The three fastest men’s 400m hurdlers in history will race each other twice within three days when they compete in Oslo and the Diamond League meeting in Stockholm, on Sunday, reports worldathletics.org.
First up is the 300m hurdles in Oslo and it will be the first time that Warholm, Benjamin, and Dos Santos have all clashed in the discipline, following its introduction as an official event earlier this year.
As well as being the world 400m hurdles record-holder and a three-time world champion, home favourite Warholm holds the world best for the 300m hurdles having improved his global mark to 33.05 at the Diamond League season opener in Xiamen in April.
USA’s Benjamin claimed the Olympic 400m hurdles title ahead of Warholm and Dos Santos in Paris last year, while Brazil’s Dos Santos claimed the 2022 world title. Between them, the trio own the 18 fastest performances of all time in the 400m hurdles.
“It will be a fantastic weekend with 300m hurdles in Oslo on Thursday and then 400m hurdles in Stockholm on Sunday, both with the three fastest of all time,” said Benjamin.
“This is the first time I will compete in these two historic competitions, which makes it even more interesting. What more could you want?”
Fast times are also expected in the 5000m – a race that has been billed as a world record attempt. Last year Hagos Gebrhiwet came close to achieving the 72nd world record to be set at the Bislett Stadium as he clocked 12:36.73, just 1.37 seconds shy of Joshua Cheptegei’s global mark of 12:35.36 from 2020.
Now he returns to try again, joined by his compatriot Yomif Kejelcha who ran 12.38.95 last year – making it the first time that two men had ever broken 12:40 in the same race. Further strengthening the field are Kenya’s Jacob Krop and Nicholas Kipkorir, Ethiopia’s Kuma Girma and Biniam Mehary, Spain’s Thierry Ndikumwenayo, and Switzerland’s Dominic Lobalu.
The world record is always under threat whenever Duplantis competes. The Swedish pole vault star has improved the global mark 11 times in his career so far, most recently with a 6.27m clearance in Clermont-Ferrand in February, and he will be looking to build on the outdoor world lead of 6.11m he achieved in Shanghai/Keqiao at the start of May. The two-time Olympic and world champion competes along with five other six-metre-plus vaulters: his fellow Paris Olympic medallists Sam Kendricks and Emmanouil Karalis, plus Ernest John Obiena, Renaud Lavillenie and Sondre Guttormsen.
