Sprinter Steven Solomon Makes 400 Finals
Australian sprinter Steven Solomon qualified for the Olympic finals in the 400 meters.
Solomon, 19, finished third in his heat on Sunday in London, but his personal-best time of 44.97 was good enough to advance to Monday’s final. He was seventh among the eight qualifiers.
A day earlier Solomon, in his Olympics debut, won his heat to reach the semifinals in a time of 45.18, also a personal best. He defeated the defending Olympic champion Lashawn Merritt, who pulled up with a hamstring injury, and finished eighth fastest in the seven heats.
His previous best of 45.52 had come three weeks ago at the World Junior Championships in Barcelona. Based on the performance, Athletics Australia had selected Solomon, the captain of the junior soccer team at the 2009 Maccabiah Games, ahead of veteran John Steffensen, a black sprinter of South African descent who alleged racial discrimination. It sparked a bitter race row in which Solomon was unwittingly in the middle.
Ahead of Saturday’s race, Solomon’s father, Michael, urged caution amid the increasing hype surrounding his son.
“We need to keep things in perspective,” he told JTA via email. “Steven has been selected to run an individual 400m at the Olympic Games! This in itself is a massive achievement with only 54 runners in the world having this opportunity over the last four years. His progression to the semifinal will need a huge personal best effort.”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
![](https://forward.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image.png?_t=1722445328)
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO