US athlete Rai Benjamin speaks during a press conference in Doha, yesterday. Picture: Abdul basit / The Peninsula
Qatari one-lap hurdler Abderrahman Samba and current time leader Karsten Warholm of Norway are among the top medal hopefuls at the IAAF World Championships Doha 2019, but US athlete Rai Benjamin will be trying to make things harder for them.
The 22-year old American is one of the world’s four quickest men in history.
Samba clocked a time of 46.98 secs at the Diamond League Meeting in Paris last year, before Warholm inched closer to the World Record held by American Kevin Young (46.78) way back in 1992.
The London 2017 World Champion Warholm ran the second fastest lap in the history (46.92) in Zurich where Benjamin joined the sub-47-club by finishing second by equaling Samba’s feat in the same race.
The 23-year-old Qatari athlete won Diamond Prize last season with a dominant record where he remained unbeaten. Samba won the Asian Championships gold in front of the home crowd earlier this year, and topped it with a win at Shanghai Diamond League, clocking 47.27.
His spectacular feat has put him on the list of top favourites to win in Doha which time, but his current form is unknown to many because an injury kept him away from the track for the past few weeks.
And Benjamin is also among those who are not aware of where Samba stands in the current list of top performers.
Speaking at a press conference at the Khalifa International Stadium, Benjamin said yesterday: “I don’t know about him (Samba). He hasn’t run for a while, but I know where Karsten is at.”
“It’s not like we have only one race. There will be two three days of racing (from heats to the final). So we will come to know where everyone stands out,” Benjamin said.
“As far I know, its still hard to say who is ahead of who,” Benjamin added.
However, Samba’s absence from recent evens don’t make him an underdog, so Benjamin, Warholm and the Qatari will be up against each other in their quest for the elusive gold at the air-cooled Khalifa International Stadium in few days’ time.
Benjamin who won his first national title at the 2019 USATF Outdoor Championships few months ago will be looking at the biggest stage now when he competes among a star-studded line-up in Doha.
“This is my first World Championships and I am very excited. It’s a strong line-up in the 400m hurdles and I am looking forward to it,”Benjamin said yesterday.
Apart from the trio who have already cleared the 47 second barrier, Commonwealth champion and two-time Diamond League title holder Kyron McMaster from the British Virgin Islands and France’s European Team Championships runner-up Ludvy Vaillant are also not to be underestimated.
McMaster and Vaillant are have clocked the fourth and fifth fastest times this year.
Benjamin’s compatriot TJ Holmes, the 2017 World Championships fifth-place finisher, Amere Lattin, the 2016 world U20 110m hurdles silver medallist, Poland’s 2015 World Championships finalist Patryk Dobek, Rio finalist Rasmus Magi of Estonia, Pan American champion Alison Dos Santos of Brazil and his compatriot Marcio Teles are also among the rest of the forces to be reckoned with.
