Skip to main content
Haze icon
79º

Trials: Holloway, Benjamin nearly break WRs, Thomas ascends

L-R: Gabby Thomas wins the women's 200 meters; Rai Benjamin wins the men's 400m hurdles; and Grant Holloway wins the 110m hurdles during the US Olympic Team Trials at Hayward Field. (L-R: Kirby Lee-Usa Today Sports (2X), Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard Via Imagn)

Hurdlers Rai Benjamin and Grant Holloway proved Saturday – if not established already – they're two of the best in history, giving a pair of world records a scare at the penultimate day of U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene, Oregon, which was ripe with spectacular performances.

Benjamin and Holloway both came within tenths of a second of the 400m and 110m hurdles all-time bests, each winning their respective finals and moving into the No. 2 spots behind the events' current record-holders.

Recommended Videos



The 23-year-olds will head to Tokyo to make their Olympic debuts with global-level experience intact — at the most recent world championships, Holloway won 110m hurdles gold and Benjamin took 400m hurdles silver.

In the 400m hurdles final, Benjamin clocked a meet-record 46.83, just five-hundredths of a second off American Kevin Young's 46.78 world record set nearly 29 years ago in the final of the 1992 Barcelona Games.

The personal-best time broke a tie for third on the all-time list with Qatar's Abderrahman Samba and vaulted Benjamin past archrival Karsten Warholm of Norway to the No. 2 spot behind Young.

Kenny Selmon and David Kendziera round out the Tokyo Olympic men's 400m hurdles team.

SEE MORE: U.S. Trials: Holloway runs 12.81 110mH semi, No. 2 all-time

In the 110m hurdles final, Holloway didn't wait for his final to make noise running a blistering 12.81 in the semifinals, a new meet record and a hundredth of a second off American Aries Merritt's 2012 world record of 12.80.

The reigning world champion trimmed a whopping 0.17 seconds from his previous personal best of 12.98, set two years ago in June 2019, jumping from joint 19th- to second-best among the fastest 110m hurdlers ever.

Holloway went on to win the final in a meager 12.96, also under his previous best, to cap off a historic and exciting night at Hayward Field.

Kenny Selmon and David Kendziera round out the Tokyo Olympic men's 110m hurdles team.

SEE MORE: U.S. Trials: Thomas wins 200m final in 21.61; Felix gets 5th

In a night packed with other incredible performances, another stood out especially as well.

Gabby Thomas in the 200m final not only beat 2012 Olympic champion Allyson Felix, who was fifth in her last trials race, but won in a staggering 21.61 — the third-fastest women's 200m in history behind only two times run by world record-holder Florence Griffith-Joyner, or Flo-Jo, who recorded 21.56 and 21.34 at the 1988 Seoul Olympics en route to capturing a second of three golds and four total medals at those Games.

Unlike both Benjamin and Holloway, Thomas was not considered to be a shoo-in Olympic podium contender two weeks ago, entering Trials as the sixth-fastest this season at 200m with three juggernauts atop the list: reigning Olympic and world 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas, reigning world 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith of Great Britain, and then soon-to-be U.S. 100m national champion Sha'Carri Richardson.

But the tables have turned, and Thomas is now the favorite to win Olympic gold, besting all three of the aforementioned athletes' personal best by at least a tenth of a second.

Jenna Prandini and Anavia Battle round out the Tokyo Olympic women's 200m team.


Loading...

Recommended Videos