USC Trojan Star Rai Benjamin Dominates To Win At Outdoor National Championships

“This is definitely the hardest team to make in a championship setting. If you can come out here and be the national champ at this meet year in and year out, then it kind of speaks to that magnitude. Like I told these guys on the 400 team, this is the hardest meet you’ll ever run all year. Like, from this point on it’s pretty easy. All you have to do is the same thing you did here, and you’ll be fine,” Benjamin said to Citius Magazine reporters. 

“Honestly, I’ve raced a lot this year. It’s very unnatural for me to race this much in any given year. So, I think I want to take these next couple weeks to just chill and get back into a solid training cycle. I think the last few years and last few weeks I’ve been traveling a lot, so it will be nice to get on a solid training block,” Benjamin said of his preparation heading into Worlds. 

Benjamin is currently the leading man in a vaunted trio of 400-meter hurdlers. Former Olympic Champion and current world record holder Karsten Warholm and reigning World Champion and World Championships record holder Alison Dos Santos all make up the three fastest times ever recorded in the event. 

It’s already an anomaly to have two athletes who could set a world record on any given day, but having three athletes seemingly all in their primes line up against each other this routinely is truly unprecedented. Warholm dominated the beginning of the rivalry, but in the last two years, Benjamin has staked his claim in dominating fashion, but Dos Santos is right there as well and is the last man to defeat Benjamin in the event.

Benjamin currently has the world’s leading time this season and has all the momentum heading into Worlds, but nothing is a given in track and field. The build-up to their meeting in Tokyo will be remarkable and will only be outdone when the world gets to see these once-in-a-generation athletes fight for another global medal.