Rai Benjamin, Kendra Harrison, Christian Coleman fly to victories at Seiko Golden Grand Prix in Tokyo
Olympic champions Michael Norman and Lynna Irby were also among the winners at the fourth World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting of 2022, held on Sunday in Japan.
Athletics
It was a brilliant return to the Olympic stadium in Tokyo for Olympic gold medallists Rai Benjamin, Michael Norman and Lynna Irby as they blazed to victories in the Japanese capital on Sunday (8 May) at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix – a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting.
Tokyo 2020 double Olympic medallist Benjamin won the men's 400m hurdles, while Norman sailed to an easy 400m victory.
Kendra Harrison won comfortably in the women's 100m hurdles, and world champion Christian Coleman cruised to a comfortable win in 10.09 seconds in his first men's 100m for nearly three years.
Big wins for Olympic stars
Benjamin, who anchored Team USA to 4x400m gold nine months ago after taking silver in the 400m hurdles in 46.17, the second fastest time in history behind Karsten Warholm's world record, had the perfect start to the season.
Contesting his first 400m hurdles since the Olympics, Benjamin sailed to an easy win in 48.60, ahead of Japan’s Kazuki Kurokawa (49.08) and Chinese Taipei’s Chieh Chen who was third in 49.39.
His training partner and fellow relay Olympic champion Norman, who opened his season with a runner-up position in the 200m behind Fred Kerley at the USATF Golden Games Classic on April 16, a race Benjamin finished third, took the men's 400m at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix in 44.62 seconds. The Japanese pair of Fuga Sato and Kaito Kawabata were second and third in 45.40 and 45.73 respectively.
“I’m really disappointed, to be honest,” Norman said on his first 400m since Tokyo.
“It’s not what I wanted. I need to go back and look at the execution of the race and really think about where I need to improve.”
Another Tokyo relay winner, Irby, took the women’s 200m in 23.09.
World record holder and silver medallist in Tokyo, Kendra Harrison, led from start to finish of the women’s 100m hurdles, timing 12.76.
“I hit hurdle one, so that was not the plan, but I’m just glad I came out here and got the win,” said Harrison.
Compatriot Gabriele Cunningham, the 2022 world indoor bronze medallist, was third in 13.07 behind Japan’s Mako Fukube who clocked 13.05.
Jamaica’s Megan Tapper, third in the Tokyo Olympic race won by Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, was fifth here in 13.30.
Coleman's 100m return
Christian Coleman lined up for his first 100m since winning the world title in 2019 in Doha, having missed the Tokyo 2020 Games in 2021 after being banned from competition for missing three doping tests. The American was the comfortable 100m winner on Sunday, ahead of Japan’s Yuki Koike who clocked 10.22 and Rohan Browning of Australia in 10.23 seconds.
World champion and Olympic silver medallist Kelsey Lee Barber from Australia finished third after a throw of 61m in the women’s javelin, topped by local star Haruka Kitaguchi, 12th in the Olympic final, who hurled 63.93m.
London 2012 Olympic finalist Roderick Genki Dean of Japan took the men’s javelin with his throw of 82.18m.