PARIS — What. A. Finish. Quincy Hall laid down one of the most stunning stretch runs ever in the final of the men's 400 Wednesday night at Stade de France to take gold in 43.40, making him the fourth fastest man in history. Five men broke 44 seconds in the deepest final ever, but it was Hall who had the goods on the day. Hall's gold gave the U.S. six so far after seven days of competition, and Team USA is atop the medal table with 19. In the team point standings, American athletes have amassed 165 points, 117 ahead of second-place Great Britain. Fifth at the halfway mark, Hall was almost a half-second behind leader Matthew Hudson-Smith of Britain coming off the final turn before producing an 11.59 final 100 that left the field in his wake and gave him a .04 edge over Hudson-Smith in second. Hall ran the fastest time ever by an American at the Games, beating the 43.49 that earned Michael Johnson gold at Atlanta in 1996. The Briton moved to No. 5 on the all-time performer list with his 43.44, and Zambia's Muzala Samukonga also finished very quickly to grab bronze in a national record 43.74. Chris Bailey placed sixth in 44.58, and Michael Norman was eighth in 45.62. A crazily bold move at the bell by Kenneth Rooks in the men's 3000 steeplechase final paid off in a major way as he outkicked Kenya's Abraham Kibiwot for silver in 8:06.41 behind Morocco's Soufiane El Bakkali, who won his second straight Olympic title in 8:06.05. Rooks, the two-time U.S. champion, came into the final with a lifetime best of 8:15.08 and was likely an afterthought to many observers with the 15th best PB of the 16 entrants. 12th at 1km in 2:42.8, Rooks moved to ninth at 2km, going through in 5:30.6, within a second of the leader as the pack was tightly bunched. Fourth at the bell, Rooks pushed the gas and moved to the front into the final backstretch and used a 58-second final circuit to clock the seventh-fastest time in Olympic history and become the second fastest American ever. Just like at the World Championships in Budapest last summer, the women's pole vault came down to a duel between reigning Olympic champion Katie Moon and Australia's Nina Kennedy. The duo shared the gold in that competition, but Kennedy had the upper hand tonight as she cleared 4.90/16-0.75 on her first try to seal her victory. Moon had a clean card through the first four heights but needed two attempts to clear 4.85/15-11. She took one try at 4.90, then passed to 4.95/16-2.75, but to no avail on her final two efforts. It was the deepest quality competition in Olympic history with five women over 4.80 and four more over 4.70. Same song, second verse? The U.S. trio in the men's 200 hopes that second verse includes an upgrade to sweep status as Kenny Bednarek, Noah Lyles and Erriyon Knighton, who went 2-3-4 at the last Games, easily advanced to the final and Tokyo gold medalist Andre De Grasse of Canada fell by the wayside. Bednarek looked in complete control of the first semifinal, carefully gauging his competition on the way to a 20.00 victory. American record holder and world champion Lyles was safe in second in the next semi, running 20.08, and Knighton then powered off the bend to take the final semi in 20.09. Setting up another epic showdown in the men's 110 hurdles, all three Americans and all three Jamaicans advanced to the final, putting Tokyo champion Hansle Parchment and three-time world champion Grant Holloway on a collision course for gold. Holloway had the fastest time of the three semis, skimming the barriers in 12.98 to equal the sixth-best time in Games history, with Parchment having to sweat it out before confirmation of his status as a time qualifier after a 13.19 in third. Rasheed Broadbell of Jamaica edged Freddie Crittenden in semifinal two, 13.21-13.23, and Jamaica's Orlando Bennett got the nod over Daniel Roberts in the third semi, 13.09-13.10. Crittenden is the first athlete to make it through the repechage round into the final. Casually striding off the final barrier in the third semifinal of the men's 400 hurdles, American record holder and 2020 silver medalist Rai Benjamin won in 47.85 to set up a rematch of the three medalists from the Tokyo Olympics. Benjamin went out very quickly through the first five hurdles and put himself in position to win, going clear of the field off the bend and facing no real challenge from there. In semifinal one, world record holder and reigning champion Karsten Warholm of Norway won with a 47.67 that was the fastest of all three semis. 2020 bronze medalist Alison dos Santos of Brazil placed only third in that section, but advanced as a time qualifier with his 47.95. Trevor Bassitt took fourth in the first semi at 48.29 and did not advance, while CJ Allen made a good early run in the second semi but fell short with a fourth-place 48.44. Masai Russell finished in a dead heat with Nadine Visser of the Netherlands in heat three in 12.53 to lead three Americans into the semifinal of the women's 100 hurdles. Russell and Visser crossed the line together, and their times matched to the thousandth with both clocking 12.528. Alaysha Johnson got things under way for the U.S. contingent with a runner-up 12.61 in heat one, and Grace Stark's 12.72 for third in heat five capped off a successful outing. Looking more like rookie drivers on the third turn at Indy on a wet track, the heats of the men's 5000 were noteworthy for their very pedestrian pace and ensuing carnage. In the early stages of heat one, elbows were thrown and several runners went down in a pileup, but Graham Blanks managed to avoid the carnage and safely claimed a spot in the final with a 14:09.06 in sixth. Four of the men who fell were later advanced to the final on appeal. Reigning world champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway won heat two in 13:51.59, but not without some drama as a careless cameraman strolled right through the pack of runners on the turn with a couple laps remaining. Fortunately, nobody fell victim to that intrusion, and 10,000 bronze medalist Grant Fisher nabbed his place in the final with a 13:52.44 in fourth. Abdihamid Nur got tangled up coming into the final straight and went down, getting up to finish in 14:15.00 and missing out on the final. Two of three U.S. runners made it through the men's 800 heats, led by Trials champion Bryce Hoppel, who was second in heat six at 1:45.24. Less than 18 hours after finishing fifth in a historic 1500 final, Hobbs Kessler gritted it out on tired legs to garner a spot in the semifinal with a 1:46.15 for third in heat four. The repechage round and redemption awaits Brandon Miller after his 1:46.34 was good for only eighth in heat three, necessitating an extra run to make the semifinal. A strong stretch run in the second women's 400 semifinal produced a berth in the final for Alexis Holmes, who ran 50.00 to take one of the two auto qualifying spots in her section. Coming back from the repechage round, Trials champion Kendall Ellis placed fourth in the third semi in 50.40, but that wasn't enough to get one of two time qualifier spots, and Aaliyah Butler took sixth in the first semi in 51.18. Bahrain's Salwa Eid Naser romped to the fastest semifinal time in Games history in section one, going 49.08 to lead six women under 50 seconds overall. Trials champion Shelby McEwen was the top qualifier in the men's high jump, needing only three jumps to make it through to the final. McEwen cleared 2.15/7-0.5 and then passed to 2.24/7-4.25, where he cleared easily on his first attempt. At 2.27/7-5.25 he was the only man to go over on the first try in Group A, sealing his berth in the final. JuVaughn Harrison made 2.20/7-2.5 and Vernon Turner's best was 2.15/7-0.5, but neither advanced to the final. NCAA champion and Olympic Trials winner Salif Mane showed no signs of nerves in his first international championship appearance, bounding 17.16/56-3.75 on his first attempt in the men's triple jump to surpass the automatic qualifying mark and advance to the final with the third best mark of the day. He will be the only U.S. athlete in that final, with Donald Scott (16.77/55-0.25 in 14th) and Russell Robinson (16.47/54-0.5 in 22nd) missing out after placing outside the top 12. Maggie Malone Hardin had a best of 58.76/192-9 on her first attempt and did not qualify for the final in the women's javelin.