One other race, one other unbelievable late rally to win a monitor and discipline gold medal for Workforce USA on the Paris Olympics. First it was Noah Lyles within the 100 meters, then it was Cole Hocker within the 1500 meters, and now it’s Quincy Corridor within the 400 meters.
Coming off the flip within the closing, Quincy Corridor was in fourth place behind gold medal favourite Nice Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith, Trinidad and Tobago’s Jereem Richards, and the legendary Grenadian Olympic champion Kirani James. It might’ve been a significant credit score to Corridor to get even a bronze medal, as he did when he rallied in final yr’s World Championships in Budapest, however he gritted his tooth, fought by the ache, and gutted out a exceptional rally previous everybody to say the gold medal in one of many quickest instances ever run.
With a blistering new private better of 43.40 seconds, Corridor has the fifth-fastest 400-meter time in historical past and solely world document holder Wayde Van Niekirk, Michael Johnson, and Butch Reynolds have run sooner. Hudson-Smith’s 43.44 silver-medal successful efficiency was the quickest non-winning time ever, whereas Zambia’s Muzala Samukonga ran a nationwide document 43.74 and had his personal rally from fifth to bronze for his nation’s third ever Olympic medal. It’s the second straight main championship that Hudson-Smith was in place to win gold, solely to get overwhelmed proper earlier than the end line.
Jereem Richards and Kirani James additionally ran sub-44 seconds however didn’t medal, marking the primary time we’ve ever had 5 athletes go beneath the coveted 44-second mark in any 400m race.
Corridor is the primary American Olympic males’s 400m gold medalist since LaShawn Merritt, who led a USA sweep within the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. He beforehand competed within the 400m hurdles, successful the 2019 NCAA championship on the College of South Carolina. Whereas Corridor had collegiate expertise within the flat and the hurdles, he targeted on the hurdles in 2021 and missed the Tokyo Olympics. Corridor additionally didn’t qualify for the World Championships in Eugene the next yr. Corridor made the choice to completely ditch the hurdles in 2023, and it’s paid speedy dividends within the type of a World Championship bronze medal and an Olympic gold.
“I actually just like the 400m hurdles, however it’s simply not my occasion,” Corridor advised FloTrack after his win on the Diamond League circuit in Monaco final month.
Corridor may not have been the gold medal favourite, however his 2024 season couldn’t have performed out any higher when it comes to peaking on the proper time. He improved his time over eight consecutive races from his Doha Diamond League opener in Might (45.98 seconds) to his US trials win in June (44.17 secs) and his Monaco Diamond League win (43.80 seconds) in July. Now he’s the Olympic champion with an epic end.
And for anybody who’s observed Corridor’s operating kind isn’t the smoothest or cleanest you’ll ever see, he’s conscious, he doesn’t care, and the outcomes present that it really works for him.
This the very last thing imma say about my operating kind I don’t care to look fairly or run like each physique else my operating model is Grit, Dedication, Dig, Canine I’m not trynna win a cute contest
— Quincy Corridor (@QuincyHall400) September 2, 2023
