Rai Benjamin on the 800: "If I really wanted to… I think if I seriously ran it I could probably run 1:44." Fact or fiction?

1:45-1:46 easily

Rojo!!!!!! I missed you! So glad you’re back.

I’ll go with FACT. He looks to me like he could run a little longer than some sprinters.

He's going to be a crit racer within a year.

Read this and honestly I laughed when I read that. He's clearly got a good engine if he's heading out on the long rides on the bike but I doubt he'd handle 800 training as well as he thinks. If he's considering a few workouts with Isaiah Jewett a different level, I'm not sure how he'd expect to run as fast as Jewett. He's definitely confident, which any champion caliber athlete needs but I think he's also massively overestimating his ability.

I wanted to say he couldn't do it, but the dude can run low 44 seconds for an open 400 and looks so smooth doing it. He has has jumped over 10 hurdles in a 400 and ran low 46 seconds. If you asked him to run a 400 in 50 flat with no hurdles he's just chilling. Then he needs to muscle out a 54 to run 1:44. That doesn't sound absurd. Other people who run 1:44 can only run 46 or 47 in a 400, he's beating them over hurdles.

I mean it makes sense a top 3 400mh could be a top 15 800m runner yea. Still feels a bit arrogant though. No point in dropping times you think you can run if you never bother to try

I think 1:45 is more likely, which would be very impressive

He can claim anything he wants when he then says he’ll never attempt an 800. Lame, Rai.

as with the past 3 times this topic has been brought up in the form of warholm, rai b could run 1:44. high 1:44.

Edwin Moses ran like a 1:48 800 on his 400 hurdle training. So I'm sure he could do it after 2-3 years of focused 800 training.

Many people here believed Jeremy Wariner could be a good 800 runner, so why not Rai Benjamin?

Yes id call 1:47 a lock. 1:46 more likely than not. Maybe 50-50 on running 1:45. I’m not as bullish on 1:44, but it’s conceivable.

Change that to breaking 1:46 and I’ll shake his hand on it.

Its not uncommon for 400m pros to do long anaerobic endurance reps like a hard 600m in 1:18-1:19, and if you can run that in practice you are a candidate for 1:50 already.

I feel like this subject comes up often on here, but someone like him, or Van Niekerk, or Warholm could all make a darn good 800m runner if they trained for it, the difference is that anything below world final qualifying caliber performance for these guys is disappointing. I think all three of those guys could be 1:46 guys, which is phenomenal but not to them.

It’s like me who I’d consider to be a solid 800m guy when I run a 5k or a 10k. I’m a lot better than the general population but I’m still very bad at those events compared to a 400 or 800 or mile.

Every 400 guy thinks they would dominate the 800. All that talk usually stops after the hit that bell lap.

This is about the level I could see Rai getting to. Maybe 1:47 because he is so damn smooth and also probably the leanest athlete I've ever seen, so it just makes sense to me that he could move up better than others.

But still, I think 1:44 would need him to go back in time and focus on the event in college or early pro. I think Edwin and Warriner are good reference points because they both have marks down that are both solid but not in the same league as a 1:44. There's a lot of leeway with things like "doing it off sprint/hurdle training" and just giving them 2-3 years of 800 training but those are not a given. Rai's had his injury struggles and I'd imagine working a higher volume program and a different training system would only make the risk greater.

There are plenty of equally talented middle school age swimmers and middle school age T&F athletes. Rarely do athletes have equal performances past early teens.

There are plenty of equally talented high school age 400m and 800m athletes, T&F. It is rare for athletes past high school age to demonstrate equal performances 400m and 800m, T&F.

When posters ask if 400m athlete A or 400mH athlete B has 800m potential, I am usually a bucket of cold water. If a 400m/400mH athlete says he or she may have elite or near elite potential, 800m, who knows. R Benjamin is the one doing 300m repeats. If he can do (8 to 10) x 300m, averaging 39.0 with short recovery, maybe he can race sub-1:45 800m.

He says there's no 800m in his future so the answer is N-O, NO!

1:46, sure.

But 1:44? Not happening.

Rai Benjamin was the big loser at the 2021 olympics. He broke the world record but someone else broke it better. He cried and cried. Since then he has carried an incredible burden of sorrow and shame. His soul burns for redemption. He would run 1:43.