By Nick Mulvenney
SYDNEY (Reuters) -Karsten Warholm will be going all guns blazing for a record-extending fourth 400 metres hurdles world title in Tokyo this month, but the Norwegian will have his work cut out with two other generational talents in the field.
Between them, Olympic champion Rai Benjamin, 2022 world champion Alison dos Santos and Warholm hold the 24 fastest times ever in the event and the world championship final is primed to be a race for the ages.
The trio last faced off at the Stockholm
Diamond League in June with American Benjamin taking bragging rights in a world-leading 46.54 seconds, edging Brazilian dos Santos into second in 46.68 with Warholm third in 47.41.
"This speaks volumes to our event, we're trading blows and that's what people want to see," said Benjamin, who pipped Warholm to Olympic gold in Paris last year with dos Santos taking bronze.
"We're always going to push each other to run fast ... every time we step on the track, you never know what's going to happen. It could be anybody's day."
Warholm remains the only man to have dipped below 46 seconds, however, breaking his own world record with a run of 45.94 to win Olympic gold in Tokyo four years ago at the same National Stadium where the trio will face off on September 19.
The Norwegian has been on strong form this season, confirming his status as the strongest starter of the three by improving his own world best mark in the rarely run 300m hurdles in Oslo in June.
In the absence of his rivals, Warholm bettered Benjamin's 400m time with a sizzling run of 46.28 in Silesia in mid-August and took another meeting record with a run of 46.70 in Zurich in the Diamond League final.
"I was a little bit surprised that it was this good," he said of his run in Poland, the third fastest of all time.
"I knew that I could do this time, to me it is not like a huge surprise. But still there is one thing to know that it is possible, and then there is one thing to go out and do it.
"Doing what I did today is very promising going into Tokyo."
All in their mid to late 20s, the trio come from very different backgrounds.
While Warholm hails from an isolated small town on the west coast of Norway, Benjamin, the son of West Indies test cricketer Winston, grew up in the suburbs of New York.
Dos Santos took up sport in Sao Paulo to overcome a shyness which in part stemmed from the still visible scarring to his head and body -- the result of a childhood accident with a pan of hot oil.
They are, however, notable for the friendliness of their intense rivalry, with dos Santos revealing this year that there was always a "good luck" before they went out on the track.
"I always say this is not the UFC, we're not fighting each other," Benjamin said before their Stockholm showdown.
"What's the point of having unnecessary beef? We leave that to the 100 metres sprinters. They've got that on lock right now."
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Peter Rutherford)
