Rai Benjamin

Rai Benjamin (born July 27, 1997) is an American professional hurdler and sprinter specializing in the 400 m and 400 m hurdles. He is the joint third fastest man in history in the 400 m hurdles with a personal best time of 46.98 s, one of only four times in history under 47.00 s. He won a silver medal at his first World Championships in 2019 in the men's 400 m hurdles, and a gold medal in the 4 × 400 m relay at the same competition.

Rai Benjamin

Rai Benjamin at the 2018 NCAA Division I Championships
Personal information
Nationality	American[1][2]
Born	July 27, 1997 Mount Vernon, New York
Height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)[3]
Weight	77 kg (170 lb)[3]
Sport
Country	United States[1][2]
Sport	Track and field
Event(s)	Hurdling, sprinting
College team	USC Trojans (2018) UCLA Bruins (2016, 2017)
Team	Nike[4]
Turned pro	2018[4]
Coached by	Joanna Hayes[2] Quincy Watts[2] Caryl Smith Gilbert[2]
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	100 m: 10.03 (Fort Worth, 2020) 200 m: 19.99 (Paris, 2018)[5][6] 400 m: 44.31 (Torrance, 2019)[7] 400 m hurdles: 46.98 (Zürich, 2019)
Medal record Men's track and field Representing the  United States World Championships 2019 Doha 4×400 m relay 2019 Doha 400 m hurdles Representing  Antigua and Barbuda CARIFTA Games (U-20) 2015 Basseterre 400 m

In college Benjamin ran for the UCLA Bruins and then the USC Trojans, where in early 2018 he was part of the team that set the world best time in the indoor 4 × 400 m relay with a time of 3:00.77. At the time, his relay split time of 44.35 s was the fastest ever recorded in an indoor race. In June of the same year he also helped set the NCAA record in the same event but outdoors, and ran what was at the time the second fastest 400 m hurdles race of all-time in 47.02 s.

Professional

Benjamin had stated he wanted to run for the USA and he was born in New York,[8] but at the 2013 World Youth Championships in Athletics, he represented Antigua in the 400 m hurdles.[9]

In 2017, the IAAF suspended all transfers of allegiance, meaning Benjamin could not represent the United States until transfers were reinstated in summer 2018.[10] In October 2018, Benjamin's transfer request was approved, allowing him to represent the United States abroad and compete in USATF Championship events.[1]

At the 2018 Meeting Areva in Paris, he ran 19.99 in the 200 meters to take .65 of a second off his previous personal best.[5][6][11] He became the 72nd person to break 20 seconds,[12] in what is perhaps his third best event on the track.

At the 2019 Mt. SAC Relays, that year at El Camino College in Torrance, California, Benjamin joined his training partner and previous college teammate, Michael Norman running the 400 meters. Benjamin ran his personal best of 44.31, the 50th best time in history[13] behind Norman's 43.45, which turned out to be the fastest 400 run in the 2019 season and tied him as the 4th fastest of all time.[14]

College

Benjamin is a 3-time NCAA Division I track champion; Benjamin earned 8 NCAA Division I All-America honors , 3 Pac-12 Conference titles and 1 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation title as a college student-athlete.

Benjamin earned two NCAA Division I All-America honors after his 2018 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships where he placed 1st in the 400 meters hurdles in a college record time of 47.02 while being a part of a team that ran 2:59.00 to win the 4x400 m. The 47.02, at the time, equalled Edwin Moses for the #2 time in history.

Benjamin earned two NCAA Division I All-America honors after his 2018 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships where he placed 3rd in the 200 m in a time of 20.34 while being a part of a team that ran 3:00.77 to win the 4x400 m in a college indoor track record time.

Benjamin earned two NCAA Division I All-America honors after his 2017 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships where he placed 2nd in the 400 m hurdles in a time of 48.33 while being a part of a team that ran 39.89 in the 4x100 m.
Benjamin earned one NCAA Division I All-America honor after his 2016 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships where he placed 6th in the 400 meters hurdles in a time of 49.82.

Benjamin earned one NCAA Division I All-America honor after his 2016 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships where the team placed 7th that ran 9:34.39 in the Distance medley relay.

Representing University of Southern California
Year	Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Indoor track and field	NCAA Indoor	Pac-12 Conference Outdoor	NCAA Division I Outdoor track and field
2018		200 m 3rd 20.34	400 m hurdles 1st 48.46	400 m hurdles 1st 47.02 CR
	400 m 1st 45.94	4x400 m 1st 3:00.77 CR	4x100 m 1st 39.38	4x400 m 1st 2:59.00
Representing University of California Los Angeles
2017	4x400 m 5th 3:12.50		4x400 4th 3:09.39	4x100 22nd 39.89
	400 6th 47.06		400 m hurdles 1st 49.52	400 m hurdles 2nd 48.33
	200 m 3rd 21.09
2016	400 m 7th 47.57		400 m hurdles 52.21	400 m hurdles 6th 49.82
		DMR 7th 9:34.39	4x100 m 4th 40.22

[15] [16] [17] [18]

Prep and Personal life

Benjamin from Mount Vernon High School (New York) was the fastest 2015 prep time in the United States in the 400m hurdles with a time of 49.97, fastest 400 m indoor time in the country with a 46.59 and the third fastest outdoor time 46.19.

Benjamin won the 2015 New York Indoor State meet with a national leading time of 33.17 in the 300 meters. He was a three-time New York State Public High School Athletic Association champion in the 400m hurdles.

Benjamin was the 2015 New Balance 400 meters National Champion and the 2015 New Balance Outdoor 400-meter hurdles National Champion.[19]

Just after completing his second year, he represented Antigua and Barbuda at the 2013 World Youth Championships. Just after graduating, he won a silver medal in the 400 meters at the 2015 CARIFTA Games.

He is the son of international Antiguan cricketer Winston Benjamin.[8][20]

Statistics

Information from IAAF profile or Track & Field Results Reporting System unless otherwise noted.[21][22][23]

Personal bests

Event	Time	Competition	Venue	Date	Notes
400 m hurdles	46.98	Weltklasse Zürich	Zürich, Switzerland	August 29, 2019
400 m	44.31	Mt. SAC Relays	Torrance, California, U.S.	April 20, 2019
300 m indoor	32.55	New Balance Indoor Grand Prix	Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.	January 26, 2019
200 m	19.99	Meeting de Paris	Paris, France	June 30, 2018	−0.6 m/s wind
200 m indoor	20.34	NCAA Division I Indoor Championships	College Station, Texas, U.S.	March 10, 2018
4×400 m relay	2:56.69	World Championships	Doha, Qatar	October 6, 2019	WL
4×400 m relay indoor	3:00.77	NCAA Division I Indoor Championships	College Station, Texas, U.S.	March 10, 2018	WB[note 1]

Seasonal bests

Year	400 m hurdles	400 m	200 m
2013	53.95	49.55	22.38
2014	51.86	47.17	20.88
2015	49.97	46.19	21.09
2016	49.82	47.57	21.17
2017	48.33	45.72	20.64
2018	47.02	44.74	19.99
2019	46.98	44.31	–

International championship results

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Time	Notes
Representing  Antigua and Barbuda
2013	World Youth Championships	Donetsk, Ukraine	5th (semi 3)	400 m hurdles	52.36	PB
2015	CARIFTA Games (U20)	Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis	2nd	400 m	46.19	PB
	World Relays	Nassau, Bahamas	DNF (semi 1)	4×200  m relay	–
Representing the  United States
2019	World Championships	Doha, Qatar	2nd	400 m hurdles	47.66
			1st	4×400  m relay	2:56.69	WL, PB

National championship results

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Time	Notes
Representing the UCLA Bruins
2016	NCAA Division I Championships	Eugene, Oregon	6th	400 m hurdles	49.82	PB
2017	NCAA Division I Championships	Eugene, Oregon	2nd	400 m hurdles	48.33	PB
			7th (semi 1)	4×100 m relay	39.89
Representing the USC Trojans
2018	NCAA Division I Indoor Championships	College Station, Texas	3rd	200 m	20.34	PB
			1st	4×400 m relay	3:00.77	WB[note 1]
	NCAA Division I Championships	Eugene, Oregon	1st	400 m hurdles	47.02	WL, NCAAR, PB[8]
			1st	4×400 m relay	2:59.00	NCAAR, PB
Representing Nike
2019	USA Championships	Des Moines, Iowa	1st	400 m hurdles	47.23

400 m hurdles

• IAAF Diamond League
  • Rome: 2019
  • Stanford: 2019

300 m

• World Indoor Tour
  • Boston: 2019

Notes

1. Shared with Zach Shinnick, Ricky Morgan, and Michael Norman for the USC Trojans. Because Rai Benjamin was not cleared to represent the United States with his American teammates until after the race, the time is not recognized by the IAAF as the official world record.[24]

References

1. Sully, Kevin (October 4, 2018). "Rai Benjamin Cleared To Tompete for the US". milesplit.com. FloSports, Inc. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
2. Lindstrom, Sieg (January 19, 2019). "New Flag, New Beginning for Rai Benjamin". trackandfieldnews.com. Track & Field News. Retrieved January 20, 2019.
3. "Rai Benjamin". eurosport.com. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
4. Sully, Kevin (June 14, 2018). "Rai Benjamin is Now a Nike Athlete". flotrack.org. FloSports, Inc. Retrieved January 24, 2019.
5. Rowbottom, Mike (July 1, 2018). "Norman and Benjamin the latest starts to shine in the IAAF Diamond League". iaaf.org. IAAF. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
6. Zaccardi, Nick (June 30, 2018). "Abderrahman Samba runs second-fastest 400m hurdles ever (video)". nbcsports.com. NBC. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
7. Wharton, David (April 20, 2019). "Mt. SAC Relays' road show ends with some top marks, including Michael Norman's 400 win". latimes.com. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 21, 2019.
8. Burke, Timothy (June 8, 2018). "Rai Benjamin Runs 47.02 400m Hurdles, Tied For Second-Fastest in Human History". deadspin.com. Deadspin. Retrieved January 24, 2019.
9. "400m hurdles (84.0 cm) Boys semi-final results".
10. "Transfer of Allegiance".
11. 2018 Paris Diamond League 200 m
12. https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/sprints/200-metres/outdoor/men/senior?regionType=world&timing=electronic&windReading=regular&page=1&bestResultsOnly=true&firstDay=1899-12-31&lastDay=2018-07-01
13. https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/sprints/400-metres/outdoor/men/senior?regionType=world&timing=electronic&page=1&bestResultsOnly=true&firstDay=1899-12-31&lastDay=2019-05-01
14. https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/sprints/400-metres/outdoor/men/senior?regionType=world&timing=electronic&page=1&bestResultsOnly=true&firstDay=1899-12-31&lastDay=2020-03-07
15. Rai Benjamin UCLA track results TFRRS. June 30, 2018
16. Rai Benjamin USC track results TFRRS. June 30, 2018
17. Rai Benjamin USC profile University of Southern California. June 30, 2018
18. Rai Benjamin UCLA profile University of California Los Angeles. June 30, 2018
19. track ucla mount vernon rai benjamin
20. Levy, Leighton (October 4, 2018). "Antiguan star athlete Rai Benjamin switches allegiance to USA". sportsmax.tv. SportsMaxTV. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
21. "RAI BENJAMIN ATHLETE PROFILE". iaaf.org. IAAF. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
22. "RAI BENJAMIN UCLA". tfrrs.org. Track & Field Results Reporting System. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
23. "RAI BENJAMIN USC". tfrrs.org. Track & Field Results Reporting System. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
24. Joe Fleming (March 12, 2018). "World, collegiate records highlight NCAA indoor track and field championships". usatoday.com. USA Today. Retrieved October 9, 2019.

External links

• Rai Benjamin on Twitter
• Rai Benjamin at World Athletics
• Rai Benjamin profile at TFRRS (USC)
• Rai Benjamin profile at TFRRS (UCLA)
• Rai Benjamin bio at USC Trojans
• Rai Benjamin bio at UCLA Bruins

Videos

• Michael Norman and Rai Benjamin at Mt SAC Relays 2019 via MyStyle Records on YouTube
• Michael Norman 19.84 Wins Men's 200m – IAAF Diamond League Paris 2018 via IAAF Diamond League on YouTube (Rai Benjamin 2nd in 19.99)