He finished his indoor season in March and the DL season doesn’t conclude until September 17, so it’s not surprising he wouldn’t be racing outdoors in May. It ain’t American high school track.
Plenty of athletes did the indoor season and have done more than one race since.
That in and of itself isn’t reason to be scathingly critical of Warholm. Jakob has run 3 races vs. 2 now for Warholm. Nuguse has run 3 races vs. 2 for Warholm. Kessler has run two outdoor track races. Fisher has run two outdoor races. Kincaid has run two races since March 4th. Rai Benjamin ran 400h races in April and early May and now is injured. Allison Dos Santos is injured. Warholm struggled with injury early last year. It’s not a big deal that he chose to open up his season in June when the biggest meets of the year are in late August and September.
It was also his first outdoor race. The season started months ago.
This is the weakest attempt to create something I have ever seen. Rai Benjamin only have 2 400mh meets this year, Dos Santos 0. Warholm isnt there to cash in participation trophies in case that is what you think, so his 2 meets with a WL is on par with the rest in quantity and leagues over the rest in quality.
He finished his indoor season in March and the DL season doesn’t conclude until September 17, so it’s not surprising he wouldn’t be racing outdoors in May. It ain’t American high school track.
Plenty of athletes did the indoor season and have done more than one race since.
He's raced more Diamond League meets since 2018 than any other 400m hurdler (24 total). Coming off his most injury riddled season of his career last year and this year being one year before the Olympics I think it both makes sense for him to pace himself and that if anyone has earned the right through racing so much in the past its him.
I'd also add there have only been 4 men's 400mh DL races so far - Doha - too early for most people being first week of May, and then Paris which was less than a week before Oslo so obviously Warholm is going to prioritise Oslo. If he races Monaco which he is confirmed for, and Zurich + DL final at Pre then he'll have 5 Diamond races this year. A totally normal amount.
He's raced 7 times in 2023 so far, twice in the outdoor season. Compared to his competition that is pretty average.
Rai Benjamin - 4 races (2 outdoor season)
Abdi Samba - 5 races (3 outdoor season)
Kyron McMaster - 6 races (4 outdoor season).
Alison dos Santos hasn't raced yet this year so I assume he's injured and/or will just race as a wildcard.
Yes I would bet on Algeria to medal in the men’s 800 but wouldn’t put money on any one individual (Sedjati or Moula). Of course as an American I’ll be rooting for my neighbor to the north, Mr. Arop.
