Raytown South’s Quincy Hall sets personal best in 400m, qualifies for Paris Olympics

Just a year after taking the gold in the 2023 World Championships in Budapest for the 4x400-meter relay, Raytown South alum Quincy Hall has the chance to do it again after qualifying at the Olympic Track & Field Trials.

Hall had set a personal best at the races in Budapest last year (44.37 seconds) but took bronze in the 400 meters. This time, the 25-year-old set another personal record to punch his ticket to Paris at the event in Eugene, Oregon, on Monday: 44.17 seconds in the 400 meters.

In a tight race, Hall overcame 2020 Tokyo Olympics gold medalist and 2022 World Championships winner Michael Norman for Hall’s first ever Olympic team qualification.

“I’ve been working hard for this,” Hall said in the Register-Guard. “I guess I was born to be a champion. This is the first Olympic team that I’ve made. I came out on top, and I ran well again.”

Despite Hall’s recent success in the 400 meters, his professional career hasn’t always been centered around it. In fact, Hall began taking on hurdles in his time at the College of the Sequoias, where he helped lead the track & field team to a California Community College Athletic Association State Track & Field Championship.

He went on to run sprints and hurdles for South Carolina, winning an NCAA Outdoor Championship in the 400-meter hurdles in 2019.

But Hall made the adjustment to the 400-meter dash with Olympic aspirations, a change that has now paid off.

Change isn’t always easy, but for Hall, it was a return to his early success with his sport. For Raytown South, Hall clinched a 4A MSHSAA state title in the 400 meters in 2016, posting a 46.82-second time that’s just one tenth of a second shy from Jefferson City’s Domenik Peterson’s record set in 2003.

For the Gamecocks, he set a school record in the 400 meters at 45.25 seconds (indoor).

“(This is) my first Olympic Trials. ... Those first couple of years, doing the hurdles, I wasting time,” Hall said on the Olympics website. “I’m really in my event now. I’m having fun and I’m doing good things.”

Norman, finishing at 44.41 seconds, will join Hall in Paris in late July, along with the third-place finisher Chris Bailey (44.42, his own personal best). In the meantime, Hall said he’ll be focusing on his four dogs, more than twenty horses and fishing before making the trip overseas.

The 2024 Paris Olympics kick off on July 26, while the track & field games start on August 1.