Rai Benjamin to face rivals Karsten Warholm and Alison dos Santos in Diamond League meet before highly-anticipated clash at Paris Olympics 2024

Rai Benjamin is set to headline the 400m hurdles at the highly-anticipated stop of the Diamond League series and is scheduled to go against his rivals, Karsten Warholm and Alison Dos Santos. He will come fresh off his 400m hurdles performance at the track and field trials, which saw him set a new world-leading time for 2024.

Rai Benjamin, 26, the second-fastest man in the 400m hurdles, holds a career-best time of 46.17s. He participated in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics against Karsten Warholm, and settled for silver in the 400m hurdles behind the latter, who clocked 45.94s. Both of their efforts broke the previous world record time.

Benjamin, Warholm and Tokyo 2020 bronze medalist Alison dos Santos willl all feature in the 2024 Monaco Diamond League, promising an adrenaline-filled event. The ninth stop of the Diamond League Series will commence on July 12, 2024.

At the 2023 Oslo Diamond League, Dos Santos defeated Karsten Warholm in his home country Norway, clocking 46.63s.

At the 2024 US Olympic Trials, Rai Benjamin clocked a time of 46.46s to win the 400m hurdles, which not only qualified him for the coveted Paris roster but also set the world-leading time for this year.

Warholm once opened on the thickening rivalry with Benjamin, where he mentioned that both were poles apart since the latter was a budding athlete and he was a defending champion.

"He trains in the U.S.; I train in Norway. He’s Nike; I’m Puma. He is fighting for his first gold medal. I’m trying to defend my territory," Karsten said. (via New York Times)

Rai Benjamin on breaking the 400m hurdles world record: "I feel like I’m the one who could definitely do that"

Rai Benjamin took the 400m hurdles silver in the Tokyo Olympics and 2022 World Championships. At the 2023 World Championships, he took the bronze, whereas the 400m hurdles world record holder, Karsten Warholm, swept the gold.

Ahead of the Budapest feat, Rai Benjamin opened up on how he was of world record caliber only if he figured out life.

"I think it could be a lot faster in my opinion. I feel like I’m the one who could definitely do that if I figure out my life, if I figure out how to run this event a lot more efficiently than I have in the past few years," he said. (via Olympics.com)

The Monaco Diamond League will be held at the Stade Louis II on July 12, 2024. It will be the second-last stop of the Diamond League series before the 2024 Paris Olympics.