Timothy Benjamin

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**Tim Benjamin**

Country	Great Britain
Club	Cardiff
Date of birth	02 05 1982
Place of birth	Wales
Height	1.83m
Weight	76kg
Turned Pro	1998
Personal Best	100m 10.48 (2000) 200m 20.67 (2001) 400m 44.56 (2005)
Titles
Olympic Finals:	2004 4x400m Relay- 5th Place
World Finals:	2005 400m- 5th Place
Highest World Ranking:	3 (Feb 2006)
Infobox last updated on: 24th November 2006.

This page is for the athlete Timothy Benjamin. For the composer see Tim Benjamin.

Timothy Benjamin (born May 2, 1982) is a professional athlete from Wales. He specialises in the 400 metres, and in his teens was coached by Jock Anderson, in the same training group as Christian Malcolm. He then moved to live in Slough to be coached by Tony Lester; Marlon Devonish amongst others was one of his training partners.

As a youngster, he ran over 200m, and won several junior titles, including the World Youth Championship in 1999. Soon after, he began to concentrate on the 400 metres, and was selected for the relay squad at the World Athletics Championships in Edmonton in 2001.

By 2002 he had established himself as one of Britain's best athletes, winning the British AAA title, and running in the successful GB squad at the European Cup. In the Commonwealth Games that year, he helped guide Wales to a silver medal in the controversial 4x 400 metres relay, which was won by England, and disputed by many, including the athletes themselves. It was during that year also that he earnt a silver in the European Under-23 Athletics Championships in Poland.

[edit] Senior career so far

He reached the semi-finals of the 2004 Olympics, and came 5th in the final of the 400 m at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics. He was suffering from a serious knee injury at the time.

At the 2006 European Championships in Athletics in Gothenburg, he won the silver medal in the 4x400 m relay with the British team, as the finishing sprinter, along with Robert Tobin, Rhys Williams and Graham Hedman, in a time of 3:01.63. He finished 6th in the final of the individual event.

In late 2006, he announced that he was moving back to his hometown of Cardiff to be coached by legendary sprint hurdler Colin Jackson, whilst fellow Welsh relay member Rhys Williams would also be moving back from Loughborough.

[edit] Personal life

Benjamin is engaged to a sweetheart from his schooldays, Natalie Lewis, an accomplished Welsh middle distance specialist in her own right. They plan to marry in 2007.