26-year-old Mason Finley earned Team USA's first medal of the 2017 IAAF World Championships with a bronze performance in the discus on Saturday. London marks his first appearance at a world championships and his second international final; he was 11th in the Rio Olympic Games. He was ranked just sixth after the qualifying round.

Finley opened the competition with a personal best of 67.07m and extended that best to 68.03m on his second throw. That mark would stand as his top performance through the competition and was enough to earn the bronze medal behind Andrius Gudzius of Lithuania, who threw 69.21m for gold, and Daniel Stahl of Sweden, who threw 69.19m for silver.

MEDAL ALERT!!!! 1st medal for #TeamUSATF at #IAAFWorlds is for Mason Finley!!!!

1st #USATF medalist since 1999, 3rd medalist ever! pic.twitter.com/hoN08uJHoM

— USATF (@usatf) August 5, 2017

Finley is the third American man in history to medal in the discus and the first since Anthony Washington won gold in 1999. His performance was the best of his entire career despite competing with a borrowed implement, after a competitor borrowed and subsequently broke his personal disc in the qualifying round.

“I have those throws in practice, so I’ve known I can do it for a while. It’s a mixture of things. I’ve got a really great connection with my coach," he said to USATF. "I’m learning to trust the movements. The stadium was just nuts tonight. People were actually cheering for the discus. It was crazy. (On how it feels to beat some great throwers) Especially when you’re talking about (Piotr) Malachowski (of Poland, 4th place) and (Robert) Harting (of Germany, fifth), it’s crazy to me. I’ve watched them on YouTube. These guys are my heroes, (I’ve been) watching their technique and trying to mimic them all the way through high school and college.”