Rai Benjamin took the silver medal in the 400m hurdles and gold medal in the 4 x400m at the Doha 2019 World Championships. This was after 3 NCAA championships.
Rai Benjamin taking 400m hurdles at the Pre in exile, photo by Brian Eder / RunBlogRun
After his medals in Doha, I had the chance to speak with Rai Benjamin. I was fascinated to know that he had to take two weeks to recover from a scary injury, and then he competed well in Doha.
His 400m hurdles run at Stanford on July 30 was amazingly impressive, 47.16 just showed how fit Mr. Benjamin was.
He spoke at the League Call for Eugene. Do not miss it on 7 June 2020!
Rai Benjamin: Don’t write off Samba!
US hurdles star Rai Benjamin has backed Abderrahman Samba to return to world-beating form, saying that many have been too quick to write off his Qatari rival.
“In the midst of the conversation about me and Karsten Warholm, a lot of people forget about Samba,” said Benjamin in the Eugene edition of the Wanda Diamond League Call Room, which is due to air on ​Facebook​ and ​Youtube​ at 20.00 GMT this Sunday.
“He was hurt last season so a lot of people have neglected him. But he would have been a huge challenge.”
“He’s gonna bring it next season, and so is Karsten. At that point I have no chance, I have to bring it too!”
While Samba struggled with injury in 2019, Benjamin narrowly missed out on the Diamond League title, despite running a jaw-dropping personal best of 46.98 in the final in Zurich.
Speaking of that narrow defeat to Norwegian rival Warholm, Benjamin said: “It was a crazy race. I remember every single step, every thought I had. That was the most I ever thought in a race. It was ridiculous.”
“For me it was just like: how do you run 46 and lose?”
Tune in on ​Facebook​ and ​Youtube​ from 20.00 GMT this Sunday to catch the full interviews as well as the best highlights from a decade of the Eugene Diamond League.
The Facebook stream can be viewed here:
https://www.facebook.com/DiamondLeague/posts/4197330833625412
The YouTube stream can be viewed here:
The show will be rebroadcast on Instagram Live on Monday 8 June via @diamondleagueathletics account: ​https://www.instagram.com/diamondleagueathletics/
You can see the show live on Sunday, June 7 below:
