Rai Benjamin Win U.S. 400m H Title; Anna Cockrell, Dalilah Muhammad Advance To Finals At U.S. Olympic Trials

Rai Benjamin made his first Olympic team by winning the men's 400m hurdles with a meet-record time  and Anna Cockrell and Dalilah Muhammad advanced to the women's 400m hurdles final at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Team Trials being held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. today (June 26). 

• Rai Benjamin  (USC 2018) won the U.S. men's 400m hurdles title with a personal-best, meet-record and world-leading time of 46.83 to earn a berth on USA's Olympic team.  It is Benjamin's first Olympic qualification. Benjamin's time was the second-fastest ever in the event, trailing only Kevin Young's 46.78 set in 1992. Cameron Samuel placed seventh in the final with a time of 49.27.
• Anna Cockrell and Dalilah Muhammad (USC 2012) automatically advanced to the women's 400m hurdles final tomorrow by finishing second and third in their semifinals heat.  Muhammad had a season-best time of 53.86 and Cockrell a time of 55.10.  Their times were third and fifth respectively among the qualifiers.
• Allyson Felix (USC 2008) placed fifth in the women's 200m dash final with a season-best time of 22.11.
• Brendan Ames (USC 2011) had a time of 13.96 (+1.2) to finish eighth in his heat and 16th overall among the semifinalist in the men's 110m hurdles.

The Trojans continued competing all over the globe in championships for their native countries for an opportunity to compete in the Olympics.  Here are the results from action today:

At the British Athletics Championships Today

• Nicole Yeargin placed second in the women's 400m final with a time of 51.26 to qualify for the Olympics in the event.  She will be making her first career Olympic appearance.
• Tade Ojora won the 110m hurdles title with a PR of 13.38 (-1.0), but has not quite achieved the Olympic standard of 13.32 and will have to wait to see if he is accepted.  His final's time moves him to fifth on USC's all-time list in the event.  Ojora had a time of 13.67 (-0.5) earlier in the day to advance out of the semifinals.
• His sister Temi Ojora placed second in the women's triple jump with a best leap of 43-5.75/13.25m (+0.7).  She has not achieved the Olympic qualifying standard, but will be competing next at the European Juniors, where she enters at the No. 2 ranked women's U20 triple jumper in Europe. 

At the Canada Athletics Championships Today

• Aaron Brown (USC 2014) won the 200m dash to complete his second consecutive 100m-200m double at the Canada Athletics Championships. Brown won the 200m today with a time of 20.24 (+1.1), after winning the 100m yesterday with a time of 10.12.  It is likely that Brown has already qualified to represent Canada in both events at the Olympics, as has Andre De Grasse (USC 2015) in the 100m and 200m and Kyra Constantine in the 400m.  The official announcements are expected next week.

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