Great Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith delivered the performance of his life on the biggest stage only to be overhauled in the dying metres by the American Quincy Hall.
Hudson-Smith was aiming to become the first British 400 champion for a century, and the Wolverhampton athlete was leading into the closing stages when Hall found another gear to snatch gold in a personal-best 43.40.
Hall’s winning time to beat world silver-medallist Hudson-Smith was good enough for the fourth-fastest in history at 400m, the Briton’s time placing him fifth on that same list.
Not that that was any consolation for a distraught Hudson-Smith in the aftermath of the race.
Here, we analyse how he was pipped at the post….
Blistering start
For those looking for omens, the sixth lane was the very same position from which Eric Liddell had won the last British Olympic 400m title, also in Paris, exactly a century ago. Hudson-Smith was all business in the introductions, lifting his finger, shaking his head and barely even glancing at the camera before making his way to the blocks. After looking so ridiculously easy in running 44.07sec in the heats, the big question was how much he could lump off by going flat out for a full lap rather than about half that distance. With another sub-44 second runner in Muzola Samukonga outside him, Hudson-Smith had an ideal benchmark and duly blasted off to lead through 200m having almost already passed the Zambian outside him.
