Louis vinker
08/03/2021 8:19 AM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 08/03/2021 8:19 AM
At noon on Tuesday, August 3 in Japan - exactly 12:20 at the National Stadium, at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games - the greatest race of all time in the 400-meter hurdles took place. And hardly, if we refer to technical terms, you can admire something similar in athletics today:
Norwegian Karsten Warholm set a straight
stratospheric
world record
with his perfect gait and his mark of 45 seconds and 94 hundredths. And he broke a barrier - that of 46 seconds - for the return to the track with the ten obstacles that would hardly have entered anyone's imagination.
The previous world record, which had been set by Warholm himself on July 1 at Oslo's Bislett Stadium, with 46s70 was now outright demolished. As much for Warholm as for his guard and great rival,
the American Rai Benjamin, who produced another astonishing mark: 46s17
. Not even he will be able to believe that with such a mark he has to settle for the silver medal.
The same accolades go to young
Alison Brendon Alves dos Santos, whose 46s72 elevated him to a historic bronze medal
, when he was just 21 years old.
He is the first Brazilian and South American athlete to reach the Olympic podium in this difficult specialty
, in which previously there were other representatives of our region in finalist positions such as his compatriots Sylvio Magalhaes Padilha (5th in Berlin 1936), Everson Teixeira (7 In Atlanta 1996), Eronilde Nunes de Araújo (8th in Atlanta and 5th in Sydney 2000) and the Panamanian Bayano Kamani (5th in Athens 2004).
We also have to mention there the performances of Argentines such as Juan Lavenás (semi-finalist in Berlin) and Juan Carlos Dyrzka (semi-finalist in Mexico 68, when he was the first in the region to run under 50 seconds).
Warholm's record.
Photo: Reuters
"This is crazy. The most important moment of my life. Last night I struggled to sleep, I had a special feeling in my chest… I was so focused on getting this medal for my collection, ”
said Warholm.
“It is something big, historical, the only thing missing from my collection. He had the world title, the European, the European and world record. The Olympic gold medal is what everyone talks about. I knew this race was going to be the most difficult of my life, but I was prepared, "he
added.
Karsten Warholm jumps a hurdle in the biggest race in history.
Photo: EFE
Fierce rhythm
Warholm -25 years old, born on February 28, 1996 in Ulsteivink- imposed a fierce rhythm to the test from the start and only Benjamin could stay expectant.
The Norwegian was on lift 6, while Benjamin did it on 5. Alison entered medal position from the middle of the course.
Warholm's gait seemed to have only a pause at the ninth fence - Benjamin was approaching there - but it had not slowed down.
He burst into a cry as he gazed at the marker with the fabulous mark he had implanted.
Recall that,
until a few weeks ago, the world record was 46.78 held by American Kevin Young since the Barcelona 1992 Olympics
. It was the oldest of all men's track test records,
almost three decades untouchable
. Only in recent times, with the appearance of the trio formed by Warholm, Benjamin and the Qatari Abderramah Samba, the possibility of ending the reign of Young was hinted at, who, in turn, had beaten the top of the greatest specialist in history ,
Edwin Moses
(a throne that Warholm will now be able to claim from him).
Finally, it was the Norwegian, an athlete who in his days as a junior was dedicated to the combined events, who had the pleasure of breaking Young's record in front of his own public, last month.
Karsten Warholm celebrates after beating Rai Benjamin and Alison dos Santos in a race.
Photo: EFE
Now,
this Tuesday, August 3, 2021, will be definitively marked in the history of athletics by the exploits of these men
.
Virgin Islands' Kyron McMaster ranked 4th with 47s08 and Samba couldn't keep up with the candidates, finishing 5th with 47s12.
The positions were closed by Yasmani Copello (a native of Cuba and representative of Turkey) with 47s81, Rasmus Magi (Estonia) with 48s11 and the Italian Alessandro Sibilio with 48s77.
Warholm became the first Norwegian athlete to complete the 400m hurdles at the Olympics, a specialty of overwhelming dominance by the United States (he won 19 of the previous 25 finals).
The greatest specialist in history emerged from the United States - the throne that Warholm will now begin to claim - the remembered Edwin Moses.
He triumphed in Montreal 76 and did it again eight years later in Los Angeles, retiring after his bronze in Seoul 88. He could not participate in 1980 due to the American boycott of the Moscow Games.
Moses was undefeated for a decade between 1977 and 1987, breaking the world record four times to take it to 47.02
before his retirement.
Alison's talent
Born on June 3, 2000 in Sao Joaquim de la Barra, in the interior of São Paulo, after having suffered a severe childhood accident - a burn whose traces are still seen on his forehead - Alison Brendon Alves dos Santos emerges as one of the greatest talents who has never known the athletics of Brazil and our region.
Already in 2019, and still playing in the junior category, he
was a gold medal in the Pan American Games in Lima
(and also in that of his category).
And he closed that season surprising when he reached the final of the Doha World Cup, in which Warholm won his second consecutive title, after the one achieved in London in 2017.
Alison Dos Santos celebrates the bronze.
Photo: AFP
The pandemic stopped almost all of them, practically total absence of competition in 2020. But Alison, after a training cycle in Chula Vista with her coach Felipe de Siqueira, California, entered tournaments in full evolution: she seized the South American record with 47s68 on May 9 in Walnut, during the Mount SAC Relays. On the 28th of the same month, in the Doha stage for the Diamond League, he took the mark to 47s57.
And at the beginning of July he participated in the Oslo meeting, the same one in which Warholm broke the world record, escorted him with 47s38 to set the South American top for the third time in a row.
He improved it again with 47s34 after three days, in Stockholm.
In the Olympic semifinal he reached 47.31 and now, at 46.72, directly incredible.
Like the performances of Warholm and Benjamin, something that will remain forever in the great history of world athletics.
The new king came out of Norway
Karsten Warholm is one of the great sports figures that Norway has launched to stardom in recent times, as is also the case with his prodigy midfielder Jakob Ingebrigtsen and, in other sports, the undisputed world chess champion Magnus Carlsen or the new football star , Erling Haaland.
Born on February 28, 1996 in Ulsteinvik, Warholm played soccer and skiing as a boy, although not over long distances, until a friend encouraged him to join athletics.
"I was eight years old, I decided to compete in a 200-meter race and I liked it," he
said.
Warholm was proclaimed u18 world champion in the octathlon in Donetsk (2013) with 6,451 points.
The following year, at the u20 World Cup in Eugene he finished 10th in the decathlon with 7,551 points.
And in 2015 he was European u20 runner-up of the deca, and also of the 400 plains, in Eskilstuna, Sweden.
His personal records included 14.30 in the 110-meter hurdles, 2.05 meters in the high jump, 4.30 meters in the pole vault and 7.66 in the long jump.
However, coach Leif Olav Alnes, with whom he began working in 2015, convinced him to pursue the 400m hurdles.
“My dream was to participate in the Olympic Games.
And Leif explained to me that it would take a lot more time to learn each of the specialties.
So it was better to focus on a test, ”
Warholm recalled in an interview with Track and Field News.
Warholm's excitement after his feat in the 400m hurdles.
Photo: EFE
Although he already had some background in the 400 hurdles, his first full season was 2016, reaching sixth place in the European Championship in Amsterdam and the Olympic semifinal in Rio de Janeiro, in addition to taking the Norwegian record to 48s49.
In 2017 he ranked among the world elite of the 400 hurdles
-48s22 was his best mark of the season- with the conquest in London, crowned with a great celebration. Also that year he ran the 400 llanos under 45 seconds (44s87, his personal best). And a year later he was already below 48s on the hurdles. In Doha 2019 he retained the world title.
Although Oslo is the base for his training sessions, during the harsh winter months he moves with his coach and his team to Tenerife, Spain.
On some of his great rivals, Warholm commented: “Rai and Samba are two natural talents, super slim, tall… If a machine were dedicated to making a perfect 400 hurdler, Rai would come out.
Or Samba.
I also have my talents, but I am a little shorter, although more robust.
What I do is run with all my energy and will, at all times ”.
The time of Warholm's arrival.
Photo: AFP
Warholm measures 1.87 meters, his usual weight is 80 kilos and stands out for his power, determination and technical timing.
On July 1, at the Bislett stadium in Oslo, he had crowned one of his greatest ambitions, seizing the world record held by Kevin Young with 46s.78 since the Barcelona Olympic Games 92. Warholm scored - in that legendary stadium athletic- 46s.70, a mark that he now directly demolished with his “stratospheric” record of 45s.94.
The wonderful Alison
At the beginning of 2020, Alison Brendon Alves dos Santos returned to the Chula Vista Training Center, in California (USA) with her coach Felipe de Siqueira to start a new “Camping CBAT” and a preparation cycle with a view to the Tokyo Olympics. However, like the entire world, the pandemic collapsed all plans and that season was a blank for Alison. Not so his objectives, which are, after his formidable junior campaign, to place himself among the world's leading specialists in the 400-meter hurdles, already in the superior category.
Alison came from a full steam
ahead
in juniors,
where her mark of 48s28 remains for now as the third of all time in the world, only preceded by the 48s02 (junior record) of the American Danny Harris in 1984 and the 48s26 of Trinidadian Jehua Gordon in 2009. In that 2019 season, Alison ran 16 times under 50 seconds, seven of them under 49. And it became the protagonist of all the relevant competitions. During his preparatory stay in California he broke the junior South American record with 49s.84 (April 19 at Azusa) and eleven days later he improved it to 48s84 by winning the Brazilian Grand Prix, in Braganca Paulista.
“Our goals at the beginning of the season were to beat the South American u20 record and win the Pan American in the category.
But after the victory in the Brazilian Grand Prix, all plans changed, Alison ended up exceeding all expectations, it was incredible, ”said her coach.
Alison dos Santos runs from behind to the phenomenal Warholm.
Photo: EFE / Juan Ignacio Roncoroni
He was the South American senior champion in Lima with 49s88 and on July 11 he won the gold medal at the World University Games in Napoli, taking the record to 48s57 and ten days later he was proclaimed pan American u20 champion in Costa Rica with a new record of 48s49.
From there he went to the Pan American Games, again in Lima and again with a record, 48s45.
It was a hard-fought race alongside Juander Santos, whose fall at the last hurdle prevented any discussion with Alison in the final stages.
“I am very happy and I dedicate the victory to my mother, Sueli, and to my coach, Felipe. I am living a wonderful year, I did not imagine that I would run over 48 seconds. Every competition is a surprise to me, I'm constantly improving and that gives me confidence
, ”Alison said that afternoon. And he took another leap in quality by establishing himself among the finalists of the World Championship in Doha, where he finished 7th with 48s28, after his 48s.35 of the semifinals. It was also 7th. its location on the absolute world list for that season.
“I was very happy to reach the World Cup final at the age of 19 and share the track with several of the fastest athletes in history. I saw it as an opportunity to improve my own performance ”
, he expressed.
Born on June 3, 2000, he
was barely ten months old when he suffered a serious accident.
He spilled the contents of a frying pan that his grandmother was handling
, he suffered third degree burns and spent four months in the Barretos hospital.
Scars are still visible on her forehead, face, chest, and left arm, so she wears hats to protect her sun-sensitive skin.
Alison dos Santos from Brazil prays after winning a bronze medal in the 400m hurdles.
Photo: EFE / Juan Ignacio Roncoroni
His first sport was judo, but at the age of thirteen he began practicing athletics at the Pedro Badran Technical School in his hometown, São Joaquim da Barra. And there one of his teachers advised him to train at the Institute led by the former sprinter and Olympic relay medalist, Edson Luciano Ribeiro. "When I saw him, while training on a dirt track, I thought he was very good, because of his height, his coordination and his speed," said his first coach, Ana Claudia Fidelis.
He quickly placed himself among the Brazilian promises over 400 meters and 400 with hurdles, and in the U18 World Cup in Nairobi (2017) he achieved 5th place in this event, in addition to taking a gold medal with the 4x400 mixed relay. In 2019 he achieved the bronze medal of the 400 with hurdles at the U20 World Cup in Tampere with 49s78. And he also achieved the test in the South American u23 in Cuenca with 50s56, in addition to finishing second in the 400 plains with his personal best of 45s97, escorting who -one year later- would be proclaimed world runner-up of the test, the Colombian Anthony Zambrano .
Alison, now 2 meters tall, thinks that “
of the great stars of the 400 hurdles, my style is the most similar to that of Karsten Warholm. I really like his personality, I would like to achieve his achievements
”. And he says that he does not set limits:
“Only God knows. I will train hard and always seek to improve ”.
Interviewed by World Athletics, he recalled:
“When I look back and analyze what I did in 2019, I can't even describe it.
It was evolving fast, every result.
I feel so happy and grateful.
I had a good run in the World Championship, but now I want more.
Tokyo is a few months away, but we are focused on what we have to do and we know what we want to achieve.
I would like to drop 48 seconds in 2020 and I would like to win a medal in Tokyo ”.
Her coach says that
“Alison has an impressive ability to understand athletics.
We are tired of seeing talented athletes, but they do not have a full understanding of the race, the commitment and the extra care.
Alison has it to spare and that is very important ”
.
Earlier this season he returned to training in Chula Vista, California.
His progress, entering the competitions, was unstoppable: he took the absolute South American record to 47s68 during the Mount SAC Relays in Walnut on May 9.
And it kept getting better: 47s57 in Doha on May 28, 47s38 on July 1 in Oslo (when Warholm set the world record) and 47s34 three days later in Stockholm.
Now, during the Olympic semifinal, he dropped by three hundredths and it seemed he had "fuel" for more
.
He just proved it with this fantastic bronze medal and a new record of 46s72, which until a few weeks ago would have been a world record.
Rai Benjamin, second best
We are not exaggerating if we point out that, at least in modern athletics,
the 46 seconds and 17 hundredths that Rai Benjamin achieved in this massive 400m hurdles final in Tokyo represents the most extraordinary mark ever achieved… for a second place finish
.
It would be for a champion too, only there was one even more extraordinary: Warholm.
The world record until a few weeks ago was 46s78 (Kevin Young in 1992), but Warholm, Benjamin and also the Brazilian Alison Brendon Alves dos Santos have relegated it to fourth place on the
all-time
list
...
Rai Benjamin was born on July 27, 1997 in New York.
And he lived there until he was four years old, until his parents - originally from Antigua - decided to return to that Caribbean island.
Benjamin recalled exactly the day he took the flight from New York to Antigua:
“It was September 11, 2001. Yes, that day.
Our flight left New York for Antigua that morning, but due to the terrorist attacks our plane was grounded in Puerto Rico.
I remember being stuck there for a week and seeing these big black trucks and men walking around with huge guns.
People said that the airport was closed indefinitely, and we would go back and forth from the airport for days, trying to get back to Antigua
.
"
Rai Benjamin made the world record, but it fell short.
Photo: AP
Rai Benjamin lived between Antigua and New York until he was nine years old, but he missed it.
And finally he convinced his family to return to his native country, for secondary studies.
But in his first international competitions (such as the Carifta youth games or the 2013 Junior World Cup) he represented the island.
It was only in 2018 that World Athletics admitted his request to compete for the USA.
At that point he began to shine in the 400-meter hurdles, seizing the national university title of the United States, where he played in two of the strongest teams: the University of California Los Angeles and Southern California.
The last effort of Rai Benjamin.
Photo: AP
Also
from that 2018 he became the great rival of Warholm and Samba, the men destined to revolutionize the specialty
.
Benjamin fell below 47 seconds for the first time at the Zurich meeting (August 29, 2019) when he scored 46s98, remaining six hundredths ... behind Warholm.
Weeks later, at the Doha World Cup, the Norwegian won again and Benjamin took the silver medal with 47s66, in addition to conquering the gold medal with the United States long relay.
2020 marked the competitive pause for the pandemic, but he was ready for this Olympic season and had just won the Trials in Eugene, taking his personal record to 46s83 at the end of June.
Look also
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