What can Mondo Duplantis not do? The Swedish-American two-time Olympic champion pole vaulter holds a total of 10 world records in the discipline. On Wednesday though, Duplantis proved his range in Athletics as he bested the seasoned 400m hurdler Karsten Warholm in a 100m exhibition sprint.
Clocking 10.37 seconds on the course, Duplantis beat the Norwegian in a head-to-head race at the Zurich Diamond League. Here’s a video of the showdown:
🎥 Pole Vaulter Mondo Duplantis 🇸🇪 defeats 400m hurdler Karsten Warholm 🇳🇴 over 100m, clocking 10.37s
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📸 @CitiusMag @WeltklasseZH pic.twitter.com/EV6NbuiwNB
— World Athletics Hub (@wldathleticshub) September 4, 2024
“I’m pretty fired up. How could I not be? I mean, come on, stop playing. Stop playing. Stop playing with me,” a delighted Duplantis said at the finish line.
Reacting to his loss, Warholm – a silver medalist at the Paris Olympics and gold medalist in Tokyo – said, “You know, I got to give it to Mondo. He beat me today, fair and square, so it was a great race. And he was he was out the blocks fast. He was out really sharp.”
The idea of the race between the two was hatched on the back of friendly banter between the two Scandinavians at training last year. Nothing summed it up better than their entry to the track ahead of the race, dressed in boxing robes – Duplantis in the blue satin gown and Warholm in the red.
Duplantis has been at the heart of the athletics action of late, having broken yet another world record at the Paris Olympics last month, when he retained his Olympic title, and set his latest record 10 days ago with a vault of 6.26 at the Silesian Diamond League.
