Paris Olympics preview: 400m

Women's 400m

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• Nickisha Pryce in the spotlight after London Diamond League breakthrough
• Natalia Kaczmarek joins Pryce in having broken the 49-second barrier this year
• World champion Marileidy Paulino will look to upgrade her Tokyo silver to Paris gold

The pecking order of the women’s 400m was upended in one race at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in London this month, when Jamaica’s NCAA champion Nickisha Pryce broke through to record a world-leading time of 48.57 on her professional debut.

That performance lifted the 23-year-old to seventh on the world all-time list and makes her quicker than the likes of 2000 Olympic champion Cathy Freeman and 2004 champion Sanya Richards-Ross.

Rio and Tokyo Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo was the last woman to run faster, at the Tokyo Games, but there is ongoing uncertainty around her participation in Paris after she was injured at the Bahamian trials in June, so there may be an opportunity for a new star to emerge. 

Pryce, a product of the famed athletics cradle Vere Technical High School in Jamaica, stole a march on her rivals for Olympic gold with her stunning performance in London and it’s hard to see her being beaten if she can repeat it in the Olympic final.

Inexperience at this level could be her biggest challenge.

The University of Arkansas student has rocketed to the top of the class in the past year, improving her best time by almost two seconds since she was eliminated in the semifinals of last year’s World Championships in Budapest.

She revealed afterwards that she had cramped during that race and slowed down in the last 100m to avoid injury. So she flew under the global radar until this year’s NCAA Championships, where she won the 400m in 48.89.

She’s one of only two women who have breached the 49-second barrier this year, the other being Poland’s European champion Natalia Kaczmarek, who set a personal best of 48.90 in London but was a distant second behind the young Jamaican.

World champion Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic also has the capacity to run well under 49 seconds, having won in Budapest in 48.76.

She has made a more measured start to this season, her best a winning time of 49.20 at the Paris leg of the Diamond League. However, she defeated Kaczmarek comfortably that day, as well as 2019 world champion Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain, who has returned after a doping suspension.

The silver medallist in Tokyo, Paulino will be intent on upgrading to gold three years later.

“Winning a gold medal, and becoming an Olympic champion, would be very important for the Dominican Republic, and an opportunity as well as a platform to expand the sports of athletics in my country,’’ she said after her Paris win. “It would mean a lot to me because I know many young people back home are looking up to me.”

Ireland’s Rhasidat Adeleke is a college rival of Pryce, and defeated her to win last year’s NCAA title, but has made a steadier trajectory into the top rank, with a best time of 49.07 which ranks her third among those contesting the 400m in Paris.

Kendall Ellis (49.46) shapes as the top US contender, while Britain’s Amber Anning, Dutch sprinter Lieke Klaver and Bahrain’s Naser are also in the mix.

 

Men's 400m

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• Matthew Hudson-Smith and Quincy Hall lead the way in an open race for the medals
• Steven Gardiner defends his title from Tokyo
• Alexander Doom, Christopher Morales Williams and Kirani James are also among the challengers

There will be a prime opportunity for the nearly man of global 400m running, Britain’s European record-holder Matthew Hudson-Smith, to become THE man in Paris, in what shapes as an open race for the medals.

Hudson-Smith launches into Paris as the world leader, courtesy of his commanding win in London in the final Diamond League meeting before the Olympic Games, where the 29-year-old confirmed his career-best form by becoming the first European to breach the 44-second barrier in 43.74.

That moved him ahead of US champion Quincy Hall, who had taken the world lead a week earlier with his win in the Monaco leg of the Diamond League in 43.80.

They are the only two men to have broken 44 seconds for one lap of the track this year and both have found superb form at the right time to contend for Olympic gold.

Both were close to claiming the title at the World Championships in Budapest last year, with Hudson-Smith winning the silver medal and converted 400m hurdler Hall the bronze. Out-of-sorts world champion Antonio Watson has not qualified for the Jamaican Olympic team.

By contrast, both Hudson-Smith and Hall have moved up a gear in the Olympic year, and they will be rightly favoured to fight it out for the title, but there are others who have ability to trouble the top two if they find their best form.

Most notable is Tokyo Olympic champion Steven Gardiner of The Bahamas, who has been quietly working his way back to the top after breaking down with a hamstring injury in the semifinals at last year’s World Championships. He arrives in Paris off a win at the Istvan Gyulai Memorial in Hungary earlier this month (44.39). 

The 28-year-old has impeccable championship credentials and temperament and won’t wobble under pressure, but he will have to find extra pace in Paris to retain his title.  

The 2022 world champion Michael Norman (44.21 this year) will give the US a second challenger, while the newly-minted European champion Alexander Doom of Belgium (44.15) cannot be discounted.

The 2012 Olympic champion Kirani James of Grenada has not been off the podium at the last three Olympic Games (gold in London, silver in Rio, bronze in Tokyo) but the 31-year-old will need to improve after a fifth-place finish at the London Diamond League meeting.

Canada’s NCAA champion Christopher Morales Williams is third on the year’s top list (44.05) courtesy of that triumph, but could manage only sixth in London, one place ahead of Botswana’s Bayapo Ndori, who has struggled to back up his early season marker of 44.10.  

Traditionally, a 43-second clocking is required in the Olympic final to take the gold, and Hudson-Smith promised in London that he had “plenty more” to give.  

“I’m in good shape,” he said, recalling that his preparation for Budapest was disrupted by an achilles tendon injury.

“This is the first time in a long time that I’m coming into a championships healthy. We've got so many 43-44 runners who are now healthy, so it's a very competitive race and it's going to be a very hard race, but definitely I’m in the hunt for the gold.”

His training partner under coach Lance Brauman in Florida, world 100m and 200m champion Noah Lyles, is backing him in. 

“That’s where my money is – that’s my boy right there,” Lyles said. 

Nicole Jeffery for World Athletics