Boniface Mucheru, the Africa champion, went to the starting line with a promise to deliver Kenya's maiden Olympics 400m men's hurdles gold medal.

He could not manage it. Despite this, even the most hardened soul stood up when he settled for silver – losing the gold to America's Kerron Clement by the thickness of his vest.

Mr Mucheru set a new national of 47.78 while Clement clinched gold in 47.7, which was his season best mark.

He erased world 400m hurdles champion Nicholas Bett's national record of 47.79 set at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing last year.

"I will never forget the national record I set today," said Mucheru.

"If you realised, I made a mistake on the second last hurdle and that is where he (Clement) caught up with me. Otherwise I was sure I was going to win the gold."

"In 400m hurdles, if you are left behind by two or more steps, it becomes difficult to catch up and that is why I missed that gold medal that I wanted so much to win."

Clement was slightly ahead of Mucheru at the final hurdle and Mucheru steadily closed in on the two-time world champion.

Mucheru has atoned for missing out on a medal at the 2015 IAAF World Championships in Beijing despite reaching the finals in sublime form. But Bett pulled a surprise by bagging the world title while competing in the outside lane.

It was almost the same script yesterday. With the absence of Bett in the finals, his older brother Haron Koech took lane eight in the final.

But Koech's bid to emulate his sibling's record went up in smoke as he finished in seventh place and left Mucheru to face the daunting task.

Lining up in lane seven, Mucheru went to the final carrying a slower time in the semi-final.

"I was not really concerned about the lane I was running in and decided to concentrate on the race, not anything else," he said.

Just like in Beijing, Kenya paraded two athletes in the 400m hurdles final while sprints bigwigs USA had one.

Javier Culson of Puerto Rico stood as one of the favourites but Mucheru, who ran a more tactical race than in the semis, was too fast for him.