Karsten Warholm: New Olympic champion criticizes ‘b *******’ super spikes

The new Olympic champion Karsten Warholm criticized Nike’s super-spikes and asked if they take away the credibility of the sport.

The Norwegian broke his own world record in Tokyo on Tuesday and took the 400 meter hurdles title in 45.94 seconds.

He finished ahead of the American Rai Benjamin (46.17 seconds) and the Brazilian Alison Dos Santos (46.72 seconds) – both were in Kevin Young’s time with 46.78 seconds, the American almost 30 Years ago – and the race has already been called the best race ever.

Warholm is working on his own shoes with Puma and the Mercedes F1 team but questioned his rival Benjamin’s shoes because he believed it was wrong for Nike athletes to sprint spikes in a sheet of reactive Pebax foam could run.

He said, “He had these things in his shoes that I hate. I don’t understand why you should put something under a sprint shoe. In the middle distance I can understand it because of the cushioning.

“If you want padding, you can put a mattress there. But if you put up a trampoline, I think it sucks, and I think it takes the credibility of our sport. “

Warholm broke the 29-year-old world record in Oslo just last month, but fell almost a second in Tokyo.

Athletes have said the track is fast and the 25-year-old agreed, although he preferred to give credit to his rivals.

“This track is insane,” added Warholm. “It’s a great track. It actually gave me London 2017 vibes – it’s where I got my first gold medal and it’s a very fast track. But it’s not just the route, the guys also spurred each other on. “