After a grueling process of three races in three days, Errol Nolan placed third in the 400-meter finals at the IAAF World Junior Championships. He finished as the top American in the race.
Being positioned in lane eight Nolan faced an uphill battle and had a lot of ground to make up just to make third.
“I saw Kirani at like 230 (meters), then next thing you know there’s somebody else in the inside lane coming out to. Since I was in lane eight and they were in the inside they had a big lead on me,” Nolan said in an interview with flotrack.org
“I tried to catch up. I caught up a little bit. I saw people in the back corner of my eye, I didn’t want to go home empty-handed, so I got me a medal.”
Despite a third place finish, Nolan ran faster each day. In the final he ran a time of 46.36 seconds. In the semifinals Wednesday Nolan ran a 46.47 second split, in the prelims the day before his result was a 46.67 second time. Kirani James of Grenada won the race with a 45.89 second finish. Marcell Deák Nagy of Hungary earned the silver medal with a 46.09 second split.
Runners from Germany, the Dominican Republic, Canada and Botswana were also represented in the race.
But Nolan has another chance to win a gold medal, he will be featured in the 4×400-meter relay Sunday.