American hurdler Rai Benjamin has explained that the hurdle incident as he raced to clinch his first ever World Championships title was not intentional. Rai clipped on his final hurdle as he stormed to victory in Tokyo, and this affected the hurdle next to him, belonging to Nigeria’s Ezekiel Nathaniel, skewing it a bit off the line.
Initially, Benjamin’s results were DQ’d (disqualified) but later reinstated. He had stormed first across the line in a season’s best time of 46.52. while Nigeria’s Nathaniel had finished fourth in a national record time of 47.11.
The Nigerian himself had stated that he didn’t think it was intentional and would have been unfair to strip the American of his gold medal. And, speaking to Telecomasia.net after the victory, Benjamin said he didn’t clip it intentionally.
I saw a picture of what happened to Ezekiel’s hurdle but it wasn’t intentional. I made my best attempt to clear and when running that fast and the lactic gets on your back, it becomes really hard to get over that last hurdle. It wasn’t intentional obviously. Seeing that pic made me feel sad. You don’t want to be selfish but at the same time, I have never won a World Championship gold medal. At the moment it sucked, but I was just happy it went my way and the officials ruled in my favour.
He went on to state how much respect he has of the American-based Nigerian hurdler, and said he had told him after the semi-final race that he was duel a medal.
