Rai Benjamin spent much of the 2026 season testing himself in the flat 400m instead of the 400m hurdles that had made him an Olympic and world champion. The experiment quickly turned into an impressive run, as Benjamin lowered his personal best to 43.83 seconds in Silesia in August. Before that, he ran 44.05 seconds to win the London Diamond League. Yet his return to the 400m hurdles at the Ultimate Championship ended on a disappointing note, which led him to step away from the flat 400.

On September 11, Benjamin lined up for the men’s 400m final. He finished second in 44.15 seconds behind Botswana’s Collen Kebinatshipi, who stormed to victory in 43.39, a national record and the fifth-fastest time in history. Benjamin finished 0.76 seconds behind Kebinatshipi, while Jereem Richards took third in 44.23. The following day, Benjamin competed in the 400m hurdles.

There, Benjamin finished second again in 46.40 seconds, behind Alison dos Santos, who won in 45.98, while Karsten Warholm finished third in 46.78.Despite another strong showing, Benjamin admitted afterward that his flat-400m experiment had reached its end after all the pressure from both events.

Asked whether he would be tempted to continue the flat 400m into next year’s World Championships in Beijing, where athletes who qualify through the world rankings can have the option of focusing on one event at the U.S. Championships, Benjamin was emphatic about his plans. “I’m done,” Benjamin said with a laugh. “I’m done. I’m done. I’m done. This year was just for fun, and I proved that. I mean, like, I can run with the best. I pretty much beat every seasoned 400 runner in pretty much every race this year.”

Benjamin acknowledged that Kebinatshipi’s extraordinary season had overshadowed some of his own achievements, but he remained satisfied with what he had shown in the flat event. “I know it and the people who pay attention to track, they know it too,” he added. “It was just a fun one for me this year. But back to the 400 hurdles.”

His choice is an indication of his return to the event that has shaped his career. Before winning the Olympic gold in the 400m hurdles in Paris 2024, Benjamin already had the Olympic gold in the 4x400m relay in Tokyo 2021. His turn to the flat 400m in 2026 was never to give up the hurdles. Rather, it provided him with the opportunity to see just how quickly he could move without any hindrances.

And the experiment could hardly have gone better. Benjamin opened his flat-400m campaign with a 44.69-second victory in Tokyo, followed it with his 44.05 win in London, and eventually reached 43.83 in Silesia. Now, after proving he can stand alongside the established names in the flat event, Benjamin is ready to put the experiment behind him and return to the 400m hurdles with one major goal.

Rai Benjamin finds new motivation as 400m hurdles record falls

Benjamin claimed his first Olympic gold in his event – 400 m hurdles at Paris 2024 (46.46) and then his first individual world championship medal at the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo (46.52). He also has a personal best of 46.17 seconds from his silver medal win against Warholm at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. 

But this year, while Benjamin was focused on the flat 400m, the hurdles saw a major change at the top. Alison dos Santos broke Warholm’s world record in Zurich on August 27, running 45.80 seconds. It was the first time a man had gone under 46 seconds in the event, lowering Warholm’s previous mark of 45.94. After his Ultimate Championship race in 400mh, Benjamin was asked whether the new world record had put the 46-second barrier on his radar.

“Next year? Yeah. Sub-46, I think after today tells me, like, it’s there,” Benjamin said. He pointed to his race and the circumstances surrounding it, noting that he was still close to the leaders late into the race despite having already competed in several other races.