Pitched as “100m to settle it all, a battle of legends”, Sweden’s Duplantis used all his raw runway speed to belt out to an incredible start he never ceded.
Norway’s Warholm, in lane six, one outside the Swede, never looked like reeling in his opponent, who won in 10.37 seconds.
Duplantis, the newly-crowned double Olympic champion who has broken the pole vault world record an incredible 10 times, even threw across a cheeky peak to his right as he went through the line.
“I’m pretty fired up,” said Duplantis. “I feel very, very good.”
Warholm clocked 10.47sec in second and as loser will don one of Duplantis’ Sweden tops in competition in Thursday’s Diamond League programme proper.
“He had a great start, congrats,” Warholm said of Duplantis.
The two track stars raced off at the Letzigrund Stadium to make good on some training ground banter that has escalated all the way to a sprint-off.
Organisers managed to pack around 2,500 fans into the main tribune, tickets selling for up to 100 Swiss francs (106 euros).
The rivalry commenced after a joint training session between Warholm and Duplantis in the run-up to last year’s Monaco Diamond League meet.
“He was saying that I looked fast, and I was like, ‘Let’s race’,” Duplantis said.
Warholm accepted the challenge after Duplantis claimed he could win.
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