1986 European Athletics Indoor Championships
Track events
60 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m	men	women
1500 m	men	women
3000 m	men	women
60 m hurdles	men	women
Field events
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men
Shot put	men	women
v t e

The men's 400 metres event at the 1986 European Athletics Indoor Championships was held on 22 and 23 February.^[1]

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Thomas Schönlebe  East Germany	José Alonso  Spain	Mathias Schersing  East Germany

The winner of each heat (Q) and the next 3 fastest (q) qualified for the semifinals.

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Arjen Visserman	Netherlands	47.43	Q
2	1	Thomas Schönlebe	East Germany	47.59	Q
3	4	Ismail Mačev	Yugoslavia	47.62	q
4	1	Steve Heard	Great Britain	47.64	q
5	2	Mathias Schersing	East Germany	47.92	Q
6	3	José Alonso	Spain	47.95	Q
7	4	Klaus Just	West Germany	48.02	q
8	2	Brian Whittle	Great Britain	48.04
9	1	Momchil Kharizanov	Bulgaria	48.06
10	3	Thomas Futterknecht	Austria	48.07
11	2	Ángel Heras	Spain	48.22
12	3	Vladimir Krylov	Soviet Union	48.35
13	5	Andreas Rapek	Austria	48.75	Q
14	5	Jürgen Koffler	West Germany	48.83
15	5	Timo Kiviniemi	Finland	49.21
16	2	Jindrich Roun	Czechoslovakia	49.58
	4	Dimitar Rangelov	Bulgaria	DNS

First 2 from each semifinal qualified directly (Q) for the final.

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	2	Thomas Schönlebe	East Germany	47.62	Q
2	1	Mathias Schersing	East Germany	47.75	Q
2	2	José Alonso	Spain	47.75	Q
4	2	Ismail Mačev	Yugoslavia	47.78
5	1	Arjen Visserman	Netherlands	47.79
6	1	Steve Heard	Great Britain	47.81
7	1	Andreas Rapek	Austria	49.29
	2	Klaus Just	West Germany	DNS

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	3	Thomas Schönlebe	East Germany	46.97
	4	José Alonso	Spain	47.12
	2	Mathias Schersing	East Germany	47.59
4	1	Arjen Visserman	Netherlands	47.69