Rai Benjamin is now a world champion in the 400m hurdles — confirmed after he was briefly listed as disqualified — one year after winning his first Olympic gold in the event.
Benjamin clocked 46.52 seconds at the World Track and Field Championships in Tokyo despite hitting the last hurdle with his front foot. He was followed by Brazilian Alison dos Santos (46.84) and Abderrahman Samba of Qatar (47.06).
Norwegian Karsten Warholm, the Tokyo Olympic gold medalist, three-time world champion and world record holder, faded from second to fifth in the final straight.
A few minutes after the race, Benjamin was listed as disqualified for a rule that states, “displacing a hurdle thus impacting another athlete.”
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The DQ did not list the specific hurdle, but after Benjamin hit his last hurdle while clearing it, that hurdle made contact with an adjacent hurdle in the lane of Nathaniel Ezekiel of Nigeria. Nathaniel’s hurdle moved and came to rest in a slightly different position before he had to clear it.
Ezekiel was fifth at the time, then after clearing that hurdle moved into fourth past a fading Warholm. Ezekiel nearly caught Samba for bronze, finishing five hundredths behind Samba.
The meet referee disqualified Benjamin, a decision that was then overturned by the video referee, after which the race result was made official.
“When that fatigue sets in, those hurdles get really high,” Benjamin, wearing a crown, told Lewis Johnson on NBC Sports. “I think that was the issue, just making sure I made an honest attempt to actually clear the hurdle.”
Nigeria unsuccessfully appealed the result. Ezekiel said it was a fair decision not to DQ Benjamin and that the moved hurdle “didn’t actually affect me a lot.”
Benjamin took silver or bronze behind Warholm or dos Santos at four consecutive global championships from 2019-2023.
The trio has combined for the 25 fastest times in history. Warholm has the world record of 45.94 from the Tokyo Olympics, where Benjamin took silver in 46.17, which is still the second-best time ever.
Benjamin can win a second gold at these worlds if he again anchors the men’s 4x400m relay on Sunday, but the task could be tougher than the hurdles.
Benjamin held off Letsile Tebogo for relay gold at the Paris Games. But Botswana just put three men in the 400m final (not including Tebogo), with Collen Kebinatshipi taking gold and Bayapo Ndori earning bronze.
Also Friday, Femke Bol of the Netherlands won the women’s 400m hurdles in 51.54 seconds, the world’s best time since Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone lowered the world record to 50.37 at the Paris Olympics. Bol is the second-fastest woman in history.
McLaughlin-Levrone ran the flat 400m and not the 400m hurdles at these worlds but could return to the hurdles in future seasons.
American Jasmine Jones took silver on Friday in 52.08, a personal best for the world’s fifth-fastest woman in history.
The World Championships continue later Friday at 6:20 p.m. ET on Peacock with 20km race walks, heptathlon and decathlon events and qualifying in women’s shot put and men’s discus.
The next full finals session is Saturday at 6 a.m. ET on CNBC and Peacock including the heptathlon’s last event, the 800m (8:11 ET), the women’s 5000m (8:29) and the men’s 800m (9:22).
