Kirani James: Is Father Time Catching Up After World Athletics Championship Shock?

If heartbreak had a finish line, Kirani James finished it on Tuesday night in the 400m semi-finals at the 2025 World Athletics Championships.

The Grenadian legend, whose last name has been inscribed in triumph on the one-lap event for more than ten years, clocked 44.97 to finish eighth in his heat, a performance that left him outside the qualification time for the final.

It was a new scenario: James, whose career has been highlighted by medal-winning performances, bowing before a last race.

The moment carried a sense of finality. Here was a man who, at just 18, had stormed to world championship gold in Daegu in 2011 and, a year later, became Grenada’s first Olympic medallist — and champion — at London 2012. That victory, achieved in a blazing 43.94, made him the first non-American to break the 44-second barrier and sparked national celebrations back home.

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Now, at 33, James looked every bit the veteran, gritting it out in the final straight as younger legs came surging through.

This latest feat comes after a legendary career that has seen James win medals at three consecutive Olympic Games, gold at London 2012, silver at Rio 2016, and bronze at Tokyo 2020, to become the first man in history to have won the full set of Olympic 400m medals.

Along the way, he also claimed Commonwealth gold, two Diamond League titles, and a reputation as one of the smoothest runners to have ever stepped onto the track.

For Grenada, James has been so much more than an athlete. His success put the small Caribbean nation firmly into the global sporting psyche.

After his London win, he was lavished like royalty: government bonds were named after him, a stadium was renamed in his honor, and he was made a tourism ambassador.

In 2025, the accolades continued — he was knighted and granted an honorary doctorate by the University of the West Indies, a testament to his enduring legacy in Caribbean sport and culture.

But time waits for no one, not even champions. In a heat that was dominated by Bayapo Ndori from Botswana and Japan's Yuki Joseph Nakajima, James' start was good, but his characteristic finish burst never quite came. He crossed just fractions of a second after Jamaica's Delano Kennedy, but those hundredths of a second spelled elimination.

James' career has been the more phenomenal for its consistency and poise in the face of adversity. From the time he set world bests at 14 and 15 as a teenager, to the 200m/400m double at the 2009 IAAF Youth Championships and basking in the spotlight of the NCAA circuit with Alabama, his rise was nothing short of meteoric.

His 2011 world gold was Grenada's first ever World Championship medal, and he went on to become the face of the 400m over a span which also featured greats of the event like LaShawn Merritt and Wayde van Niekerk.

Even when he faced adversity, including a seventh-place finish at the 2013 World Championships and health problems toward the latter stages of his career, James always seemed to find a way to get back onto the podium. His 43.74 run in Lausanne in 2014 still stands as the Grenadian national record and the sixth-fastest time in history.

For fans, the question now is whether this semifinal elimination signals the end of James' competitive career.

He has little more to prove at age 33 — a world championship, three Olympic medals, and national records that may stand for years. James, though, has often spoken of competing for love of the sport, not medals. With the 2026 Commonwealth Games on the horizon, there is still hope that we might see him turn one last lap on the international stage, perhaps as a farewell to the track that made him a legend.

Whatever the future holds, Kirani James has already left his mark. His effortless stride, his subdued charm, and his unwavering determination have influenced not just Grenada, but an entire generation of athletes.

Whether it was the close of an era or simply another page, one thing is certain: the story of Kirani James will be told for generations to come.