Rai Benjamin: How America Got 400m Hurdles Gold Reinstated at 2025 World Athletics Championships

Olympic champion Rai Benjamin experienced a whirlwind of emotions at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo where he was briefly disqualified after winning gold in a dramatic men’s 400m hurdles final.

The 28-year-old American stormed to the finish line in a blistering 46.52 seconds, but his collision with the final hurdle triggered controversy and almost cost him his first world title.

Benjamin knocked over the last barrier, causing it to shift into the path of Nigeria’s Ezekiel Nathaniel. Officials initially disqualified the American, temporarily upgrading Brazil’s Alison Dos Santos to gold and Qatar’s Ismail Doudai Abakar to silver. Norway’s Karsten Warholm, the race favorite, had endured a nightmare run and placed fifth.

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The decision sent shockwaves around the stadium, with fans and athletes confused about the outcome. For several minutes, Benjamin’s dream run seemed undone by a technical rule infringement.

"Ironically we were sat in the elimination chairs,” Benjamin said afterwards in an interview with BBC.

“Samba goes, 'where are our medals?' Dos Santos said, 'I think there's been a DQ'. I was like, 'damn, who got DQ'd?' He then said, 'I think it might be you.'

Officials reviewed the footage closely to determine if Benjamin’s hurdle contact unfairly impeded another competitor’s race. According to rules, an athlete must make an honest attempt to clear the hurdle, and if the collision disadvantages another runner, a disqualification can stand.

“Then the whole shift happened, I was trying to control my emotions, you work so hard to get here, go through an entire season, finally win, now you're getting DQ'd because of hurdle 10," Benjamin said.

"I was trying to work out what happened and what the rule was. I went to speak to some people in the crowd to figure out what happened."

After an anxious wait, officials ruled that Benjamin’s collision did not significantly affect Nathaniel’s race and reinstated the American as the gold medalist. The decision pushed Nathaniel back to fourth, erasing his brief promotion to bronze.

“You have to make an honest attempt to clear the hurdle. I wish I would've cleared it, the time would've been fast had I not," Benjamin reflected. "I think had the hurdle impeded somebody else, yes, but I hit the hurdle and it stood back up. I'm not sure what the official saw. It wasn't intentional, obviously.”

Track legend Jessica Ennis-Hill called the initial decision “very unfair,” while former world champion Colin Jackson stressed that “that trail leg has got to go over the barrier completely.”

Benjamin later joined fans in celebrating, still full of adrenaline, even staying trackside to cheer on the women’s 400m hurdles, won by the Netherlands’ Femke Bol with American Jasmine Jones taking silver.

Despite the drama, Benjamin’s victory margin was impressive — he finished .32 seconds ahead of 2022 world champion Dos Santos. Meanwhile, Warholm called his own performance “a disaster,” citing a thigh issue and a crash on the third hurdle that left him out of medal contention.