Karsten Warholm’s gold medal didn’t ease his anger.
The 25-year-old men’s 400-meter hurdles champion expressed frustration that his rival, silver medalist Rai Benjamin, had “these things in his shoes that I hate” and allowed him to be “on air” to run.
“These Things” are an innovative thick sheet of Pebax foam in sprint spikes known as the “Super Spike” running shoe found on Nike’s Air Zoom Victory and Dragonfly models.
Mo Farah, Letesenbet Giday, Joshua Cheptegei and Sifan Hassan broke records last fall wearing Nike Air Zoom Dragonflys on their runs.
“I don’t see why you should put something under a sprinting shoe,” said Warholm. “In the middle distance, I can understand it because of the cushioning. If you want some padding, you can put a mattress there. But if you put up a trampoline, I think it’s cops, and I think it takes the credibility of our sport. “
In what many call the best race ever, Warholm (Norway) and Benjamin (USA) broke the world record that was 29 years before Warholm broke it in Oslo last month.
Benjamin himself declared it the “best race in Olympic history”.
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Warholm – who ran a 45.94 on Monday before making a solemn scream, ripping his uniform in half and falling to his knees in amazement – is working with Puma and the Mercedes F1 team to develop his own spikes, the one have upper carbon plate in the core and weigh only 135 grams, but according to Warholm they are not the same as the “Super-Spike”.
“Yes, we have the carbon plate,” said Warholm. “But we tried to make it as thin as possible. Because that’s how I want to do it. Of course there will always be technology. But I also want to keep it at a level where we can compare the results because that’s important.
“I’ve always said that there is no such thing as the perfect race. But in my opinion that’s the closest thing to a perfect race. “
Benjamin praised the track – not his shoes – when he talked about his second place finish.
“It’s a very good track. It’s soft, it’s got a lot of resilience, ”he said. “It’s a phenomenal track. People say it’s the track, the shoes and the conditions were really good.
“But I could wear different shoes and still run fast. Nobody will do what we just did, I don’t care who you are. Could be Kevin Young or Edwin Moses, respect to these guys, but they can’t do what we’re running right now. It’s a really fast track, it felt good, the conditions were really good. “
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