Rai Benjamin settles hurdles rivalry in Monaco

Rai Benjamin claimed the spoils in a clash of the hurdling titans at Friday’s Monaco Dia­mond League as Djamel Sedjati and Quincy Hall both set world records in perfect fine-tuning for the Paris Olympics.

Another stunning night of track and field in perfect condi­tions at the Stade Louis II saw Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen set a European record of 3min 26.73sec in the 1500m.

In the absence of double world sprint champion, Noah Lyles, in-form Botswanan Letsile Tebogo claimed an impressive victory in the men’s 200m in 19.87 seconds while St Lucia’s Julien Alfred won the women’s 100m in 10.85sec.

And Australian Jessica Hull backed up the recent good form she showed in last week’s Paris Diamond League meet with a world record in the rare­ly-raced 2000m.

The 400m hurdles featured a battle between the three fastest men in history, as Benjamin, Karsten Warholm and Brazil­ian Alison Dos Santos met for just the second time since the Norwegian won Olympic gold in Tokyo.

Benjamin overhauled War­holm in the closing metres to win in 46.67sec, Dos Santos rounding out the podium.

“Paris is going to be mad­ness,” said Benjamin. I have to win there. I believe I can do it.”

“Coming from training I am feeling fast, but other guys run fast, too,” Warholm added.

There was victory for War­holm’s teammate, Ingebrigtsen, however, perfectly led out by two pacesetters for a dominant win that sets him up nicely for his bid at an Olympic double in the 1500 and 5,000m.

“I am excited about Paris. I feel strong, I will do my best and hopefully bring home the gold medals,” said Ingebrigtsen.

Algeria’s world silver medal­ist, Sedjati, followed up on his stunning win in Paris last week by going even faster for victory in the 800m. Sedjati clocked a personal best of 1:41.46 for victory, a Diamond League record and new world-leading time, and immediately set his sights on Kenyan David Rudis­ha’s world record of 1:40.91 set when he won Olympic gold in London in 2012.

The Algerian bade his time on the shoulder of Canada’s world champion, Marco Arop, and produced a devastating kick coming into the home straight.

Sedjati’s performance was swiftly followed by Ameri­can Quincy Hall’s stunning 43.80sec in the men’s 400m, also the fastest time of the year.

Hall’s teammate, Grant Hol­loway, was another to underline his Olympic credentials, the three-time world champion winning the 110m hurdles in 13.01sec ahead of Italian Euro­pean champion, Lorenzo Ndele Simonelli.

Having bagged silver in the Tokyo Games, Holloway will head to Paris as red-hot favourite for an upgrade to gold.

Then came Hull’s world record, the 27-year-old clock­ing 5:19.70 in the 2000m. It smashed by 1.86sec the pre­vious best set by Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba in 2021. –Insidethegames.biz