Rai Benjamin said he had a late night out before the 4x400: "I was pretty much done, you know, so I had a pretty late night if you can imagine."

I find Rai extremely attractive. He has such a cheeky smile and grin. When he said he would win a D measuring contest against Karsten, I nearly creamed my pants.

Well, it worked for Max McGee.

That and the fact that lane one inside had big puddles to splash through, impacted first leg but also final stretch where Botswana was on the outside of lane one which was puddle free. It didn't take much and both of these were factors IMHO.

Salvatore Stichmo: I 100% agree with youd

Disappointed in let'srun for not taking a deeper dive on his comments before casting judgment.
At one point he says-
"I did not really know we were running until this morning. ...I got the call this morning. "
Later he says "like I said, i was not really paying attention...I did not know I was running until this morning. Not gonna lie".
In between those comments, he did also mentioned about the the extra runoff race " a lot of people did not know what was going on behind the scenes.... Trying to figure everything out and we did not know till twelve or one that were running". So here he does seem fully aware of the runoff, and the reality that the US would be in the finals.

So one can only conclude from this That no one told him going during the protests that even though it might be a long shot, there was still a chance the US could make the finals and that there was a good chance he would be running in the finals. If he was told that I am absolutely sure he would not have just gone out partying.

And then no one reached out after they did make it to let him know that there was a good chance he was running in the finals. At least he could have then shut things down and gone immediately to bed.

I one hundred percent put this on the coaches.

Frankly, I give Rai credit for his honesty.

[ However, yes, there is a chance he is fibbing on some level. And therefore everyone needs to be asked exactly what went down with the decision making, and the communication and the timeline of it all. With US relays, usually someone drops the baton. But this time someone dropped the ball.]

I've never really done too much with USATF, but I believe this.

- Rai watches USA not qualify for 4x4

- No immediate news of appeal being successful

- Rai assumes the USA will not be running the next day, like we all did. And/or his coach(es) did not tell him the appeal was still in the works.

- Goes and parties with friends and family, like we all would

I probably wouldn't have mentioned this to the media, but honestly, I can imagine this not exactly being Rai's fault.

I feel like if the communication was half decent, every single person in the relay pool would have been notified or attended a quick meeting where they said, "Right now we're DQd, but we may be reinstated. Prepare to race tomorrow."

Would take like 5 minutes to do. Or a phone call. IDK, doesn't sound too hard!

Stop it jogger.

I split 45s in 1976, after boozing til after 4 am.

He ran more than fast enough. Botswana were always the favorite.

This is how real athletes behave.

Rai split 44.40 this year after splitting 43.18 in Paris. Even accounting for the conditions of the track in Tokyo, it's clear he was not at his best there.

Well, Citius said that Chris Bailey—who actually ran in the prelim and runoff—learned about the runoff from their social media post. So I fully believe Rai just thought they were out. I think the initial request to be advanced was denied, too, so I can see them sticking around until that news and then hitting the town before the final decision comes through.

you sound like a complete fa

On the same but from a different angle: the US team would win if RSA didn't start pressing Botswana in the last 50m. That's when Botswana's runner woke up and soon after realize the US is not that far as it seemed before. At least, that's how it looked to me.

This^^^^

Not like his leg in the 4x4 at ncaa’s to finish. That reminds me: what is michael norman doing these days?

my thought 2

That’s fast! I wonder how much faster your time would have been had you rested properly instead.

How come Vernon Norwood heard the night before, but Benjamin didn't? Did he have his mobile on silent? Was the music too loud in the club?

God help him when a DCO comes knocking on his door for a test..."I didn't hear, I was hung over"...

USA GO HOME DEVASTATED!!

Big Ben leaves Japan with some bird a single mum in 9 months time - ladddd

True, but it's not like he hasn't run in the rain before--everyone knows rainwater pools along the rail, so you move out, which he had full freedom to do but decided instead to run through what looks like an inch or two of water. Real HS freshman mistake that cost USA the race.