San Francisco Frontiers - Warholm shirks Paris tourism to continue hurdling revolution

In an empty stadium, he obliterated the world record, ripping his top open in delight as he celebrated the winning time of 45.94sec to leave one of the most iconic images of any Summer Games.

His feat was mirrored by American Sydney McLauglin-Levrone in the women’s 400m hurdles, their joint efforts heralding a turning point in a discipline that lacks not only the immediacy of the sprints but also the elbow-jostling of middle distance events.

"There's been a revolution," Warholm told AFP of his event, commonly regarded as track's toughest.

“I remember when I first started running the 400m hurdles, everybody was running it very conservatively. It was more like an economy race where it started quite controlled and you tried to finish strong at the end, but now it's just a full sprint from the get go!

“I feel like me and my coach (Leif Olav Alnes) are a little bit guilty in doing it that way. In both the men's and women's side there has been improvement by a lot.

“It's become a new event. It's cool and a lot of people are now really looking forward to the 400m hurdles. It's one of the highlights usually and it wasn't that way before.

"It’s fun, but it’s also a lot tougher to win the 400m hurdles now than it was when I won (the world title) the first time in London in 2017 in 48.3 seconds."

Warholm, who is known for his kamikaze starts to races, has a new pair of spikes that he hopes will help him finish even stronger, warning nonetheless of the dangers of potential injury in the countdown to Paris.

"I want to finish the race stronger. That's probably been my weakest point and I also think actually the shoe is also going to (help) improve the performance.

"It will affect the stride length a little bit, but what is most sensational about it is the energy return. When you put force into it, the force it releases back is much more than than it was before."

The Norwegian kicked off his season at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, pipped to gold in the 400m flat by Belgium's Alexander Doom.

His outdoor season will commence on his home track in Oslo at the Bislett Games on Thursday, the sixth of the 15-meeting Diamond League circuit.

"I'm feeling good. I think that everything right now has gone according to plan. I couldn't ask for much more," he said.

"When you're pushing the limits every day to make sure that you can perform there are also a lot of risks.

"I hope that we can use our knowledge and experience to make sure that we come to Paris with the best shape possible."

- Tough to emulate -

Warholm has confirmed his presence at the European Athletics Championships in Rome on June 7-12, but was coy about what came after that ahead of the July 26-August 11 Olympics.

“I'll have to see. I've tried to find like the perfect balance. I don't like to set the calendar and to fill it very early.

"I like to take the decisions as they come and try to do the smartest things."

Warholm played down expectations of repeating his world record performance in Paris.

"It's a very tough thing to copy. But at the same time I would try, it would be a dream to be able to do something similar.

"But I think this Olympic Games will be tougher than ever. I'm looking forward to the task. It's going to be it's going to be high risk, but it's also going to be high reward if you make it."

Pressure was tempered, Warholm told AFP, by the fact he had already won an Olympic title.

"Actually the pressure is not that much more because a lot of great athletes go through a career and they never get the Olympic gold medal," he said.

"I'm lucky enough to have one. I want one more, but I think there are a lot of people feeling that this is also their biggest chance of getting a gold medal. I reckon they will feel some of the pressure as well."

Either way, Warholm said he would be focused.

"It's always about my own performance. I'm not coming to Paris to be a tourist this time. I'm coming here to perform and then hopefully if I make some good memories, I will be back."

M.Powell--SFF