BENJAMIN Rai

United States of America

Date of Birth: 27 Jul 1996

Age: 25

Gender: Male

Place of birth: MOUNT VERNON, NY

Birth Country:

United States of America

Place of residence : LOS ANGELES, CA

Residence Country:

United States of America

Events and Medals
Records
Schedule
Bio
General Interest
Milestones

Events and Medals

Discipline	Event	Rank	Medal
Athletics	Men's 400m Hurdles	2
	Men's 4 x 400m Relay USA United States of America	1

Schedule

Start Time	Location	Event	Status
	Olympic Stadium - Track	Men's 400m Hurdles Round 1 - Heat 5	Finished
	Olympic Stadium - Track	Men's 400m Hurdles Semi-Final 1	Finished
	Olympic Stadium - Track	Men's 400m Hurdles Final	Finished
	Olympic Stadium - Track	Men's 4 x 400m Relay Round 1 - Heat 1	Finished
	Olympic Stadium - Track	Men's 4 x 400m Relay Final	Finished

Biographical Information

Highlights

World Athletics Championships

Year	Location	400m Hurdles	4 x 400m
2019	Doha, QAT	2nd (47.66)	1st (2:56.69)

Diamond League overview - Three best ranks per season and event since 2017

Year	200m	400m	400m Hurdles
2021	-	-	1 x 1st
2019	-	1 x 2nd	1 x 1st, 2 x 2nd
2018	1 x 4th	-	-

Diamond League - Ten best performances since 2020

Rank	Year	Event	Location	Result
1	2021	400m Hurdles	Doha, QAT	47.38
1	2019	400m Hurdles	Stanford, CA, USA	47.16
2	2019	400m	Stockholm, SWE	45.13
2	2019	400m Hurdles	Zurich, SUI	46.98
2	2019	400m Hurdles	Shanghai, CHN	47.80
4	2018	200m	Lausanne, SUI	20.16

World Athletics Continental Tour - Ten best performances since 2020

Rank	Year	Event	Competition	Location	Result
1	2021	400m Hurdles	World Athletics Continental Tour	Walnut, CA, USA	47.13
2	2021	400m	World Athletics Continental Tour	Eugene, OR, USA	44.97

Legend
SF - Semifinal, QF - Quarterfinal, 1R - 1st Round, Qual. - Qualification, QR - Qualification Round, DNF - Did Not Finish, DNS - Did Not Start, DQ - Disqualified, NM - No Mark, [Relay athlete without time] - Did not run in final

Playing computer games. (globalathletics.com, 06 Oct 2019)

Occupation:

Political Science - University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Languages spoken:

Quincy Watts [personal]; Joanna Hayes [personal]

Sporting relatives:

His father Winston Benjamin played international cricket for West Indies. (gteamusa.org, 30 Sep 2019)

He suffered a heel injury prior to the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar. (teamusa.org, 30 Sep 2019)

He took up athletics in the seventh grade of school before practising more seriously at high school. (globalathletics.com, 06 Oct 2019)

He was originally involved in cricket, American football and football before switching to athletics. "My father never pressured me to try any sport." (caribbeantoday.com, Oct 2019; apnews.com, 26 Jul 2019)

To win gold at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. (antiguaobserver.com, 05 Oct 2019)

His parents. (apnews.com, 26 Jul 2019)

General Interest

General
REPRESENTING THE UNITED STATES
He originally competed in athletics for Antigua and Barbuda, including at the 2013 Youth World Championships in Donetsk, Ukraine. In 2015 he filed a request to begin competing for his birth country the United States of America. However, the decision was delayed due to the International Association of Athletics Federations [IAAF] putting a freeze on athletes switching nations in February 2017. The ban was lifted in July 2018, allowing him to compete on the US team in 2019. (caribbeantoday.com, Oct 2019; antiguaobserver.com, 08 Oct 2018)

UNITED STATES TO ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA AND BACK
Born in Mount Vernon, NY, United States of America, he moved to Antigua and Barbuda with his family as a child but moved back to United States of America at age 11, before going back to attend high school in Antigua and Barbuda until he was 14. (caribbeantoday.com, Oct 2019; globalathletics.com, 06 Oct 2019)

COLLEGIATE CAREER
He studied political science and competed in athletics [400m hurdles] at University of California in Los Angeles [UCLA] in United States of America, between 2015 and 2016, until the end of his sophomore year. He transferred to University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and graduated in 2019 with a degree in political science. (LinkedIn profile, 01 Jan 2020; globalathletics.com, 06 Oct 2019; uclabruins.com, 2016; usctrojans.com, 2017)

Social Media

Legend

:: Gold Medal
:: Silver Medal
:: Gold Medal Event
:: Silver Medal Event
:: Bronze Medal Event

Timing and scoring provided by OMEGA. Results powered by Atos