Three years ago in Tokyo, Norway’s Karsten Warholm won Olympic 400m hurdles gold in a world record 45.94 – widely described as one of the greatest Olympic feats in any sport – and the three-time European champion started the defence of his title in impressive fashion with a 47.57 on Monday (5).
His win in heat two was by far the fastest of the five races in the first round of the 400m hurdles and, in fact, the fastest ever time ever recorded in an Olympic 400m hurdles heat.
“I have to laugh a little. It's unfortunate to be in the same race as a Frenchman as the crowd was cheering for him and I felt I had to put on a bit of a show,” reflected a smiling Warholm, talking to Norwegian TV.
“In retrospect, I could have let him [France's Clement Ducos] go, but I don't think that matters much. I felt like I had to run fast, but without emptying the tank. However, I would have liked to run a little slower.”
He means business. 😤
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) August 5, 2024
Karsten Warholm 🇳🇴 begins his Olympic 400m hurdles title defence with a 4️⃣7️⃣.5️⃣7️⃣ clocking in his heat.
That’s the fastest ever time recorded in a heat in Olympic Games history. 👀 #OlympicGames #Paris2024 #athletics pic.twitter.com/I0gdL7e60g
Behind him, the aforementioned Clement Ducos was inspired by the 75,000-strong crowd and had the race of his life to finish second to Warholm in a personal best of 47.69 to move up to third on the French all-time list.
Warholm and Ducos were the only men to run under 48 seconds in the heats.
With Ducos and his compatriot Wilfried Happio – who was third in heat four but had to work much harder than his compatriot to progress – having qualified automatically for the semi-finals, Stephane Diagana’s long-standing French 400m hurdles record of 47.37, which dates from 1995, could now be living on borrowed time.
Estonia’s Rasmus Magi, an Olympic finalist in Rio and Tokyo where he finished sixth and seventh respectively, was the other European heat winner, crossing the line in 48.62 to take the third race of five in the 400m hurdles on Monday morning.
Alekna leads the discus qualifiers
In the discus qualifiers, Austria’s Lucas Weisshaidinger and Germany’s Clemens Prufer quickly gained their place in Wednesday’s final, throwing 66.72m and 66.36m on their first attempts to qualify by right with the automatic qualifying distance having been set at 66.00m.
World record-holder Mykolas Alekna – looking to follow in the footsteps of his father Virgilius Alekna who took gold at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games – fouled his first attempt but the Lithuanian then sent his 2kg implement out to 67.47m for the longest throw of the morning.
No trouble for the world record-holder.
— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) August 5, 2024
🇱🇹's Mykolas Alekna easily qualifies for the discus throw final with a solid 67.47m 💪#Paris2024 #Olympics pic.twitter.com/Lfw2Hg6ghH
Weisshaidinger, Prufer and Alekna were three of only four men to go over the 66-metre standard, but European throwers will make up the majority of the final with seven men from the continent among 12 men in the final.
However, several big names made hard work of progressing.
Sweden’s reigning Olympic and world champion Daniel Stahl was slightly out-of-sorts but still qualified in eighth place with 65.16m.
Slovenia’s 2024 European champion Kristjan Ceh was one place behind his regular rival Stahl with 64.80m while Lithuania’s former world and European champion Andrius Gudzius, who was sixth in Tokyo, was tenth with 64.07m.
Moser progresses but Caudery crashes out
No less than 20 women, including 13 Europeans, progressed from the women’s pole vault qualifiers to Wednesday’s final.
This large group included the winners of the last four European pole vault gold medals: Switzerland’s Roma 2024 champion Angelica Moser, Finland’s 2022 winner Wilma Murto and Greece’s evergreen 2016 Olympic champion Kat Stefanidi, who took back-to-back European titles in 2016 and 2018.
However, Great Britain’s world leader and Roma 2024 bronze medallist Molly Caudery surprisingly crashed out, failing to clear her opening height of 4.55m while her compatriot and Tokyo Olympic Games bronze medallist Holly Bradshaw could go no higher than 4.20m.
Coming in hot! 🥵
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) August 5, 2024
Three sub-5️⃣0️⃣ second performances from Europeans in the 400m heats!
🇬🇧 49.68 Amber Anning
🇳🇱 49.96 Lieke Klaver
🇵🇱 49.98 Natalia Kaczmarek
🇮🇪 50.09 Rhasidat Adeleke
🇬🇧 50.36 Laviai Nielsen
🇳🇴 50.39 Henriette Jaeger#OlympicGames #Paris2024 #athletics pic.twitter.com/YW4NxS1UcS
Great Britain’s Amber Anning, Poland’s Natalia Kaczmarek and Ireland’s Rhasidat Adeleke were comfortable and impressive 400m heat winners, coming home in 49.68, 49.98 and 50.09 respectively to secure good lane draws for Wednesday’s semi-finals.
Phil Minshull for European Athletics