“Yes, what can I say? A totally indescribable experience. It was one thing to hope that it would go well, but I never expected that it would be with such a margin,” said the 25-year-old Norwegian’s mother and manager Kristine Golin Haddal.
A world record had been predicted but Warholm had to utterly destroy it to hold off American Rai Benjamin and take gold, in what will go down as one of the all-time great Olympic races.
“It was amazing how he managed to perform today. I’m simply totally overwhelmed,” said Warholm’s father Mikal Warholm.
Last month, Warholm broke Kevin Young’s 29-year world mark with a time of 46.70 seconds but he blew his own record away with an astonishing 45.94 run. Benjamin pushed him all the way to take silver in 46.17, also half a second inside the old record.
In perfect conditions, the two hurdled beautifully and were side-by-side coming into the final straight, only for Warholm to forge clear.
When he saw the astonishing time, Warholm looked to be in shock. He ripped his vest apart and beat his chest in celebration before sinking to his knees.