Pole vaulter Armand Duplantis gave hurdler Karsten Warholm no chance over 100 meters.
Photo: dpa/KEYSTONE/Michael Buholzer
This is how modernizers of athletics imagine it: a perfectly staged duel between two stars and after an hour and a half it’s all over again. The 100 meter race between pole vault ace Armand Duplantis and hurdle world record holder Karsten Warholm in Zurich offered the best evening entertainment. And with his winning time of 10.37 seconds, Duplantis would have easily left many specialists behind in the heats at the Olympics in Paris. Warholm’s 10.47 seconds were also worthy of honor.
The race, broadcast by the beverage manufacturer Red Bull on its own TV channel, has been advertised in the media for days. The spectators in the main stand in Zurich’s time-honored Letzigrund were warmed up with an entertainment program and interviews with other athletics greats.
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“We are far too conservative as a sport,” the world association president, Sebastian Coe, told “Spiegel” before the World Championships last year and bluntly judged the World Cup in his sport: “A nine-day competition in which three to three times a day Four-hour sessions are held – only purists like me watch something like that.«
This is contradicted by the enthusiasm at the Olympic Games in Paris. A constant 70,000 loud spectators in the Stade de France made the morning events an unforgettable experience for most of the athletes. Athletics in its old form could not have wished for better advertising.
Coe had already emphasized a year before the World Cup: “I fear that such a format simply no longer fits the lifestyle of younger people, who are much more interested in faster events and appropriate digital content that is well prepared.”
The Zurich event the day before the traditional meeting offered exactly this. The focus was – presented in bathrobes like boxers before a fight – on two of the most famous protagonists that athletics has had to offer since the departure of the hard-to-replace Usain Bolt. Duplantis is working on becoming even better known, not just with titles and world records. The 24-year-old posted a photo of himself at night – lying in the bathtub.
In Germany, decathlete Leo Neugebauer is aiming to become the face of local athletics. The Olympic silver medalist, who is very active on social media, reported that he is now constantly recognized in this country. In order to present Neugebauer, a three-way competition took place at the Berlin Istaf, with the final 1500 meter run as a pursuit race. Neugebauer crossed the finish line first and was immediately recognizable as the winner to 40,000 spectators.
Former 200 and 400 meter star Michael Johnson from the USA wants to set up his own series of running events. The series, known as the Grand Slam Track, is scheduled to take place four times a year over three days from 2025 and will distribute a total of $12.6 million in prize money to the athletes. Olympic hurdles champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has already confirmed her participation, as have all the medalists in the men’s 1500 meters, and further commitments have been announced.
The world association is countering this with a new, three-day World Cup, which is scheduled to take place for the first time in Budapest in 2026. World champions, Olympic champions, Diamond League winners and the best athletes of the year compete against each other to crown the “ultimate champion”. The prize money is ten million US dollars.dpa/nd
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