After a historically fast semifinal round last night, 100m bronze medalist Fred Kerley tweeted that “43 ain’t getting no medal.” A bold prediction, given that it was something that hadn’t ever happened before. Never before had more than three men dipped up 44 seconds in any race, let alone a championship final. I guess we should’ve listened to Kerley, though, as the men’s 400m final at the Paris Olympics was nothing short of historic. Quincy Hall of the U.S. claimed the gold in 43.40, while Great Britain and N.I.’s Matthew Hudson-Smith came up just short with 43.44 for silver. Zambian Muzala Samukonga won bronze in a new national record of 43.74.

Here’s what you need to know:

- Both the heats and the semifinals were historically fast at these Games. In the heats, Michael Norman ran the fastest first round time ever with an easy 44.10. In yesterday’s semis, three men ran sub-44, led by Kirani James in 43.78, his fastest time since 2016.

- As he usually does, Hudson-Smith got out hard to kick off the final with Hall two lanes to his outside. However, it was actually Jereem Richards all the way out in lane nine who got off to the fastest start. The Trinidadian split 20.46 through his first 200m, which almost would’ve been good enough to be a time qualifier in the open 200m semis earlier in the day.

- By the 300m mark, Hudson-Smith had moved to the front and it looked like he had enough to hold the field off and come through for gold. It turned out that despite sitting in fourth coming into the home straight, Hall had other plans.

- Hall is known for his strong finish over the one lap distance, but this was simply on another level. He closed his final 100m in 11.69 seconds today, nearly a quarter-second faster than any of the three men that were ahead of him and a half-second faster than Hudson-Smith. Hall summoned every ounce of energy he had left in his body to get ahead of Hudson-Smith with less than 10m to go and bring home the 20th Olympic gold in this event in U.S. history.

By the numbers:

- At 43.40, Hall moves to fourth on the all-time list in this event, behind Wayde Van Niekerk, Michael Johnson, and Butch Reynolds. It is the fifth-fastest performance ever and the fastest since Van Niekerk’s world record in Rio eight years ago. The time was exactly .40 seconds faster than Hall’s previous PB that he ran last month in Monaco.

- Hall ended the longest Olympic gold drought in the men’s 400m in American history, with the U.S. having last won in 2008 with Lashawn Merritt. The U.S. has won 20 out of 30 Olympic golds in this event’s history.

- Hudson-Smith’s 43.44 makes him the fifth-fastest man in history and it equals the sixth-fastest race ever. He now owns the four fastest and seven of the 10 fastest times in European history. It’s the fastest-runner up time ever. The .04 second gap between Hall and Hudson-Smith is the smallest margin of victory in this event at an Olympics since Otis Davis and Carl Kaufmann were separated by .01 seconds in 1960.

- Samukonga finished in 43.74, equalling Kirani James as the 13th-fastest man in history. He broke his own Zambian record for the second day in a row. Samukonga’s close mirrored Hall’s, as he was in fifth just behind Hall coming into the straightaway, and ran his final 100m in 11.88.

- Richards’s bold start paid off, as he came through with a Trinidadian record of 43.78. He’s now the 14th-fastest man in history and, along with his 19.80 200m PB, has one of the more impressive resumes across those two events ever.

- In his unprecedented fourth Olympic final in this event, James finished fifth in 43.87. This was the 10th sub-44 clocking of James’s career, joining Michael Johnson (13) as the only man to reach double-digits in that category.

- Along with Hudson-Smith becoming the fastest runner-up ever, we also saw the fastest third-, fourth-, and fifth-place finishes ever. There had been two races in history to have three men break 44 seconds, this race had five.

Full results:

1. 🇺🇸 Quincy Hall - 43.40

2. 🇬🇧 Matthew Hudson-Smith - 43.44 AR

3. 🇿🇲 Muzala Samukonga - 43.74 NR

4. 🇹🇹 Jereem Richards - 43.78 NR

5. 🇬🇩 Kirani James - 43.87

6. 🇺🇸 Christopher Bailey - 44.58

7. 🇳🇬 Samuel Ogazi - 44.73

8. 🇺🇸 Michael Norman - 45.62

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