Qatar's Ismail Abakar and Abderrahman Samba stormed into the final of the men’s 400m hurdles at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo Wednesday.The 21-year-old Abakar clocked a personal best of 47.61 seconds to finish second in his semi-final behind Nigeria’s Ezekiel Nathaniel, who won in 47.47. Asian champion Samba also impressed, producing a season’s best of 47.63 to edge Olympic champion Karsten Warholm (47.72) at the line, after the Norwegian too the foot of the gas.There was heartbreak for another Qatari hurdler Bassem Hemeida, who despite setting a personal best of 48.29 narrowly missed the final as Olympic champion Rai Benjamin comfortably won in 47.95, ahead of Brazil’s Alison dos Santos (48.16). Germany’s Emil Agyekum (47.83) and USA’s Caleb Dean (47.85) also progressed. Samba will be looking to repeat or better his third-place finish at the World Championships 2019 in Doha.Later, Benjamin said he was ready for another "historic" tussle with great rivals Warholm and dos Santos after all three cruised into the final. The trio have dominated the event in recent years, pushing each other to ever greater times and sharing out the global accolades between them.Benjamin prevailed when the trio met at the Paris Olympics last year and he is hoping for another classic tussle in tomorrow's final. "I think it's going to be really fast," said the 28-year-old. "I hope it's historic and I hope I'm on the right side of history this time. Coming out here, you can never be on the wrong side of history."Warholm finished second in his semi-final behind Samba but the Norwegian said it was all part of his strategy. "He could get a first place if he wanted to because honestly I don't care," said Warholm. "I can have an outside lane in the final, it'll be fun."Warholm is coming into the competition in fine form, clocking a time of 46.28sec at the Silesia Diamond League in Poland last month. It was the third fastest time ever run over the distance, topped only by his own world record of 45.94sec and Benjamin's 46.19sec.The Norwegian said he "chilled" for the second half of the semi-final but he would be ready when it counted. "I feel confident of course, being on this track," he said. "But you know, out there you have Dos Santos, you have Rai Benjamin, really good runners, hard workers, and they can challenge."