In a historic Mt. SAC Relays race five years ago, San Diego-born Michael Norman battled his Nike teammate Rai Benjamin down the home stretch in the 400-meter dash.
Norman won in 43.45 seconds, still his best time ever and equal the No. 4 time in history. Benjamin’s 44.31 was a personal record.
So when entry lists were posted a week ago indicating that Norman and Benjamin would tangle again Saturday over one lap at Mt. San Antonio College, jaws were poised to drop.
Alas, when Benjamin crossed the finish line in 44.42 seconds — the No. 5 time in the world this year — Norman was nowhere to be seen.
Norman “just pulled out today,” Benjamin told Times of San Diego. “It didn’t make sense for him to run.”
It wasn’t immediately clear whether Norman, the 2022 world 400 champion, was hurt or just unready for a full-blast effort.
But Benjamin confirmed what the world might have expected: Norman has abandoned his dream of becoming a 100-meter dash king.
A year ago at this same meet, Norman told me he was “100% committed to 100 right now.”
That day, he clocked a wind-aided 10.02 seconds and took third. His season best with a legal wind? 10.31.
On Saturday, as the sun burned off the morning haze at Hilmer Lodge Stadium in Walnut, Benjamin beat Justin Robinson of Arizona State by more than a second.
“Pretty good,” Benjamin said. “Just an easy one. Shake the dust off and break up practice.”
The Olympic silver medalist over 400-meter hurdles smiled when asked if perhaps his performance would guarantee a spot on Team USA’s 4×400 relay team at the Paris Olympics.
“That’s the plan,” he said.
Benjamin (who already holds Olympic and world titles in the 4×400 event) said he wasn’t sure when he’d race the long hurdles. But he doubted he’d face his old nemesis — world-record holder Karsten Warholm of Norway — until the Summer Games.
“Maybe in the Diamond League” of International pro meets, he said.
Another American track gem showed another facet Saturday.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, world record woman in the 400 hurdles, ran the second leg of a 4×100 relay for Formula Kersee (named for her coach Bob Kersee’s training group out of UCLA).
But McLaughlin-Levrone, who took the stick from former world record short hurdler Keni Harrison, had a poor handoff to Olympic relay medalist Jenna Prandini.
And Prandini, an NCAA champion out of Oregon, ran up on anchor leg Morolake Akinosun.
The botched connections let an international team of Dina Asher-Smith (Britain), Rhasidat Adeleke (Ireland), Lanae Tava-Thomas (Jamaica) and NCAA legend Julien Alfred (Saint Lucia) run away with the race.
They clocked 42.03 seconds to Formula Kersee’s 42.93
The winning mark improved the previous world leading time of 42.25 by a U.S. team at the Texas Relays in March.
But McLaughlin-Levrone at least proved she could run all-out, which has been in doubt since she withdrew from last summer’s world championships in Budapest.
“After consulting with my doctors and coaches, I need to take care of a minor knee issue so that I can be fully healthy for next year’s Paris Olympics,” she said at the time.
Her knee apparently fine, she made Mt. SAC her 2024 debut. The last time she ran was at the USATF Outdoor Championships last July, when she won the 400-meter title with a lifetime best of 48.74.
Teammate Athing Mu, another Olympic champion (in the 800-meter run and 4×400 relay), also had been scheduled to run at Mt. San Antonio College — in the long relay. But the team didn’t start. (She held up a Kersee sign in support of her teammates, though.)
Also a disappointment: Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania was a no-show in the elite men’s discus.
The previous Sunday, Alekna set a world record of 74.35 meters (243 feet, 11 inches) in windy conditions in Oklahoma.