The matchup between Warholm and Duplantis was not Good for the sport

Terrible look for Warholm running a 10.47. He embarrassed himself, his family, 400mH athletes, and his fans.

Rai was probably shaking his head in disbelief that he ever lost to this guy.

45.94 is still an outstanding time and it doesn’t matter how fast he can run 100m. I don’t know why Rai would care. Mondo probably couldn’t break 50 seconds if they raced in the 400H.

Everyone keeps saying how amazing this event was for the sport. But is it that good if we have to start having gimmick events like this? Eventually, each time it's going to have to be wackier and wackier and the actual heart of the sport will be diminished.

It garners interest in the sport, especially among casual runners who may be semi-aware of some professionals, a gimmick event like yesterday actually was a big discussion at our run club yesterday. Something that never happens for the non-Olympic races

Warholm is faster in the 100 than any woman in history. It isn't his event.

The NFL has been hugely popular for a long time, but watching skills competitions is still entertaining as hell.

45.94 is a great time. And that’s why this is so bad. Makes it look soft if a 10.47 guy can run it. I’ve got to think he could have put down a faster 100m time the year he ran 45.94. He should’ve avoided running this.

Maybe he just had a bad start and a bad race at an unfamiliar distance.

This is the hard question that we really need to address, As a purist, I couldn't care less whether the best Pole Vaulter is faster in a 100m race than the best* Intermediate Hurdler, but people do seem to enjoy watching and betting on match races. Similarly, home run contests and three point shooting contests don't seem to have diminished the actual heart of baseball and basketball.

* no disrespect intended to Mr. Benjamin, using the term loosely instead of "world record holder"

No, it makes his WR even more impressive and makes one wonder just how fast he can run an 800m.

I think a 200m would be the sweet spot. The start becomes a lot less important, but it's still short enough that no elite athlete is going to be completely dying at the end. The soccer player is going to absolutely crush the football player in a 400m 9/10 times.

we weren't watching and had no idea it was happening

I guess I'd watch it, but that'd be a lot less interesting than Mondo vs Warholm. Jakob would absolutely crush her.

Rai Benjamin has a confirmed 10.03 (+1.6) 100m dash PR on world athletics. This was done during that coronavirus period when a bunch of guys (I think even in the same training group) ran a really weird, super suspect, "track meet" in Texas. This is the same meet where Michael Norman got clocked at 9.86 and then he barely ever squirted under 10 flat ever again (presumably when he WANTED to become a 100 guy like Kerley was doing, which he realized was not gonna happen and why he's running 400s again).

A 10.03 with a +1.6 is worth, probably, around 10.10 in basic. That's assuming we could actually believe, inherently, that the time was truly legit (which we shouldn't). I'll grant you that Benjamin is a MUCH faster 100 capable guy than Warholm, but not to the level that you all think. Benjamin might have run about a mid-to-high 10.2ish in that same race as Warholm and Duplantis (imo).

The way you guys all talk about 10.47 here on this website is like listening to our grandparents talk about the internet. Who here on the board has run faster than 10.47 wind legal?!?!?

Hurdles are stupid just like steeplechase and fast walking and backwards running ( soon)

Are you kidding? Lots of people here have faster 100m PRs, assuming a decent number of collegiate sprinters visit this site.

You think collegiate sprinters waste their time HERE?!?!?!

I'd suspect that the ones that do can't run 10.47.

I’m a former sprinter. What’s so special about track and field athletes anyways? These people aren’t Ronaldo or Lebron. Yeah I’m sure a lot of unpaid college athletes visit this site and professional ones still glance at it and have visited In the past.

Two world record holders competing against each other in an event that they don't specialise in - for a bit of fun.
What's not to love about that?

Since neither one has made any claim to want to start competing in the event, then the times they ran are largely irrelevant.

Honestly, sanctimonious puritans need to to climb down off their high horses & lighten up.
If you want more people to engage with the sport, then making it more "relateable" to a casual audience is a MUST!

Superstars sat in an ivory tower looking down their noses at fun events is definitely not the way to engage with an audience.