Warholm sets men's 300m hurdles record at 'Impossible Games'

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Oslo, June 12 (IANS) Reigning world 400-meter hurdles champion Karsten Warholm of Norway stormed to a 33.78-second world best performance in the rarely-run event of 300m hurdles at the "Impossible Games," an innovative exhibition track and field meet here on Thursday.

After the cancellation of the Diamond League meet in Oslo due to the COVID-19 pandemic, organizers chose to stage an innovative multi-discipline event, featuring athletes mainly from Norway and neighboring countries, behind closed doors with cardboard fans placed in the stands and some competitions held virtually, reports Xinhua news agency.

As the sole competitor in the men's 300m hurdles event, home favorite Warholm clocked 33.78s, beating the previous world's best performance of 34.48s set by Briton Chris Rawlinson in 2002.

Norway's Filip Ingebrigtsen clocked two minutes and 16.46 seconds to set a new 1,000m national record. And he went on to join his brothers Henrik and Jakob and two other Norwegians in the men's 2,000m team battle, which saw five Kenyan runners spearheaded by 2019 world 1,500m champion Timothy Cheruiyot competing remotely in Nairobi.

Jakbo Ingebrigtsen hit home first with a European record of 4:50.01, while Team Ingebrigtsen beat Team Cheruiyot, who was competing under windy and rain-filled weather conditions.

Sweden's Mondo Duplantis and Renaud Lavillenie resumed their remote rivalry, with the current world record holder Duplantis beating the previous with a third-time clearance at 5.86 meters. The Frenchman Lavillenie, who was jumping in his back garden off a much-shortened runway, bowed out at 5.81m.

The "Impossible Games" also saw a series of unorthodox events such as 600m, 1,000m, 25,000m as well as 200m hurdles.

--IANS

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