Olympic finalist Steve Solomon has clocked his fastest 400m time in five years, setting up the thrilling prospect of a clash with South African superstar Wayde van Niekerk at the world athletics championships in London.
Racing at a Tracktown Series meet in California on Thursday (Friday AEST), the 24-year-old Solomon scorched to victory in 45.19 seconds from lane nine.
The only three times Solomon has ever run faster were at the 2012 London Olympics, where he qualified for the final after setting a personal best of 44.97 in the semis.
In the intervening years, the Australian has battled a series of back and hamstring injuries.
He was four hundredths of a second short of qualifying for the Rio Olympics.
After recently completing pre-medicine studies at Stanford University, Solomon shifted his focus to bettering the qualifying mark of 45.50 for August's world titles, a goal he has now achieved in considerable style.
The men's 400m is dominated at the elite level by Van Niekerk, the remarkable South African who smashed Michael Johnson's longstanding world record with a time of 43.03 at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Van Niekerk also clocked the fastest-ever time over 300m at a meet in the Czech Republic in late June and is set to replace Usain Bolt as the biggest name in world track and field once the great Jamaican sprinter makes his global championships' swansong in London.
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