Weekend recap: Warholm’s near world record, Big Friendly 5 and more
From the Diamond League to yet another Oregon Track Club meet, the past weekend was packed with fast and impressive performances
46.87 despite that last hurdle! ?@kwarholm improves his own #2 time on the all-time lists with a European and @Diamond_League record – 0.09 shy of the world record!#StockholmDL pic.twitter.com/okk0Y01zMt
— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) August 23, 2020
Stockholm Diamond League
We’ve already covered Sunday’s Stockholm Diamond League event and listed the day’s best performances — a recap you can read here — but Karsten Warholm‘s incredible performance has to be highlighted once more. Warholm is a two-time world champion in the 400m hurdles, and on Sunday he showed us all why he deserves that title. He won his race by more than two full seconds, which is a big gap in a distance track event, let alone a one-lap sprint. As he ran toward an easy win, he clipped the final hurdle, ultimately slowing him down just enough so that he missed the 400mH world record by 0.09 seconds. He ran 46.87, beating his PB and bringing him so close to American Kevin Young‘s world record of 46.78 from 1992.
RELATED: Karsten Warholm, Donavan Brazier shine at Stockholm Diamond League
Ninety minutes later, Warholm was back on the track to contest the flat 400m. He won this race, too, posting a 45.05 to add to his already amazing day of running.
Canadians Sage Watson and Marco Arop also raced in Stockholm. Watson placed fifth in the 400mH and Arop ran to second place in the 800m. Full meet results can be found here.
Coming in HOT with a high five and a hug ? https://t.co/MOtgTwQyKt
— emma coburn (@emmajcoburn) August 23, 2020
Under Armour Sunset Tour
The Under Armour Sunset Tour was held in L.A. on Saturday, and it attracted some of the best clubs in the U.S., including Team Boss and the Hoka NAZ Elite. The meet only featured five events, but they all saw great racing. In the women’s 800m, Coburn ran a PB of 2:01.1 to finish in third place. Her Team Boss teammate Cory McGee won the race in 2:00.16. This is the third event of the summer that Coburn and McGee have raced together, and they have registered big results each time.
RELATED: Emma Coburn runs 4:32, fastest-ever mile on Colorado soil
The pair was also supposed to race the 5,000m in L.A., but neither started. Hoka athlete Lauren Paquette ended up taking the win in the 5,000m, running 15:10.01. In the men’s 5,000m, Edward Cheserek won in 13:21.78. Linkletter came through the finish in eighth place in a time of 13:54.80. Click here to view the full results from the Sunset Tour.
Josh Kerr wins the men's 800 at the Big Friendly 5: The Meaning of Friendly in 1:46.69.
Matthew Centrowitz 4th in his first serious race of the 2020 outdoor season in 1:50.62. pic.twitter.com/dGfZA1Teol
— Jonathan Gault (@jgault13) August 22, 2020
Big Friendly 5
The Oregon meet didn’t feature as many stars as previous Big Friendly meets did, but the races still saw some quick runs. Great Britain’s Josh Kerr won the men’s 800m in 1:46.69, beating second place by almost three full seconds. Olympic 1,500m champion Matt Centrowitz raced as well, but he was far back from the front, finishing in 1:50.62 for fourth place. American Ben Blankenship won the men’s 3,000m, crushing the rest of the field with his winning time of 7:50.13. The women’s 5,000m saw similar domination from Eleanor Fulton, who won in a PB of 15:40.64. Second place was 12 seconds back of Fulton. Full results from the Big Friendly 5 can be found here.
RELATED: Moh Ahmed wins again, sets 1,500m PB at Bowerman Track Club meet