Norway's hurdles king Warholm wins fourth European title

Norway's Karsten Warholm stormed to a record fourth European 400m hurdles title in Birmingham on Friday.

Warholm, who set the 400m hurdles world record of 45.94 seconds when winning gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, clocked a championship record of 46.63sec for victory at Alexander Stadium.

"Honestly this is the reason I do it, to come out in front of people and repeat it," he said. "This was a fast one, so thank you."

Germany's Emil Agyekum took silver in 47.87, with Turkey's Ismail Nezi claiming bronze in 48.26.

Warholm's gold was his second of these championships, the hurdler having been part of the Norwegian quartet that won the 4x400m mixed relay on Monday.

A third gold beckons should the 30-year-old feature for the Norwegian men's team in the 4x400m relay that brings the curtain down on these championships on Sunday.

Come race time, Warholm was drawn in lane six, inside Agyekum, and made his customary rocket-like start.

By the third hurdle he'd passed the German and motored away down the far straight.

The Norwegian safely negotiated the bend and came into the home stretch with a 20-metre lead over the rest of the field.

Warholm did not relent, however, pushing himself to the max through the line for yet another dominant victory in continental action.

Since winning his first world title in London in 2017, Warholm has been one of track and field's most dominant athletes.

He has claimed two more world titles, but had to be content with Olympic silver at the 2024 Paris Games.

He is also Europe's leading hurdler, touching down in Birmingham having bagged three back-to-back continental titles in Berlin in 2018, Munich in 2022 and Rome two years ago.

Warholm equalled German Harald Schmid's haul of three European 400m hurdles titles when he won in a then-championship record of 46.98sec in Rome and the fourth podium-topping performance here saw him move out as sole record holder.

Remarkably, since the 2016 Olympic Games when Warholm made the semi-finals in his first full season in the event, he has only been beaten once by a European.

That was France's Wilfried Happio, who finished fourth in the final of the 2022 world championships in Oregon when the Norwegian star was seventh on his return from injury.

Warholm also holds the 35 fastest times in history by a European 400m hurdler, including a season's best of 46.61sec for victory in the London Diamond League last month.