The 400 m hurdles musketeers

A few years back (hey, it's already five years) I wrote an article entitled "The three musketeers of the 400 m hurdles". The literary reference is obvious, and the idea is that, just as in the novel of A. Dumas, there were four of them: A. Samba, K. Warholm and K. McMaster, joined by the R. Benjamin who had run in the NCAA championships an incredible 47.02 s. Samba was the one who inspired that post with his 46.98 s performance at the 2018 Paris Diamond League at a mere 0.2 seconds from the then world record. McMaster was second in that race and Warholm third. Warholm was the 2017 world champion, in a final where Samba stumbled on the 9th hurdle, finishing 7th and McMaster was disqualified in the heats for a lane infringement. In that article I was predicting that Samba, the best technician among the four, was the one who had the biggest chance for a world record. (My prediction turned out to be wrong). 

But then at around the same time a fifth "musketeer" made his appearance: A. Dos Santos, just 18 years old at the time. He confirmed his talent the next year in the Doha, 2019, World's finishing 7th. In that championship, Warholm won his second title, Benjamin was second and Samba third, McMaster missing out on the honours with a 4th place.

Then the epidemic perturbed everything and the athletes had to train without a clear objective. Samba was the main victim of that perturbation. He was already injured a first time in the summer of 2019, but managed to be present in Doha. (He had won the Asian Games in the same city in spring. In case you wish to look him up please bear in mind that his full name is Abderrahman Samba Alsaleck and contrary to what I say in my article he is not mauritanian: he was born in Saudi Arabia to a Mauritanian father and chose initially to compete for that country, before transferring allegiance to Qatar).

The 2021 Tokyo "2020" Olympics, saw all five hurdle stars present. They shared the first five places in the final, and inspired (half of) the article "The fabulous 400 m hurdles". McMaster was once again 4th and Samba, not quite back in top shape 5th. R. Benjamin was, once again second, while Dos Santos won his first major medal finishing third. And of course, everybody remembers the out-of-this-world 45.94 s world record of Warholm.

While things started getting back to normal in 2022, Samba injured himself once more and stayed out of competition the whole year. Warholm injured himself in his first outing and could barely get back in shape for the championships where he finished a distant 7th in the final. McMaster ran the heats but, feeling some discomfort, did not present himself to the semis. That turned out to be a good choice since less than a mont later he won the low hurdles in the Commonwealth Games (he had won the same event four years earlier). In Eugene Dos Santos won the world title ahead of Benjamin.

Dos  Santos was not going to repeat his 2022 feat in 2023. He injured himself early in the season and while he participated in Budapest he was far from top shape in the championships, finishing 5th. With Samba out and Warholm back in top condition I was going to focus on McMaster. He was, after all, the only one of the five "musketeers" without a global medal. (Don't get me wrong. The Commonwealth Games are a fine competition, perhaps on par with the European Championships, but they do not stand the comparison with the World Championships or the Olympics). 

Well, 2023 was going to be McMaster's year. He entered the final stretch in third position, but caught up with Benjamin at the last hurdle and went on to pass him in the final sprint. At long last he obtained his global medal and, cherry on the cake, it was a silver one. 

This is what I got when I looked up the results in the WA page

The end of the season was even more interesting. First, McMaster managed to beat Warholm in the Zürich Diamond League competition, 47.27 to 47.30, with Dos Santos third in 47.62 s. Then, In the Eugene DL final, Benjamin beat them both 46.39 to 46.53 for Warholm and 47.31 s for McMaster. And Samba in all this? Well, he came back in 2023 but did not manage to reach top shape early enough and so was absent from the world championships. But he was ready for the Asian Games, held in early October, and he successfully defended his title with 48.04 s. 

I will keep an eye open for the five musketeers next year in the Paris Olympics, hoping that they will be in great shape, able to reproduce (in any order) the Tokyo magic.