Sophomore Quincy Wilson Runs 44.66 to Break High School 400m Record at 2024 Olympic Trials
Wilson took down a 42-year-old record and won his heat with the second-fastest time of the day
By Jonathan Gault
EUGENE, Ore. — The first time Quincy Wilson came to Eugene, in July 2023, he did what any 15-year-old would do in his first final at Hayward Field. He got excited. Wilson went too hard, too early, and finished 4th in 400 meters at the US U20 championships.
“He got so excited that he didn’t stick to the race plan,” said his coach Joe Lee. “…You never go at 200 for the 400, at least that’s our philosophy.”
Still, Lee was proud of Wilson’s toughness down the stretch. All things considered, it could have been worse. After all, Wilson’s mistake last year did not cause him to miss out on qualifying for that year’s Pan Am U20 team because he was too young to qualify for the U20 team. After the race, Lee took Wilson aside and told him that the next time they came back to Hayward, things would go differently.
Kevin Morris photo
Lee was right. Wilson, who just wrapped his sophomore year at the Bullis School in Potomac, Md., ran 44.66 to win his heat on Friday in the first round of the 400 meters on day 1 of the 2024 US Olympic Track & Field Trials. The time ranked him second among all qualifiers to Sunday’s semifinals and broke Darrell Robinson‘s 42-year-old US high school record of 44.69.
This was just Wilson’s fourth individual 400 of the outdoor season. He had been ultra-consistent so far, running personal bests of 45.19 at the Florida Relays on March 30, 45.17 at the East Coast Showcase on May 4, and 45.13 last week at the New Balance Nationals in Philadelphia. But Wilson knew he had something more in store against stronger competition at the Trials.
“When I come to the big meets, I usually drop a second or half a second,” Wilson said. “I’m not running in high school anymore, I’m running with the big dogs. I just had to come out here and give it my all.”
Entering the meet, Wilson’s 45.13 pb made him the 13th-fastest American of 2024. He’s now up to #7, and one of the men ahead of him, Rai Benjamin, is not running the 400 at the Olympic Trials. Wilson also achieved the Olympic standard of 45.00 in today’s race, and he said he was dreaming of Paris when he went to bed on Thursday night.
“Of course,” Wilson said. “Everybody’s goal out here is to make the team.”
First, Wilson has to make the final. He will get his chance in the semifinals on Sunday night (9:35 p.m. ET), where his 44.66 qualifying time was #2 on the day behind 2023 Worlds bronze medalist Quincy Hall.
The final, should Wilson make it, runs on Monday night at 9:59 p.m. ET. It will be a challenge for Wilson to run three hard races in four days against the best 400-meter runners in America, but his coach is confident that Wilson will be ready.
“Penn Relays, he went 44.3 and 44.6 [on two relay splits] within five hours,” Lee said. “I really don’t listen to the people who say it can’t happen. We have a race plan and we train for this…That wasn’t the goal, to break the record [today]. The goal was to come here and not just spectate, not just participate, but to compete.”
Talk about Wilson’s great run on the world-famous Letsrun messageboard:
Quincy Wilson post-race
Bullis coach Joe Lee explains Wilson’s record race
