25-year-old Karsten Warholm was bright-eyed when he received the gold and heard the Norwegian anthem at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo on Tuesday night local time.
The medal ceremony in the 400-meter hurdles was the second of the evening, and Warholm was awarded the gold medal by Kristin Kloster Aasen, the Norwegian member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and Helio Gesta de Melo, the Brazilian member of the board of the International Athletics Federation (WA).
Warholm set a world record with a time of 45.94 and became Olympic champion in Tokyo early in the morning Norwegian time. He ran an almost perfect race and beat his rival Rai Benjamin from the USA
Third on the podium was bronze medalist Alison dos Santos from Brazil.
“It was just a fantastic big moment… It will probably be calm here in Japan until we get to go home to Norway, but it will probably have a little celebration when I get home… I’m looking forward to coming home,” Warholm said.
Warholm also hung the gold medal around his coach’s neck. He was more than happy to share the credit with him.
“It’s at least as much Leif’s medal as mine. This is something I could not have done without him, and it’s a guy who 100% deserves it. He deserves all the respect he can get for the way he behaves around me and everyone else and for the respect and knowledge he possesses,” Warholm said.
The Olympic champion was emotional when he heard the Norwegian national anthem while on the podium.
After receiving his first Olympic gold medal, he also received a congratulatory telegram from King Harald, passed on to him in the press zone.
Source: © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews
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