– The bottom line is when we discussed the future of the Diamond League with Sebastian Coe and which training will dominate in the years to come, Bislett Games manager Steinar Hoen told NRK.

– The 400m hurdles is part of the discussion about whether it should be part of the future, along with the triple jump and hurdles. And then things turned around, to say the least. It started with Karsten Warholm’s WC gold in 2017.

Now event organizers are scrambling to attract the biggest star in the 400 meter hurdles. Only the pole vault – and Armand Duplantis – have secured greater world records for track athletics in recent years.

– It’s because of Rai Benjamin, Karsten Warholm, Sydney McLaughlin and Dalilah Muhammad, Joanna Hayes told NRK.

– Much more glamorous

In recent years, Hayes has coached Olympic and World Cup silver winner Benjamin, and between 2018 and 2020 he coached McLaughlin, who for the fourth time set a world record at the World Cup. He himself became the Olympic champion in the 100 meters hurdles in Athens 18 years ago, and has also tried his hand at long hurdles.

Hayes called the development truly remarkable.

– Training has gone through a fantastic journey over the last seven or eight years. This is a much more glamorous exercise. Now that is the highlight.

He said the 400m hurdles was treated as an unwanted “stepchild” while he was still active.

– Previously, the competition categorized exercises from A to C. The 400-meter hurdles was a C exercise that paid the winner less than half of exercise A. It was terrible, Hayes said.

Hoen insists that the prestige of the practice also costs much more to set up the 400-meter hurdle than it did a decade ago. Now more interesting than “big brother” without a fence – and more expensive to set up.

In part, this is because of the attention that comes with world records.

World record bonus

On the women’s side, the world record has been set six times in the last three years. 52.34 Russia’s Julija Petsjonkina lasted 16 years before Dalilah Muhammad fielded her twice in the 2019 WC season with times of 52.20 and 52.16.

Since then, Sydney McLaughlin has become the world’s highest number one, breaking an old record. First 51.90 during the Olympics election, then 51.46 at the Olympics in Tokyo – before he graced it in this year’s WC election with 51.41.

– Not just me. We have a group of girls who are willing to push their bodies to the next level. We see times improving. “It’s been a very exciting period,” McLaughlin told NRK after setting another world record.

His latest record is 50.68 seconds.

WC silver winner Femke Bol is the third runner to fall behind Petsjonkina’s long-standing record in three years.

– This is fantastic. “Now we have the three fastest ever in the world,” said Bol after the all-time race on the distance in the WC final.

The Dutch sensation followed up WC’s success with EC gold in the 400 meters, 400 meters goal and 4×400 meters relay in Munich.

– Main attraction

The men’s 400m hurdles world record has been lowered twice by Karsten Warholm in the last 14 months.

The newly minted European champion first picked it up with small bites when he lowered it from 46.78 to 46.70 seconds during the Bislett Games in 2021, before taking the big jump with 45.94 in the Olympic final. At that time, almost no one thought that it was possible to reach 400 meters with ten obstacles on the way.

Rai Benjamin and Alisson Dos Santos, like Warholm, have run at better times than Kevin Young’s 30-year record. The American took the Olympic silver medal with 46.17 in Tokyo. Dos Santos took Olympic bronze at 46.72 and World Cup gold at 46.29.

– This has been the main attraction, says Hayes.

PS! All the women who won medals at EC – Femke Bol, Viktorija Tkatsjuk and Anna Ryzjykova – will take part in the Diamond League event in Lausanne on Friday. There they met former world record holder Dalilah Muhammad.