Wolverhampton's Matthew Hudson-Smith already hungry for 2028 gold after agonising result in Paris
Matthew Hudson-Smith vowed to win gold at LA 2028 and then quit athletics after missing out in agonising fashion at Paris 2024.
The Wolverhampton runner was denied victory despite recording the fifth-fastest 400-metre time in history as he was pipped on the line by America’s Quincy Hall at the Stade de France.
Hudson-Smith, aiming to become GB’s first global male gold medallist in the event for a century, later said he “could not complain” about the result and that the “best was still to come”.
The 29-year-old, who has knocked more than eight-tenths of a second off his own European record this season, said: “I said if you’re going to win you have to take it from me. That’s exactly what he did.
“I can’t complain, fifth fastest time overall. It’s the healthiest I’ve ever been at a championship.
“I almost got it. Sometimes the journey is better than the outcome. It’s been a hell of a journey.
“I can’t complain. The better man won. It’s just the start. I know there’s a better time in there. My time is going to come. I have another four years left and then I am out.
“When it clicks, it is going to be special. We have plans on bigger times.
“It didn’t come in the Olympics but I have another four years and that is the last you are going to see of me. After that, I am never coming on the track ever again.”
Hudson-Smith had been looking to complete a remarkable, sometimes harrowing journey since missing the last Olympics in Tokyo three summers ago through injury.
Searingly open about his struggles with mental health, he later revealed he had attempted to take his own life at his lowest point.
That revelation came after he had claimed his first global medal by taking bronze at the world championships in 2022.
Hudson-Smith took silver in the same event last year despite suffering with injury.
This year he had been in imperious form, twice breaking his own European record and running under 44 seconds for the first time at last month’s London Diamond League meeting.
He undoubtedly arrived in Paris as the man to beat and delivered a performance befitting a gold medal in most other races, clocking a time of 43.44 seconds.
Hudson-Smith led into the final straight and with 2012 champion Kirani James trailing, gold looked his.
But Hall came through strongly in the final 50 metres and Hudson-Smith could not react. His deficit on the line was 0.04 seconds.
Asked when he realised Hall was there, he replied: “When it was too late! My coach kept saying they were going to come in the last 50.
“That is why the last 50 I tried to push but he had the step on me, just after the 40 metres came.
“That is what it came down to, the 0.04 seconds. I felt I had solved it a little bit because I jumped him around the 110 mark but he had a little bit more to go in the last 40."
