Track and field recap, Aug. 9: Rai Benjamin vs. Karsten Warholm highlights stacked day

Rai Benjamin - Credit: Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Rai Benjamin – Credit: Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Eight Olympic finals will go down on Friday in a frantic day of track and field at Stade de France.

Karsten Warholm and Rai Benjamin will go head-to-head in a highly anticipated men’s 400m hurdles final
A razor-thin heptathlon competition wraps up
4x100m relay teams race for gold
Much, much more

See below for full event recaps, highlights, athlete soundbites and more.

Opening Rounds and Semifinals

Women’s 4x400m relay Round 1: The U.S. women’s relay team of Quanera Hayes, Shamier Little, Aaliyah Butler and Kaylyn Brown dominated their heat in 3:21.44. After taking home gold from the Tokyo Games, the Americans will look to repeat in the Olympic final on Saturday against fellow qualifiers Great Britain, France, Jamaica, Belgium, Ireland, Canada and the Netherlands. Relay team are allowed to shake up the roster for the final, so Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who claimed gold in world record fashion in the women’s 400m hurdles on Thursday, is eligible to run.

Men’s 4x400m relay Round 1: 16-year-old Quincy Wilson made his highly anticipated Olympic debut, becoming the youngest male track and field athlete to compete for the U.S. at the Olympics. After setting three under-18 world records this year, Wilson ran the opening leg of the men’s 4x400m relay in 47.27 seconds as the U.S. finished third in their heat at 2:59.15. That was enough to qualify for the final along with Botswana, Great Britain, Japan, France, Belgium, Zambia and Italy. The 16-year-old Wilson handed off the baton to 32-year-old teammate Vernon Norwood, with Bryce Deadmon and Chris Bailey running the third and fourth legs.

In his post-race media session, Wilson was frustrated in his 47.27 leg, saying, “I knew it wasn’t just myself today. If it was just myself, we would be in last place.

“When I get home I’ll probably soak it all in. But as of right now, the goal was just to be able to get the baton around the track.”

SEE MORE: Quincy Wilson makes debut, men’s 4x400m relay into the final

Men’s 800m semifinals: American Bryce Hoppel posted a sensational time of 1:43.41 in his semi to cruise into the Olympic final, set for tomorrow night at Stade de France. Hoppel’s time was second to Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi, the reigning world silver medalist. Fellow Americans Brandon Miller and Hobbs Kessler didn’t qualify.

Women’s 100m hurdles semifinals: All three Americans in this event — Masai Russell, Alaysha Johnson and Grace Stark — locked in their spots in the Olympic final. Johnson and Stark won their respective semis with times of 12.34 and 12.39 seconds. Russell clocked in at 12.42. Defending Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico advanced, as did Devynne Charlton of The Bahamas, Jamaica’s Ackera Nugent, France’s Cyrena Samba-Mayela and Nadine Visser of the Netherlands.

Notably, world record holder Tobi Amusan of Nigeria failed to qualify for the final, falling just .03 seconds short of the mark.

Heptathlon

Entering the final event of heptathlon competition, Belgium’s Nafissatou “Nafi” Thiam, who took home heptathlon gold at both the Rio and Tokyo Olympics, leads the field with a commanding 5924 points. Reigning world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson of Great Britain is right behind her at 5803. Annik Kalin of Switzerland is in bronze medal position at 5694.

American Anna Hall sits in fifth with 5567 points and will need a tremendous performance in the 800m to earn a medal. The heptathlon wraps up with that event at 2:25 p.m. ET.