(Quick note: A huge part of this event being possible is undoubtedly the pair’s shared sponsors: namely, Puma and Red Bull. That certainly enables the athletes and their teams to convince various sports marketing departments to work an event of this scale into the budget, but it does raise the question of how to replicate this model with less of a “live commercial filming” feel.)

In line with keeping things light and at times humorous, Waholm entered the stadium accompanied by his coach, Leif Olav Alnes, who was wearing a viking helmet and a speedsuit emblazoned with the words “FAT BY CHOICE.” For his own boxing-style entrance, Duplantis was escorted by a crew of global sprint stars: fellow LSU Tigers Sha’Carri Richardson and Vernon Norwood, plus Fred Kerley and Letsile Tebogo.

After what must have been an agonizingly long buildup, the two men got into the blocks, the gun was fired, and Mondo ran away with the damn thing in the first three steps, looking pretty great out of the blocks. His 10.37 winning time makes him the third fastest Swede this year over 100m, and if Sweden wants to take a stab at qualifying for a future European Championships in the 4 x 100m, it’s hard to imagine the Swedish Athletics Association not at least attempting to entice Mondo onto a leg.

But results weren’t really the point here. The point was that this was a whole lotta fun, borrowing more stylistically from pro wrestling than the Diamond League. The biggest challenge moving forward will be fitting in silly gimmick events with track seasons that will increasingly end at global championships. Here, the “Fifth Avenue Mile” model provides some promise – immediately following a season’s official end with something fun and relatively low-stakes while athletes are still fit can produce great results and not upset the most painstaking athletes’ schedules.

Regardless, Karsten and Mondo have landed on something promising. 600K+ people watched the YouTube video alone, not counting alternate livestreams or social media clips, a midday, midweek two-man race featuring the 2,436th fastest 100-meter performance of the year. Marrying a compelling presentation format, unique narrative angle, and dynamic personalities gets fans interested and engaged – but it took a special confluence of factors to deliver. Replication is possible, but the planning and resources required cannot be overstated. So we’ll hope for the best (more fun matchups with big stars!) and expect the worst (nothing much changes).

For more of the top stories and analysis from the biggest stories in track and field from the past week, subscribe to The Lap Count newsletter for free. New edition every Wednesday morning at 6:00 a.m. ET.