Quincy Hall has successfully been included in the list of Americans who have performed successfully on the Olympic track, with an incredible return in the 400 meters on Wednesday night. Hall moved over three opponents to clinch the gold medal from a distant position, stunning the crowd with a beautiful finish.
Hall sees himself in fourth place as the runners approach the final bend, looking free from competition. He also gave out a beautiful burst of speed, coming before the runner on his outside and then two more on the inside. He finished the race and crossed the finishing line in 43.40 seconds, a record he broke as the fourth-fastest time in the world, and went straight to the track to jubilate the victory with snow angels.
Hall luckily overcame Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith by just 0.04 seconds, which broke a record as the fifth-fastest time ever recorded in the history of the event. Zambia’s Muzala Samukonga won the bronze medal with a third-place finish.
This win put Hall as the first American representative to win gold in the 400 meters since LaShawn Merritt’s did so in 2008. It also comes after a likely return by another American runner, Cole Hocker, who moved past from behind to clinch the men’s 1,500 meters the previous evening.
These American representatives are proving to be great at the comeback game, together with Noah Lyles, whose only win in his 100-meter race came at the finish line.
Hall’s great performance that earned him a gold medal came about an hour after Lyles reached the final of the 200 meters, despite coming second to Letsile Tebogo in their semifinal tough hand. Lyles is scheduled to battle in the final today.
Hall, who is now 26 years old, rears dogs, and enjoys horseback riding, looks like he is out of the running in the 400 meters—a run that sometimes punishes those who wrongly judge their pacing. He was coming behind Hudson-Smith and 2012 champion Kirani James by 5 meters as they ended the final game, and it appears more like he might give up on the effort to settle for a bronze with Jareem Richards on his outside.
By the finish, James and Richards were no longer in the eyes of the spectators, and Hall’s powerful surge gave him the line first over the Briton, with Samukonga also making a move to clinch third.
Soufiane El Bakkali was able to defend his title in the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase in another event yesterday, helping his country, Morocco, secure its first medal of the Games. El Bakkali finished the race at a time of 8:06.05, becoming the first player to win back-to-back titles in the event since Finland’s Volmari Iso-Hollo in the 1930s.