A Seven-Year Silver Journey – Kyron McMaster Creates BVI History At The World Athletics Championship

Kyron McMaster walked on to the track in the National Athletics Centre in Budapest, Hungary.

It was a moment seven years in the making. Wednesday, August 23, the day of the much talked about final of the 400m hurdles at the World Athletics Championships.

He stood proudly in Lane 8 wearing his British Virgin Islands blue, red and white running gear. McMaster booked his spot in the final after winning his semifinal race in a time of 47.72 seconds a day before, on August 22.

“You know, crazy but the Lord’s been setting me  up for this here cause all season I’ve been getting Lane 8, all my races and  I was like “Why the hell I keep getting Lane 8,” McMaster shared, adding: “So I got really acquainted with it, I made love to it and it made love to me back.”

He did not only have to conquer the hurdles, but a field of the current best 400m hurdlers in the world – Olympic gold medalist Karsten Warholm of Norway, defending champion Brazilian Alison Dos Santos and American Rai Benjamin.

“The focus was there. I didn’t study the field, I just studied my race.,” McMaster explained when asked about his thoughts before the race.

And then the start gun was fired around 3:45 p.m. local time and McMaster, a two-time Commonwealth Gold medalist, was even closer to one of his dreams – medalling at the World Championships.

“Well, this year we did something different. I stopped focusing on the fields. I stopped focusing on what everybody is doing.”

The British Virgin Islander clocked 47.34 seconds, behind Warholm’s 46.89 seconds, who added the World Championships crown to his Olympic title, while American Benjamin was third in 47.56 seconds. Defending champion  dos Santos came in fifth in 48.10 seconds,

“I actually didn’t know I came second until I passed the finish line,” McMaster said during his post-race interview.

“My objective was focused on executing my race and come through the line. After I came through the line, I look up (at) the scoreboard… then I saw my name and was like holy shit. I got a silver. Atta boy,” he smiled.

He did not beat his personal best and seasonal best of 47.08 and 47.26, in that order. But the 26-year-old won the territory’s first silver medal at the World Athletics Championships on his mother’s birthday.

It was indeed a family celebration.

“It is amazing. Is my first world medal, I’ve been chasing this since 2017. So it’s a relief that after seven years I got my medal.”

To the athletes putting in the work to shine on the global stage, McMaster urged them to “don’t give up. Keep going.”