Karsten Warholm's obliteration of his own 400 metres hurdles world record has stunned the world.
The Norweigan produced one of the greatest Olympic performances of all time to take gold in this morning's final.
Having just last month broken the 29-year record set by Kevin Young at 46.78, Warholm smashed the 46 second mark in Tokyo.
His time of 45.94 took almost a second off his July time in Oslo of 46.70.
Not only was the time impressive, but so too was the race.
Warholm was pushed all the way by the USA's Rai Benjamin, who clocked a time of 46.17.
Brazil's Alison Dos Santos took bronze in 46.72.
Remarkably, both of those times were also better than the record held by Young since 1992.
"You know the cliche that it hasn't sunk in yet? I don't think it has, but I feel ecstatic," Warholm said afterwards.
"I can't believe the time, it's so fast.
"A lot of the time I am asked about the perfect race.
"I said it didn't exist but this is the closest I've ever come."
Who did it better? #NOR | #Olympics pic.twitter.com/WGPtCPVNGI
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) August 3, 2021
Here was a performance, two performances, plucked from the realm of the extraterrestrial.
Piece from the Olympic Stadium on the best thing I've ever seen - this morning's men's 400m hurdles final.#Tokyo2020https://t.co/oalNIJZbrq— Cathal Dennehy (@Cathal_Dennehy) August 3, 2021
Karsten Warholm take a bow!
The #NOR athlete is Olympic champion after smashing his own World Record with a time of 45.94s in the men's 400m hurdles!@WorldAthletics #Athletics @idrett pic.twitter.com/3i2hhac7w5— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) August 3, 2021
Equivalent performances to a 45.94 400m hurdles, per World Athletics scoring tables:
9.62 100m
19.25 200m
42.75 400m
12.56 110mH
1:39.79 800m
3:23.39 1500m
3:39.53 mile
7:42.59 3000m steeple
12:25.21 5000m
25:50.26 10000m
2:00:20 marathon
9373 Dec
7341 Hep#Athletics #Olympics pic.twitter.com/xWQOkcLPSN— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) August 3, 2021
48 people ran in the regular 400m prelims yesterday. The highest semifinal qualifying time was 45.64.
Karsten Warholm ran 400m in 45.94 — while jumping over hurdles — which was better than 23 Olympic sprinters did without the hurdles.— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) August 3, 2021
The faces of PURE AMAZEMENT 🤯
Karsten Warholm demolishes his own world record to claim gold in the 400m hurdles final! pic.twitter.com/uXeskHnL3V— ESPN (@espn) August 3, 2021
"A lot of the time I’ve been asked about the perfect race. I said it didn’t exist but this is the closest I’ve ever got."
Karsten Warholm #NOR #Athletics #tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/bpfe1KRogu— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) August 3, 2021
Indeed are proud to support Team Ireland at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Indeed believes the world works better when people are given every opportunity to unleash their true talents. #TalentUnleashed
