Mondo Wins 100m Battle Against Karsten!

Pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis has beaten 400m hurdler Karsten Warholm in a thrilling exhibition 100m sprint. 

It was the race we didn’t know we wanted to happen – but we’re very glad that it did. And we’d love to see more of it!

Sweden’s Mondo, the world’s best pole vaulter, against Norway’s Karsten, the world’s fastest 400m hurdler, racing a 100m sprint. Two Scandinavian warriors on an unfamiliar battlefield, and the pole vaulter won in a time of 10.37, 0.1 second ahead of Warholm. 

Mondo was quickest out of the starting block and led the whole race, turning to his right as he crossed the line to see Karsten just behind him. 

It all started with an ‘I bet I can beat you’ challenge made on the track one day between two friends, and it was blown up into a huge spectacle at Weltklasse in Zurich supported by PUMA and Red Bull, with thousands of fans in the stadium and many more watching online. 

As track and field fans we watched in anticipation because we genuinely didn’t know what would happen and who would win – and that’s what made it so exciting. 

28-year-old Karsten is the world record holder in the 400m hurdles and the only person to run under 46-seconds. He has Olympic gold and silver medals. Runners seemed to be backing Karsten, but in the stands and online polls, Mondo was the favourite. 

24-year-old Mondo is so good at the pole vault that he has the 10 best vaults in history. He won Olympic gold in Tokyo and then again in Paris, where he also broke the world record, a feat he described as “the ultimate of the ultimate” (and something Karsten achieved in Tokyo). 

Neither had raced the distance for seven or more years, so they both spent days preparing and training, working on their block sprint starts, fine-tuning their form. As Mondo said ahead of the race: “I’m not going to show up to anything unprepared.”

Both thought they could run 10.40 or faster, but both also said they didn’t care about the time, they only cared about the result because the real prize was the chance to brag about it forevermore (Mondo will definitely care about a 10.37 as that’s FAST!). 

It also meant avoiding a forfeit that the guys decided ahead of their sprint: the loser would have to wear the winner’s vest at the next day’s Diamond League meeting, where Mondo and Karsten are both competing in their usual events. 

It’s back to poles and hurdles tomorrow, but that a fun event to watch in Zurich and it makes us want to see more spectacle events and races in track and field.

Images Diego Menzi / Red Bull Content Pool