EUGENE, United States, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Olympic champion and world record holder Karsten Warholm suffered a shock defeat in the men's 400 meters hurdles final as he finished a distant seventh at the World Championships here Tuesday.
Brazil's Alison Dos Santos, the Tokyo Olympic bronze medal winner, cruised to victory in 46.29 seconds, the fastest time in World Championships history.
Rai Benjamin took silver in 46.89 seconds and his fellow American Trevor Bassitt finished third in a personal best of 47.39.
Warholm, who won the Olympic champion last year with a world record of 45.94 seconds, clocked 48.42 seconds for the seventh.
The 26-year-old said that an injury stopped him from winning the third consecutive world champion.
"I had an injury but to me it's always your fight and giving your all and leaving it all on the track," he said. "I felt I did that. I hope looking back I'll feel proud of that even though I prefer to take a medal."
"I did a lot of hard work to get back to the championships but it wasn't enough."
Dos Santos, who became the first Brazilian to reach the individual track Olympic podium since 1988, was excited about the title.
"I am so happy," he said. "That's pretty awesome to win the world title on this track. I didn't care about the time because this is the first time I win a world title. I think I can run faster than it." ■
