Rai Benjamin Wins Olympic Gold in 400m Hurdles, Defeating World Record Holder

Rai Benjamin Wins Olympic Gold in 400m Hurdles, Defeating World Record Holder

American sprinter Rai Benjamin beat world record holders Karsten Warholm of Norway and Alison dos Santos of Brazil to win the gold medal in the 400-meter hurdles final at the Paris Olympics on Friday.

Benjamin clocked 46.46 seconds in the race, just a few steps ahead of Warholm (47.06) and dos Santos (47.26), two of the fastest runners in the world. Despite an unlucky landing after the eighth hurdle, Benjamin still comfortably took first place.

Benjamin won silver behind Warholm three years ago at the Tokyo Games, when the Norwegian set the world record. This is the second Olympic gold medal for the 27-year-old Benjamin, who was part of the winning 4×400 relay team at the Tokyo Olympics.

Earlier in the day, Sydney McLaughlin-LeVrone set a world record in the women’s 400-meter hurdles. McLaughlin-LeVrone ran 50.37 seconds, beating her own world record of 50.65 seconds set at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June.

And the U.S. also won gold in the women’s 4 x 100-meter relay on Friday, thanks to a strong performance by Shakari Richardson in rainy conditions.

Current medal count for the Paris Summer Olympics

 
 China 34 27 23 84
 United States 33 41 39 113
 Australia 18 16 14 48
 Japan 16 8 13 37
 Great Britain 14 20 23 57
 France 14 20 22 56
 South Korea 13 8 8 29
 Netherlands 13 6 11 30
 Germany 12 9 8 29
 Italy 11 12 13 36
 Canada 8 6 11 25
 New Zealand 7 7 2 16
 Hungary 5 7 6 18
 Uzbekistan 5 1 3 9
 Spain 4 3 8 15
 Ireland 4 0 3 7
 Brazil 3 6 9 18
 Ukraine 3 4 4 11
 Sweden 3 4 3 10
 Romania 3 4 1 8

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