An In-Depth Look at the Men’s 400 Hurdles
by Steve McGill
In the previous article, I talked about the women’s 400 meter hurdles in detail, and in this article, which can be considered a part two of sorts, I’d like to focus on the men’s side of things. The focus here will obviously be on Karsten Warholm’s mind-blowing world record performance at the Oslo Diamond League meet on July 1, where he ran 46.70, finally completing his quest to break Kevin Young’s world record of 46.78 from the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. Last year, Warholm chased the record in a series of summer meets and came pretty close a couple times. This year, he was fueled by a desire to keep up with the Joneses, so to speak, or in this case, the Benjamins, as Rai Benjamin had rocked the world a week earlier by dropping a 46.83 at the USA Olympic Trials. While the 25-year-old Warholm and the 23-year-old Benjamin had already established themselves as heavyweight contenders in previous years, a third hurdler has emerged as another man who cannot be slept on — 21-year-old Alison Dos Santos of Brazil, who ran second in 47.38 behind Warholm’s world record, and who later lowered his personal best to 47.34.
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Let’s talk about Warholm first. The first thing that jumped out at me when watching the world record race was how hard he went out. He took off like he was running a 100 meter dash, and I immediately thought to myself while watching on TV, this dude is going after the record. Warholm is a dynamic personality who seems to use up a lot of energy getting himself amped up during pre-race introductions, but he is in tremendous shape and seems to have energy to burn. The television commentator said prior to the race that the meet officials allowed him to choose which lane he wanted to run in, and he chose lane seven. Last year too, as he was record-chasing, he preferred outside lanes. I guess the obvious reason for this is because he wouldn’t have to deal with the tighter curves on the inside lanes. The second hurdle in particular is basically almost all straight-away in lane seven, whereas it’s entirely on the curve in the inside lanes.
In critiquing the race itself, there are two things I can say about Warholm that make him the man to beat heading into Tokyo, besides the obvious of how fast the time was: 1) he is very efficient over the hurdles, and 2) his running posture is also very efficient. In past post-Edwin eras, we’ve seen guys in this event who were great quarter-milers but who weren’t great hurdlers. Or we’ve seen guys who were very good hurdlers but who didn’t have the open 400 meter speed. Warholm has it all. He’s a sub-45 quarter-miler, and his technique is among the best I’ve ever seen in the event. He drives the knee, he has very low clearance, doesn’t waste any time in the air, the trail leg comes through high and tight. To me, he’s a testimony to the fact that you do have to have it all in order to excel in this event. He’s not the first sub-45 quarter-miler this event has ever seen, but some of the guys with similar talent weren’t nearly as efficient over the hurdles.
In regards to stride pattern, Warholm took 20 strides to the first hurdle and 13 all the way around. This wasn’t the norm for him in the past, but it looks like it’s the norm for him now, as he has consistently been taking 13 strides between hurdles throughout the summer. In previous years, he would change down to 14 or even 15 over the last two hurdles. In 2019, he went 13 all the way just once, and that was not his fastest race of the year. So it is apparent that he has committed himself to the 13-step pattern for all of the last nine hurdles, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see him go faster in Tokyo than he did in Oslo, especially with Benjamin in the race.
Speaking of Benjamin, if you were watching the first round of the 400 hurdles at the US Trials, you would’ve noticed something quite jaw-dropping, even though the race itself wasn’t all that memorable. Trying to conserve energy early and just kind of bound between the hurdles, he ended up getting so crowded to hurdle two that he almost 12-stepped it, and had to stutter to fit in his 13th stride. Then at hurdle three he stuttered again and ended up 14-stepping, and then he had to 14-step again at hurdle four to get back on his stronger lead leg. Yet with all that messing up, and basically jogging off the last hurdle, he still ran 49.12. The part that was jaw-dropping for me was the near 12-step at hurdle two while just bouncing. The implication there is that he really could 12-step that backstretch if he were to pursue such a challenge. Even in the final, where he ran 46.83, he didn’t seem to be giving maximum effort in the early part of the race. Once he turned on the juice in the second half of the race, he just totally dominated the rest of the field. Obviously, he can’t do that against Warholm, but he won’t do that against Warholm. In the sideline interview right after the race, I found it interesting that he expressed regret at not breaking the world record. Firstly, that indicates that he knew he could have, and secondly, it implies that he knew Warholm would try to beat him to it, which is exactly what happened.
Warholm said after the 46.70 that it will probably take another world record to win in Tokyo. I agree. Although it’s also true that in meets with multiple rounds, world records are less likely than in Diamond League meets where it’s one rep with fresh legs, I don’t expect that rounds will bother either of these gentlemen. But we’ll see. Warholm vs. Benjamin will definitely be must-see TV. Both men are excellent technicians, great quarter-milers, and they both go 13 all the way. So anything could happen. A 46.50 isn’t out of the question.
And then there’s dos Santos. This dude is a huge x-factor. This is his first year as a professional. And if it weren’t for Warholm and Benjamin, we’d be talking about him as if he were the second coming of Edwin Moses. A 21-year-old runs 47-low on the regular? Geez! And here’s the deal: with the way he’s been dropping time, who’s to say he won’t be challenging Warholm and Benjamin for the gold? It’s not likely that he’ll reach that sub-47 level so soon, but when you have people ahead of you that you have to chase, you sometimes find yourself doing things you didn’t know you were capable of. That could happen with dos Santos. As the 90’s rappers used to say, don’t sleep ‘cause you might slip.
Just like the women’s long hurdle race, the men’s 400 meter hurdles is also in the midst of a golden age. For the first time since Moses retired way back in the late 80’s, we can say that the event is progressing and moving out from under his shadow. All three of the hurdlers discussed in this article are young enough that they should continue to raise the bar, and hopefully they’ll race against each other often enough to take the event to even greater heights. Right now, Moses is still the undisputed G.O.A.T because of his longevity and his dominance. But by the time the careers of Warholm, Benjamin, and dos Passos are over, we might be forced to consider otherwise. We’ll see.
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