Raj Benjamin is the stand-out name in the men’s 400m hurdles at the Rome Golden Gala Pietro Mennea. Although this race is not valid for the IAAF Diamond League ranking, the men’s 400m hurdles race will be held in one of the most prestigious venues, which already staged great competitions in the past. Edwin Moses won three editions of the Golden Gala, the 1981 IAAF World Cup in Rome with 47.37 and the fantastic world championships final in 1987. The Olympic Stadium hosted exciting competitions, including the race in the 2018 edition, when Qatar’s Abderrahamane Samba set the Golden Gala and the Diamond League record with 47.48, which was later improved by the fabulous Asian hurdler.
We start again from Moses, as Raj Benjamin, a top name of the new deal of this discipline, clocked 47.02 in difficult weather conditions last year equalling Moses’ best time, which was a former world record for a long time. Benjamin was born a little less 22 years ago a stone throw away from Bronx. Benjamin, whose father comes from Antigua and Barbuda, spent the first part of his career representing the Caribbean country before opting to compete for the USA thanks to his dual citizenship. He will come directly from Stockolm to make his debut on Italian soil. He ran his Diamond League race in the 400 metres hurdles in Shanghai, where he set the second best performance of his career with 47.80 behind phenomenal Samba (47.27). The line-up also features Ireland’s Thomas Barr, the only rival in the Rome race to have dipped under 48 seconds, the other US hurdler Kenny Selmon, Estonia’s Rasmus Magi, Japan’s Takatoshi Abe, and Italian duo formed by José Bencosme (PB 49.22) and Lorenzo Vergani (49.36).
