“I'm proud of Quincy Wilson” - Vernon Norwood reveals he congratulated the youngster via text for his record-breaking 400m performance

Quincy Wilson left everyone wowed after his 44.20 in the 400m at the ATL, and Vernon Norwood was among those impressed. The 32-year-old revealed that he'd actually reached out and texted the youngster after Wilson took down his own U18 400m world record.

Competing at the London Diamond League, Norwood, who's heading to the 2024 Paris Olympics as a relay athlete, clocked a lifetime best of 44.10 to finish second. The winner of the race was Britain's Matthew Hudson-Smith, who ran a 43.74 to set a new meet and area record, as well as a personal best and world lead.

Speaking to the media after the race, Vernon Norwood addressed Quincy Wilson’s spectacular performance at the Holloway Pro Classic, saying he was proud of the 16-year-old.

“That's the luxury of being a U.S. athlete. We have so much depth, we can mix up any of those guys for the relay and stuff like that. And I'm proud of Quincy. I texted him earlier, told him ‘good job’. I woke up and I saw it so we've been in contact, so I look forward to seeing all those guys in Paris, seeing what we can do,” he told Citius Magazine.

For Norwood, the London Diamond League was a fantastic opportunity to prove that he was still one of the best sprinters in the world, despite missing out on making the individual 400m U.S. team. Speaking of his own race, the American explained that he had wanted to dip under the 44-second mark,

“It feels good. I thought I was going to dip under the 44 today. I kind of want to dip under that just to put a statement out there [that] even though I didn't make the open [U.S Olympic] team I'm still running consistent, I'm still one of the best runners in the world.”

Vernon Norwood went on to praise Hudson-Smith’s performance, saying,

“I was talking a little smack to Matt, telling him about how I'm going to mess up his day, but clearly him running 43.7, I couldn't mess up his day any better than that.”

Vernon Norwood on the ongoing Noah Lyles vs Quincy Hall controversy

In the same post-race interview, Vernon Norwood also shared his thoughts about the ongoing social media controversy between 100m and 200m World Champion Noah Lyles and 400m U.S. Champion Quincy Hall.

The controversy began when Lyles left Hall out of the discussion when he was choosing his 4x400m team for the Paris Olympics. Hall responded by challenging Lyles to a race, only adding fuel to the fire.

Joining in on the discussion, Norwood said while he wasn't too concerned about the whole thing, he did enjoy the entertainment.

“I just like the entertainment, it's good engagements, good clicks I guess but at the end of the day, it's all talk. So at the end of the day, we just going to just stay focused, stay locked in, because we’ve got some really great competitors going into Paris, so we got to be (on our) game a hundred percent.”

While Vernon Norwood missed out on making the 400m individual team for the Paris Olympics, he has been named to the relay squad heading to the Games. At the Tokyo Olympics, the 32-year-old walked away with two medals, a gold, and a bronze in the 4x400m and mixed 4x400m relays, and will be looking to add to that collection this summer.