Armand Duplantis beats Karsten Warholm in friendly 100m sprint

Record breaking pole vaulter Armand Duplantis beat 400m hurdles record holder Karsten Warholm in their 100m exhibition race ahead of the Zurich Diamond League on Wednesday night.

The highly-anticipated and much talked about event was aced by Duplantis who ran the 100m sprint in 10.37 seconds with Warholm clocking 10.47s.

Duplantis (also known as ‘Mondo’ Duplantis) started well, was quick off the blocks, and led the race from start to finish.

A friendly banter during training led to the competitive race and both athletes entered the tracks akin to boxers – with Duplantis in a blue satin robe while Warhom was in red. The athletes shook hands and proceeded to their starting blocks, after discarding their robes, and the competition was on.

Both Duplantis and Warholm couldn’t break the world record of 9.58s set by Usain Bolt but they ran faster than the women’s world record of 10.49s, set by Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988.

Warholm, from Norway, will compete in the 400m hurdles event in the Zurich Diamond League and will wear a Swedish national jersey during his event at the Diamond League for losing the sprint.

After the race, Duplantis was ecstatic and said he was fired up. “I’m pretty fired up. How could I not be? I mean, come on, stop playing. Stop playing. Stop playing with me,” Duplantis said.

Warholm congratulated Duplantis and said the pole vaulter beat him fair and square. “You know, I got to give it to Mondo (Armand Duplantis). 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,” Warholm said.