The Claws Are Out: PUMA’s Mondo Duplantis Beats Karsten Warholm in 100m Sprint

The battle of the Big Cat athletes is on. Fresh off the back of their 2024 Olympic accolades, pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis and hurdler Karsten Warholm are trading in their usual track and field events to see who can run the fastest over a 100m sprint. The Olympic medallists will face off on the evening of September 4, with the event taking place at the Letzigrund Stadium in Zurich.

Rumours of the clash have been simmering away since last year after World Athletics posted a video of the duo mooting the idea post-training session. Since then, things have naturally got more competitive – speaking on the upcoming race just yesterday, Warholm said: ‘I think it's going to be a real matchup. I'm going to give him everything that I’ve got, and I know that he will do the same. That's why we're here to find out, that’s what the excitement is all about, who will cross the finish line first? It’s like when you're play fighting with your buddies growing up, it always gets serious at one point. That's how it's going to be tomorrow. Right now it's all fun and games, but when we’re at that line, it's not going to be that much fun anymore. We’re in for a dog fight'.

Duplantis has been back to work since his Olympic win (and now infamous Swedish Morning TV appearance) and is ready to give the race all he’s got. When asked about how he’s been preparing for the event, Duplantis said: ‘I'm not going to show up to anything unprepared. I'm going to make sure that I get my act together. I know that Karsten will have the advantage of being more comfortable in blocks than me, but I do my fair share. Since the Olympics, other than the competitions that I’ve had, I haven’t touched a pole – only the blocks'.

Not to be beaten, Warholm also admitted to bringing in the big guns to assist with those block starts: ‘I actually sent my block starts to Usain Bolt. Do you know what he said? He said: “You shouldn't walk out the blocks, you should push.” I've done a few more blocks since I sent through those videos.’

Although the two record-holders usually compete in different events, their respective personal bests in the 100-meters are pretty close. Warholm recorded 10.49 seconds back in 2017 whilst Duplantis clocked 10.57 as a high school senior a year later. Duplantis is, of course, riding high off the back of repeatedly breaking his own world records, but Warholm has a secret weapon in his signature PUMA spike, the Beserker, the product of five years of development. In the early video, Warholm offers to give Duplantis a pair of the spikes to make sure he ‘doesn’t have any excuses’ – so keep your eyes peeled to see what they’re sporting on foot tonight!

The race takes place at 9:30pm CET. You can watch it here:

• Germany / Austria / Switzerland – Sky Germany
• Germany / Austria / Switzerland – Servus TV On
• Norway – NRK
• Sweden – Aftonbladet
• Switzerland – SRF
• Switzerland – 20 Minuten
• USA – Citius Mag
• Worldwide – World Athletics
• Worldwide – Red Bull