Rai Benjamin in action at the USATF Golden Games at Mt SAC (© Getty Images)
A wave of global stars will return to the scene of their Olympic-medal-winning feats when they compete at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix – a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting – in Tokyo on 8 May.
Rai Benjamin, who earned Olympic gold in the 4x400m and silver in the 400m hurdles, will contest his specialist event in the Japanese capital. In the Olympic final last year, he finished second in 46.17 – a time that would have been a world record were it not for the fact that Karsten Warholm finished marginally ahead.
But Benjamin’s Olympic campaign ended on a high when he anchored the USA to victory in the 4x400m, producing a 43.4-second split en route to recording the fourth fastest time in history for the discipline.
Kendra Harrison and Megan Tapper, the Olympic silver and bronze medallists respectively, will once again clash in the 100m hurdles. Harrison, the world record-holder in the sprint hurdles, has already shown good early season form, clocking wind-assisted times of 12.34 in the 100m hurdles and 22.19 in the 200m.
Olympic finalist and world indoor bronze medallist Gabbi Cunningham is also entered, as is Japan’s Masumi Aoki and her predecessor as national record-holder Asuka Terada.
World javelin champion Kelsey-Lee Barber, who took Olympic silver in Tokyo last year, will also be in action. The Australian thrower will take on the likes of Latvia’s Lina Muze and New Zealand’s Tori Peeters.
Olympic 4x400m champion Michael Norman, one of the world’s most versatile sprinters, will compete in the 400m, while world champion Christian Coleman will line up for the 100m.
Elsewhere, Commonwealth champion Brandon Starc and world indoor bronze medallist Hamish Kerr will take on Japan’s leading high jumpers, while Olympic relay medallist Lynna Irby will contest the 200m.
