It was a night of records and middle-distance magic in the Wanda Diamond League in Monaco on Friday night, as the series' official timekeeper OMEGA recorded historic performances from Australia's Jessica Hull, Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Algeria's Djamel Sedjati.
Hull set a stunning new world record of 5:19.70 in the women's 2000m just after Sedjati had set a new 800m Diamond League record with 1:41.46, his second sub 1:42 performance in the space of a week.Ingebrigtsen rounded things off towards the end of the evening with a new European record of 3:26.73 in the men's 1500m.
Yet the OMEGA Moment of the Meeting in Monaco came not with a record or a standout time, but with a gutsy victory in one of the most anticipated head-to-heads in Diamond League history.
Prior to the meeting at the Stade Louis II, all eyes were on Karsten Warholm, Rai Benjamin and Alison Dos Santos as they shaped up to race in the same 400m hurdles field for only the fourth time ever.
The three fastest men in history, Warholm, Dos Santos and Benjamin have been slugging it out for the sport's major titles for several years now, but direct meetings between all three of them remain a rarity.
In this instance, there was little to choose between them. Warholm is the world record holder and Olympic champion, but has struggled to maintain his top form consistently since returning from injury last season. Benjamin has run the fastest time this year but admitted to suffering from jetlag on one of his rare trips to Europe from the USA. Dos Santos has won the world and Diamond League titles before, but has not done so since 2022.
As the Brazilian succinctly put it at the press conference: "If you ask us who is going to win, we will all say ourselves." Or in Warholm's words: "The three of us tend to run fast."
As it turned out, it was Benjamin who ran the fastest on this day. After Warholm was quick out of the blocks and Dos Santos looked strong in the second and third hundred metres, Benjamin took control at the back end of the race.
The American clocked 46.67, the 12th fastest time ever recorded in the 400m hurdles, while Warholm also dipped under the 47-second barrier with 46.73.
It was a statement victory which put Benjamin in pole position ahead of the Olympics, even if the man himself remained characteristically underwhelmed.
"I did not run the race I wanted to execute but it was all about getting in and seeing what I have in me," he said, before casting his gaze towards the Olympics. "Paris is going to be madness. I have to win there. I believe I can do it. I will go back home and try to get as sharp as possible."
