Today at the Paris Diamond League meeting, Abderrahman Samba became the second man to ever crack 47 seconds in the 400m hurdles. Samba's 46.98 is a new world lead, besting Rai Benjamin's 47.02 from the NCAA Outdoor Championships. That mark sits just behind world record-holder Kevin Young's 46.78 from the 1992 Olympic Games. 

"I want to become the fastest man in the world and I work hard to achieve it. It definitely did not feel like an under-47-second race today. I made a small mistake at the start, lost my balance on the first hurdle, so I did not expect to run so fast," Samba said. "But it feels great to be the second-fastest man in the history. The world record is getting close, but I just want to improve step by step and to run fast. I improved my technique since last year and who knows, maybe I can be one second faster next year. I am speechless now."

The Qatari hurdler has been on an absolute tear this season, going undefeated in a string of 47-second performances (47.90, 47.57, 47.48, 47.60, 47.41, and now 46.98) to improve his personal best five times and break the Diamond League record four times in six outings. In many of those races, it was to the chagrin of Swedish rival and reigning world champion Karsten Warholm, who once again mounted a furious attempt to dethrone Samba today, but faded off the final turn and clobbered the penultimate hurdle en route to third in 48.06. Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands put together a brilliant race to finish runner-up in 47.54, which reset his PR and his national record.

Although Benjamin is slated to compete in Paris today, he wasn't entered in his marquee event. He decided to contest the 200m. 

We'll just have to wait to see Samba vs. Benjamin another day.

Watch Samba's historic run here: