Cool, Calm And A Tad Clumsy, Rai Benjamin Dethrones Norwegian King To Become 400-Meter Hurdles Champion

It was far from the perfect race, but Rai Benjamin charged hard and overtook defending Olympic champion Karsten Warholm to win 400-meter hurdles Olympic gold.

Benjamin grabbed the lead from the Norwegian world record holder, while hammering around the final turn. Yet, while accelerating, he encountered slight problems coming over hurdle eight, straying slightly from his lane upon landing. Execution over hurdle nine wasn’t ideal either.

“I just remember landing awkwardly off eight, and then nine came up and I had to reach and I was like ‘please don’t fall’ and then I had to reach for ten and switch legs,” Benjamin told reporters, after his first major championship win. “At that point, I was like, I’m going to get walked.”

The 27-year-old from Vernon, New York remained cool, calm and kept it together – as Warholm encountered problems of his own down the homestretch – increasing his lead and getting the job done, on Friday night, at Stade de France.

“I had so much torque and power coming off that hurdle, I wonked a little bit and almost lost it,” he explained. “Five meters before the line, I was like ‘oh snap, I got it.”

The American hurdler equaled his season-best time of 46.46 seconds, defeating Warholm by a substantial six-tenths of a second. The third member of the triumvirate of 400-meter hurdling stars, Alison dos Santos of Brazil, took bronze, 0.80 seconds behind Benjamin.

“I looked up at the time – it wasn’t particularly the quickest, but we got it done and that was the focus for me coming in. I was so focused on running fast, and those hurdles kind of get in the way,” Benjamin said, half-jokingly.

“I heard him (Warholm) when we got to five, and I was like ok, cool, stay calm, stay patient. I know my last 200 is lethal, and I relied on that and what I’ve done all season. That was the game-changer for me.”

Benjamin was ecstatic upgrading to gold in Paris from Olympic silver in Tokyo. A dejected Warholm downgraded to silver from his world record gold-medal racer in Tokyo, three years ago. Benjamin also improved upon world championship silver medals in Budapest 2023 and Doha 2019.

“This color of medal has eluded me for so long – to get it done in this fashion at the Olympic Games in front of friends and family, in front of everybody means so much to me,” said Benjamin, a 2019 graduate of the University of Southern California.

“I don’t think I ever doubted it – it was more just stay patient and keep showing up every day. I told myself this has to go my way one day – and it went my way today and that’s all I can ask for.”

Warholm was aiming to become the 400-meter hurdler to win back-to-back gold since American Glenn Davis accomplished the feat in 1956 and 1960. The Norwegian came up short as Benjamin took command, in an event that always provides thrills and sometimes spills.

“I messed up hurdle nine because I was a little bit lactic and I could not get the flow from eight to nine,” Warholm said. “At that point, I felt like it was a good race and I was in control of everything that I planned. But you cannot afford those mistakes at this level and then it is a silver medal. 

"Rai did a great job being composed and he is bringing home the gold,” said the Norwegian.

It wasn’t the dream two days that Budapest 2023 world championships silver medalist and world No. 1 ranked heptathlete Anna Hall had hoped for. But, the budding star fought through the pain and posted an incredible finish - and a win in the final event - all while entering her seventh month of recovering from knee surgery.

Hall entered the final event of the women’s Olympic heptathlon – the women’s 800-meters in fifth place, aware that an extraordinary time and placing could result in a bronze medal.

The Denver resident dashed out to the lead, pushed the pace as she knew she had to. She won the 800-meters clocking 2:04.39, but it wasn’t enough to make up the points and land in the medals. She finished fifth.

The 23-year-old scored 6,615-points, short of the 6,720 she tallied in Budapest, and 92-points behind bronze medalist Noor Vidts of Belgium.

Vidts’ Belgian teammate Nafi Thiam surpassed Katarina Johnson-Thompson over the final event to emphatically capture her third consecutive Olympic hepathlon gold medal, scoring 6,880 points.

Thiam became the first heptathlete in history to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals.

Bronx, New York, native Salif Mane has taken the triple jump by storm, leaping to victories at this summer’s NCAA Championships and Olympic Team Trials – Track and Field, in Eugene, Oregon.

The recent graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, and 22-year-old triple jumper took to the Olympic stage in Paris – his first-ever competition overseas – and uncorked his best of six jumps in the final round. Mane jumped 17.41-meters, just off his personal best of 17.42, which he accomplished at the trials in Oregon.

It was long enough for a solid sixth-place showing, a result that the New Yorker was rightfully proud of.

“All the emotions, everything went into that last jump – I definitely had more in me, I buckled a little bit, but it felt great,” Mane said.  “It was awesome – the crowd was into it and I thank them for that.

“It was a great feeling to come here to France, represent my country, and go out there make the final, make the top eight, and then finish sixth in the world,” he said.

Mane relished watching fellow New York state native Rai Benjamin win gold, catching the race just as he entered the mixed zone interview area.

“I’m happy for Rai putting that on for the state – we needed that and I hope to follow his footsteps as an Olympic champion and it means a lot to represent New York,” Mane said.

The recent FDU graduate in civil engineering summed up his overall experience in France.

“Representing Team USA has been a phenomenal past two weeks and I’m very grateful,” he said.