Kyron McMaster has done it again in a packed stadium of 80,000 in Paris and secured his place in the 400m hurdles final after automatically qualifying with a 1st place finish in semifinal 2 in 48.15 at the Stade de France on August 7.
McMaster will run in Lane 6 at 9:45pm / 3:45pm BVI time on August 9 when the world’s current top 8 400m hurdlers will line up to compete for podium position.
Speaking shortly after his race, McMaster explained that his strategy to get through the round and into the final was like his Round 1 race for the semis. “It was to get in position for the big Q; hold the position; control the position to make it through as easy as possible,” he said.
While McMaster led the field in his set, he said “it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would’ve been, but we got the job done. All these boys came here for one thing and one thing only: that’s to get to the Olympic finals and to get an Olympic medal. I expected some kickback in my plan – the competitiveness; the nerves; me executing the race how it needed to be executed – but I executed it, and we got through with the big Q.”
Looking forward to the finals McMaster said, “I think I just have to commit more to certain phases of the race and I’ll be good.”
The BVI’s 2023 World Athletics silver medalist and two times Commonwealth gold medalist who has a season’s best of 47.81 will contest the event with Rai Benjamin (USA – SB 46.46), Alison dos Santos (Brazil – SB 46.63), Karsten Warholm (Norway – SB 46.70), Roshawn Clarke (Jamaica – SB 47.63), Clement Ducos (France – SB 47.69), Rasmus Magi (Estonia – SB 47.95) and Abderrahman Samba (Qatar – SB 47.97). This is the second Olympic final of McMaster’s career following his 4th place finish at Tokyo 2020 in a PB of 47.08.
Approximately 10,500 participants from over 200 Olympic Delegations are competing in 32 Olympic sports at Paris 2024. The Games can be followed live on SportsMax Channels.
