Quincy Hall, to whom nothing’s been given, took the Olympic 400 meters

 

SAINT-DENIS, France — Quincy Hall sprinted around the final turn of the Paris Olympics 400 meters behind three men, his two gold chains and a grill of gold teeth sparkling under the Stade de France lights. The first 300 meters had been run at a blistering pace — “hell,” one of the runners later called it. No one would have guessed Hall could catch them.

Hall did not think he would close the gap. The pain in his 26 years of life and the training he had put himself through had conditioned him otherwise: He knew.

“As soon as they shot that gun, I knew I had it,” Hall said Wednesday night. “You can’t get far enough.”

A track and field outsider from Kansas City, Mo., whose path wound through a California junior college, Hall surged from fourth place over the final 100 meters and won the gold medal in one of the fastest, most feverish men’s 400-meter races in Olympic history. Limbs flailing, jaw clenched, chin jutting, Hall caught and passed Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith with five meters left and careened across the line in 43.40 seconds — the fourth-fastest time ever and 0.04 seconds ahead of Hudson-Smith.He’s the better man,” Hudson-Smith said. “He did what he had to do. I’ve been saying if you’re going to win, you got to take it from me. And he did.”

The latest American track hero of the Paris Olympics was self-made. Hall attended College of the Sequoias out of high school. He trains without partners, often by himself while talking to the coach he met at junior college, Curtis Allen, on the phone. Hall switched full-time from the 400-meter hurdles to the 400 meters just two years ago. On Wednesday night, as he ran a victory lap in bare feet, he considered it the best decision of his life.

“I don’t give up, man,” Hall said. “I grit. I grind. I got determination. Anything I can think of that’s going to get me to that line, I think of it. All the hurt. All the pain.”

Hall brought it with him to the start line of a race of contrasting styles. Hudson-Smith knew Hall would close strong: He had watched Hall’s wicked kick at the U.S. Olympic trials, and his coach had told him the race would be determined in the final 50 meters. Hall knew Hudson-Smith would attempt to bait him early.

“You knew it was going to be a [game of] cat and mouse,” Hudson-Smith said.

The race began as promised: “I got the f--- out,” Hudson-Smith said. Trinidadian Jereem Richards pushed the pace, too, creating a gap between him and the field on the backstretch. Hudson-Smith closed it first. Kirani James of Grenada came with him.

“It was more than fast,” Zambia’s Muzala Samukonga said. “It was hell on the track.”

Hall lies on the track after his epic comeback. (Christian Bruna/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

Hall waited, saving energy for the finish. He had developed his stamina back in Kansas City. He won a youth national championship at 800 meters. At Raytown South High, Hall ran cross-country in the fall, and in the spring he sometimes would enter the 200, 400, 800 and 1,500 in the same meet. In junior college, he would sometimes win a 400 hurdles race, then 20 minutes later run the 400.

So Hall stayed calm as Hudson-Smith took command and Richards and James also led him with 150 meters left. He still waited to make his move.