Warholm smashes men's 400 hurdles record, Duplantis dominates in men's pole vault

TOKYO, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Norway's Karsten Warholm won the men's 400 meters hurdles title with a world-record-breaking performance, while Swedish pole vault star Duplantis bagged his first Olympic gold here on Tuesday at the Tokyo Olympics.

Coming into the race as the favorite after breaking the 29-year-old world record a month ago, Warholm crossed the finishing line first and reset his own world record to 45.94 seconds from 46.70.

"My biggest dream has become reality! Olympic champion and a World Record!" Warholm tweeted after his victory.

Rai Benjamin of the United States won the silver in 46.17 and Alison dos Santos of Brazil took bronze in 46.72.

Swedish vaulter Armand Duplantis won his first Olympic gold medal with absolute dominance but just fell short of breaking the world record.

The first failed attempt by Duplantis at the men's pole vault final only came after he has clinched the gold medal at the height of 6.19 meters, one centimeter higher than the world record of 6.18m.

Duplantis successfully got over the bar in two of his three attempts but tripped the bar on the way down. But his best attempt of 6.02m had already secured his gold medal.

U.S. vaulter Christopher Nilsen took the silver medal with 5.97m and Thiago Brat brought Brazil a bronze with 5.87m.

In women's hammer throw, Anita Wlodarczyk of Poland defended her title at Tokyo by throwing 78.48 meters.

"I was dreaming of becoming the queen of the hammer throw. I have been injured and came right back from it and won an Olympic medal," said Wlodarczyk after winning her third Olympic gold.

Chinese thrower Wang Zheng bagged silver with 77.03m followed by Malwina Kopron of Poland with 75.49m for the bronze medal.

Wang refreshed her season best consecutively in the final, throwing furthest in her sixth attempt to secure a silver.

"I was in good form today," said the 33-year-old Wang. "I have been through up-and-downs in my career, and I thought about retiring when I suffered setbacks at Rio 2016. However, I got over this and felt relieved after I did my last throw today."

American runner Athing Mu won gold in women's 800 meters with one minute and 55.21 seconds. Keely Hodgkinson of Britain claimed silver with 1:55.88. American Raevyn Rogers took bronze in 1:56.81, her new personal best.

Speaking of breaking world record in the future, Mu said, "I definitely think it is possible, especially with the athletes competing like Keely, she is amazing and only 19. I am sure in the next couple of years we are definitely going to push each other. That record is going to go down, just because we are good athletes."

Wang Chunyu of China set her personal best with 1:57.00, finishing fifth in the final. She is the first Chinese to qualify for the Olympic women's 800m final.

"1:57.00 was beyond my expectation, though I was a little bit sad that I didn't make it to the podium," said Wang. "It was like a dream that I reached into the final, I hope to go beyond myself in the future."

Jamaican sprinter Elaine Thompson-Herah won women's 200 meters gold with a time of 21.53 seconds. Christine Mboma of Namibia ranked second at 21.81 while Gabrielle Thomas of the United States took bronze in 21.87.

This was Thompson-Herah's second gold medal at Tokyo Olympics. She also won the 100m title on Saturday.

"It feels amazing to win two golds again. I have had a rough week. I haven't slept after the 100m final. I really had to pull it out to win the 200m. I was so happy," said Thompson-Herah.

World champion Malaika Mihambo leaped out from behind in her last attempt to clinch gold at the women's long jump. The final was mostly dominated by the competition between leading contender U.S. jumper Brittney Reese and Ese Brume of Nigeria. But Mihambo came up with a solid attempt of 7.00 meters in her last jump.

Both Reese and Brume had the last attempt but neither managed a better jump.

"It was really tough, it was kind of horrible. I had the position where you did all that you could and then you have to wait and see what the other girls are doing. It was really intense moments," said Mihambo about her feeling when waiting for the results of the last attempts by Reese and Brume.

The two tied at 6.97m with their respective best record, but Reese won the silver with her second-best attempt and Brume took the bronze.