Olympic champion Rai Benjamin’s completion of his men’s 400m hurdles world medal set by adding gold at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 never looked in doubt, during a final where he finished ahead of Brazil’s 2022 world champion Alison dos Santos and Abderrahman Samba of Qatar.

But the 28-year-old’s celebrations were upset 20 minutes later as it emerged that he had been disqualified after his weary collision with the last hurdle – en route to a season’s best of 46.52 – had left the next-door barrier, due to be cleared by Nigeria’s Ezekiel Nathaniel, slightly askew.

The news reached USA’s Benjamin, who had world silver medals from 2019 and 2022 and bronze from 2023, shortly after he had posed for photos with the USA’s newly established women’s 400m hurdles silver medallist Jasmine Jones.

Jubilation gave way to shock – and a few seconds later the golden crown that had just been placed upon his head was hastily removed.

It seemed entirely just, however, that within 10 minutes the crown and the smile returned, after a successful appeal by his team. 

While clearing the displaced hurdle required a slight adjustment by Nathaniel – the Texas-based NCAA champion – it did not appear to affect his run-in, or the order of the finishers.

“It feels great – a complete reversal on what happened here in 2021,” said Benjamin, who got Olympic silver in Tokyo four years ago. “We were sitting down near the elimination chairs, ironically, and Dos Santos said the referees were reviewing the race, and that it was about me being disqualified. I asked: 'Did I step on the line or what?' It might have been because of that last hurdle I knocked down, but it was all fine in the end. Unfortunately, I got really greedy in the end and that's why I hit the last hurdle.”

Dos Santos was able to make up some late ground on Benjamin after the latter’s clatter, but was still significantly behind as he came through in 46.84, with a jubilant Samba adding a second bronze to the one he won on home soil in 2019 in a season’s best of 47.09.

Nathaniel came home fourth in a national record of 47.11 ahead of Norway’s defending champion Karsten Warholm, whose pursuit of a fourth world title on the track where he set the world record of 45.94 in winning the Tokyo Olympic title had looked strangely and increasingly forlorn.

He had arrived back in the Japanese capital topping the season list with the 46.28 he set in last month’s Wanda Diamond League meeting in Silesia – the third-fastest time in history – and announcing himself “hungry for more.”

But his appetite for this competition never looked healthy as finishing third in his heat left him in the unfamiliar environ of lane four for his semifinal, where again he appeared to slow to let Samba finish ahead of him.

As a result, he ran the final in lane four. And from there the exuberant talent who has so often blasted out to victory from the outer lanes looked cramped and unhappy.

Although he started well and remained within striking distance of Benjamin coming into the finishing straight, the Norwegian drifted out of contention before finishing in 47.58.

“I had something happen when I got out of the blocks, like a little strain in my left thigh,” he said. “I don't know if it's a hamstring or knee. Trying to hurdle with it wasn't good. I also crashed the third hurdle. I tried to push but it was just a terrible race. A disaster.”

Germany’s Emil Agyekum was sixth in 47.98, with Benjamin’s teammate Caleb Dean seventh in 48.20 and Qatar’s Ismail Abakar eighth in 49.82.

Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics