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Karsten Warholm to run a straight 400m at Lausanne

A trio of Canadian men will be competing at the Lausanne Diamond League on Thursday

This Thursday, the Diamond League makes a stop in Lausanne, Switzerland. At the same meet, 400m hurdles world record holder Karsten Warholm will be making his season debut in the 400m – without hurdles. (This race is not a Diamond League event).

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This will be Warholm’s first competition since winning his gold medal and breaking his own world record in Tokyo. Warholm became the first man to run the 400m hurdles in under 46 seconds, in one of the greatest races ever at the Olympic games. But the straight 400m isn’t foreign to him – he set 400m personal best of 44.87 in 2017 (only one second faster than his 400m hurdles world record). What he can run in Lausanne is the question on track fans’ minds. Warholm is in the shape of his life, and it would not be surprising to see him go below 44 seconds in the one-lap race.

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Canadian Tokyo medallists Mohammed Ahmed and Aaron Brown will be competing at the Lausanne Diamond League. Both athletes will look to add more points to their name before the Diamond League finals two weeks from now in Zurich.

Mohammed Ahmed
Photo: Claus Andersen/Athletics Canada

Ahmed, who set a personal best in the mile over the weekend in Eugene, will be in the men’s 3,000m race. He will go up against two Olympic champions in Jakob Ingebrigtsen (who won gold in the 1,500m) and Selemon Barega (who won the 10,000m). Ingebrigtsen ran a national mile record of 3:47 for Norway last weekend. This 3,000m field is insanely deep, with four men who have run under 7:32. Ahmed’s personal best for 3,000m is the Canadian record of 7:40.49. Look to him to possibly break his own record tomorrow as the pace is guaranteed to be fast with Ingebrigtsen and Barega in the field.

Brendon Rodney (left) and Aaron Brown at the 2021 Olympic and Paralympic Trials in Montreal. Photo: Bernard Brault/Athletics Canada

Brown will look to rebound after his 20.12 second run at the Pre Classic. He has a season-best time of 19.99 and will look to get back under the 20-second barrier against a strong field featuring three Tokyo medallists: Olympic 400m champion Steven Gardiner will be dropping down to the 200m to battle the strong American duo of Kenny Bednarek and 100m silver medalist Fred Kerley

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Photo: Matthew Quine, World Athletics

The men’s 800m in Lausanne will be a repeat of the recent Olympic final, with eight of the 10 athletes in this race. Canada’s Marco Arop, who is coming off a win at the Pre Classic over Olympic medallists Emmanuel Korir and Ferguson Rotich, will look to continue his winning ways, and once again, make a statement to his competition after he missed the finals in Tokyo.

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The Diamond League Lausanne action starts on Thursday, Aug. 26 between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. E.T. on CBC sports.

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