Jamaican sprinter Thompson-Herah and Norwegian 400m hurdler Warholm named World Athletes of the Year
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Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah and Norway’s Karsten Warholm were crowned World Athletes of the Year on Wednesday after both produced astonishing, ground-breaking performances at the Olympic Games and beyond.
Thompson-Herah became the first woman to win back to back Olympic sprint doubles when she retained her 100m and 200m titles in Tokyo and capped a memorable Games with gold in the 4x100m relay. Her 100m time of 10.61 seconds and her 200m time of 21.53 were both the second-fastest in history.
Post-Olympics she scorched to 10.54 in Eugene, site of next year’s world championships, edging her even closer to what had seemed the untouchable mark of 10.49 set by Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988. The 29-year-old, fuelled by a return to full fitness and dramatic improvements in shoe technology, said she has that mark in her sights.
“I just take it year by year, I think I have more,” she told World Athletics president Sebastian Coe on receipt of her award in Monaco. “I went very close to the world record, so anything is possible. There will be no hanging up of the spikes yet.
“Oregon is close to home, I hope I get some crowd there. That couldn’t happen in Tokyo but hopefully in Eugene my friends and family can be there to cheer me on.”
Twice broken world record
Warholm had only one race to concentrate on, the 400m hurdles, but he took total command of the event in an incredible year when he twice broke the world record and took Olympic gold in one of the greatest races of all time. Warholm would have had an impressive enough year just on the back of his first race when he finally broke American Kevin Young’s 1992 46.78 seconds world record with a 46.70 run on home soil in Oslo.
That time was obliterated in the Olympic final in Tokyo, however, when he clocked an unimaginable 45.94. American Rai Benjamin finished second in 46.17,…
Source : france24
