Karsten vs Mondo could be the stimulus athletics needs

It is a fantasy clash plucked from the pages of fan fiction: Who would win if you took two Norse gods of athletics, stuck them on a start line in Zurich and pitted them against one another in the purest of sporting contests?

- HARRY LATHAM-COYLE

It is a fantasy clash plucked from the pages of fan fiction: Who would win if you took two Norse gods of athletics, stuck them on a start line in Zurich and pitted them against one another in the purest of sporting contests?

Tonight, the athletics world will find out. Armand “Mondo” Duplantis and Karsten Warholm will take the blocks in Zurich for a clash of world-record holders with a difference in what may be the third-most anticipated 100m race of the year. The pair are deities in their respective domains but out of their comfort zone here. Duplantis has reached heights never achieved before as a pole vaulter and Warholm is a three-time world champion in the 400m hurdles. But each is untested at the elite level in athletics’ blue riband event.

A case can be made for either as a likely victor: the gnarly Warholm’s ability to survive in his usual discipline suggests he will have an edge in the final 50 metres, but Duplantis’s explosivity and acceleration are key elements of his paradigmshifting pole vault achievements. Both clocked similar times as teenage track polymaths – and both exude confidence.