Birmingham’s laser-focused Matthew Hudson-Smith is being backed for Olympic 400m gold tonight.
The 29-year-old cruised across the line in 44.07s in his semi-final at the Stade de France, easing up down the home straight having built up a sizable cushion over his rivals.
Hudson-Smith is doing his talking on the track so far in Paris, refusing to take part in post-race media duties as he zones in on claiming his maiden Olympic medal.
He is set for a titanic tussle with three-time medallist Kirani James, who was the fastest qualifier in a season’s best 43.78s - four-hundredths of a second off the fastest time this year, set by Hudson-Smith at the London Athletics Meet in July.
But the Birchfield Harrier is the one to beat, according to Discovery+ expert Iwan Thomas.
Thomas, an Olympic 4x400m silver medallist in 1996, even thinks Hudson-Smith could be in the shape to smash the world record.
"I honestly think this guy is going to be touching near to the world record," he said.
"He’s in such good form, if he can hold his head. He’s a different animal even compared to last year. He’s just confident and he’s the world number one for a reason.
"He’s guaranteed to win as long as he runs smart. My only fear is that it gets to his head, the occasion’s too big and he goes off too fast because he’s desperate to run quick and he blows up at the end."
James, who won gold at London 2012 and followed up with silver and bronze in Rio and Tokyo, is bidding the honour the memory of his coach, Harvey Glance, who passed away last year.
“It’s been tough. It hasn’t been easy,” he said.
“I’m just trusting the programme we’ve had for the last 12 years. Chris (Lawrence), who I’m working with now, was a graduate assistant with him (Glance) at Alabama.
“I knew the semi was going to be fireworks. I’m happy to make it to another final and grateful to be amongst these guys competing. The event this year is a hard event.”
Charlie Dobson will not join Hudson-Smith in the final after the European silver medallist finished fourth in his semi.
“I executed the race differently to previous ones,” he said.
“I had to – it’s the Olympic semi-finals, there’s no messing about here. I had to go for it. It didn’t pay off in the end but I’ll learn from it.”
Watch every moment of Olympic Games Paris 2024 live only on discovery+, the streaming home of the Olympics
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