're ahead of me I know they'd used too much of their energy," he said.

"The last 200 metres was mine. It was just left for me to turn on the turbos over the last 100m and the race was mine."

Warholm added: "Every gold medal means a lot to me but this one is a bit extra special because I lost it last year."

The weight of expectation also bore down on the hurdler, he acknowledged.

"In the beginning everybody's cheering for you, you build yourself up, the media builds you up," said the 27-year-old, fresh from clocking a Diamond League record in Monaco last month.

"Then they need a disaster story so they start to talk you down, but that gives me motivation.

"My coach once said to me you have to learn how cynical the world is in this young age. I'm not naive anymore and I know how people are going to talk."

Warholm, who had spoken pre-race of his "greed" for medals, shot off a final word of warning to his rivals, saying his thirst for more was not yet sated.

"I'm still hungry for more and more. You need to have that to chase the gold medals."

M.Gonzalez--SFF