Former Norfolk State sprinter Chris Brown placed second in his semifinal heat of the men's 400 meters Sunday to earn a spot in Monday's final at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Brown, representing the Bahamas, ran a season-best time of 44.67 seconds. He was just edged out by defending world champion Kirani James (44.59) for the top spot in heat 2. Brown had the third-fastest time of the eight runners who qualified for Monday's final, trailing only James and Lalonde Gordon of Trinidad & Tobago (44.58 in heat 1).

This is the second straight Olympic 400m final for Brown. He finished fourth in 2008 in Beijing (44.84). He was just edged out for a medal by David Neville of the USA (44.80), whose head-first dive at the finish line dropped Brown from bronze medal position to fourth. Brown, who earned All-America honors at NSU in 2000 and 2001, did go on to anchor the silver medal-winning Bahamian 4x400 relay team.

Monday's final is slated to begin at 4:30 p.m. ET (9:30 p.m. London time).
-NSU-