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Men's 400 metres
at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
Men's 400 metres; at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
	Olympic Athletics
Venue	Athens Olympic Stadium
Dates	20–23 August
Competitors	62 from 48 nations
Winning time	44.00
Medalists
	← 2000 2008 →

The men's 400 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program were held at the Athens Olympic Stadium from August 20 to 23.^[1] Sixty-two athletes from 48 nations competed.^[2] The event was won by Jeremy Wariner of the United States, the sixth in what would ultimately be 7 consecutive American victories stretching from 1984 to 2008 and the 18th overall title in the event by the United States. The United States swept the podium for the 4th time in the event (1904, 1968, 1988).

Summary

The first round had split a full roster of runners into eight heats with the first two gaining a direct qualification and then the next eight fastest across all heats advancing to the semifinals. The top two runners in each of the three semifinal heats moved on directly to the final, and they were immediately joined by the next two fastest from any of the semifinals.

At the start, Otis Harris, Jeremy Wariner, and Derrick Brew stormed out from the blocks to take a powerful lead over the rest of the field. Harris commanded the top position for the Americans throughout the race, but in the final turn he was chased down by Wariner. Slightly behind coming off the turn, Wariner stormed ahead over the last hundred metres to win the race at 44.00 seconds, the fastest time ever recorded in this event since American legend Michael Johnson won the gold in Sydney 2000. Harris held on to take the silver with Brew separating from the pack over the final straight to give the United States a sweep of the medal podium for the third time in the event's Olympic history, having previously managed at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and the 1988 Seoul Olympics.^[3]

At the end of the final, seven sprinters managed to finish the race under 45 seconds, and five personal bests were recorded.

Background

This was the 25th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. None of the finalists from 2000 returned; the only medalist from the 2003 world championships to compete was bronze winner Michael Blackwood of Jamaica. The American team of Jeremy Wariner, Otis Harris, and Derrick Brew was strong, even without two-time defending champion Michael Johnson, who had retired. Their top competition was Alleyne Francique of Grenada, the Central American and Caribbean champion and indoor champion.^[2]

Dominica, Guinea-Bissau, Slovenia, and Uruguay appeared in this event for the first time. The United States made its 24th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Qualification

The qualification period for athletics was 1 January 2003 to 9 August 2004. For the men's 400 metres, each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had run the race in 45.55 seconds or faster during the qualification period. If an NOC had no athletes that qualified under that standard, one athlete that had run the race in 45.95 seconds or faster could be entered.

Competition format

In the first significant change in format since 1964, the competition was reduced from four rounds to three; it was the first time since 1912 that only three rounds were held. The "fastest loser" system, introduced in 1964, was used for the first round and semifinals (the first time it was used for semifinals, as the shift from four rounds to three meant that there were three semifinals instead of two). There were 8 first-round heats, each with 7 or 8 runners (before a withdrawal reduced one heat to 6). The top two runners in each heat advanced, along with the next eight fastest overall. The 24 semifinalists were divided into 3 heats of 8 runners each. The top two runners in each semifinal heat and the next two fastest overall advanced, making an eight-man final.^[4]^[2]

Records

These were the standing world record, Olympic record, and world leading time (in seconds) prior to the 2004 Summer Olympics.

World record	Michael Johnson (USA)	43.18 s	Seville, Spain	26 August 1999
Olympic record	Michael Johnson (USA)	43.49 s	Atlanta, United States	5 August 1992
World Leading	Jeremy Wariner (USA)	44.37 s	Sacramento, United States	15 July 2004

No world or Olympic records were set in this event.

The following national records were established during the competition:

Nation	Athlete	Round	Time
India	K. M. Binu	Heat 5	45.48

Schedule

Since 1984, all rounds have been held on separate days.

All times are Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3)

Date	Time	Round
Friday, 20 August 2004	21:10	Round 1
Saturday, 21 August 2004	21:15	Semifinals
Monday, 23 August 2004	21:05	Final

Results

Round 1

Qualification rule: The top two finishers in each heat (Q) plus the next eight fastest overall runners (q) advanced to the semifinals.^[5]

Heat 1

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	2	Alleyne Francique	Grenada	45.32	Q
2	5	Davian Clarke	Jamaica	45.54	Q
3	4	Marcus La Grange	South Africa	45.95
4	3	Piotr Klimczak	Poland	46.23
5	6	Jun Osakada	Japan	46.39
6	7	Lloyd Zvasiya	Zimbabwe	47.19
7	1	David Canal	Spain	47.23
8	8	Danilson Ricciuli	Guinea-Bissau	49.27

Heat 2

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	1	Chris Brown	Bahamas	45.09	Q, SB
2	6	Otis Harris	United States	45.11	Q
3	5	Eric Milazar	Mauritius	45.34	q
4	8	Casey Vincent	Australia	46.09
5	2	Vincent Mumo Kiilu	Kenya	46.31
6	7	Andrés Silva	Uruguay	46.48
7	4	Stilianos Dimotsios	Greece	46.51	SB
8	3	Abdulla Mohamed Hussein	Somalia	51.52

Heat 3

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	4	Anton Galkin	Russia	45.43	Q
2	2	Yeimer López	Cuba	45.44	Q
3	1	Alejandro Cárdenas	Mexico	45.46	q
4	5	Gary Kikaya	Democratic Republic of the Congo	45.57	q
5	3	Ato Modibo	Trinidad and Tobago	46.29
6	7	Mitsuhiro Sato	Japan	46.70
7	8	Takeshi Fujiwara	El Salvador	48.46
8	6	Youba Hmeida	Mauritania	49.18

Heat 4

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	6	Derrick Brew	United States	45.41	Q
2	2	Brandon Simpson	Jamaica	45.61	Q
3	7	Sofiane Labidi	Tunisia	46.04
4	5	Daniel Caines	Great Britain	46.15
5	4	Rohan Pradeep Kumara	Sri Lanka	46.20
6	3	Evans Marie	Seychelles	48.23	PB
—	8	Lezin Ngoyikonda	Republic of the Congo	DNS

Heat 5

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	8	Carlos Santa	Dominican Republic	45.31	Q
2	5	Lewis Banda	Zimbabwe	45.37	Q
3	3	K. Mathews Binu	India	45.48	q, NR
4	6	Cédric van Branteghem	Belgium	45.70	q
5	1	California Molefe	Botswana	45.88
6	2	Chris Lloyd	Dominica	47.98
7	4	Fawzi Al-Shammari	Kuwait	48.25
8	7	Saeed Al-Adhreai	Yemen	49.39

Heat 6

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	8	Jeremy Wariner	United States	45.56	Q
2	5	Ingo Schultz	Germany	45.88	Q
3	1	Young Talkmore Nyongani	Zimbabwe	46.03
4	4	Zsolt Szeglet	Hungary	46.16
5	6	Malachi Davis	Great Britain	46.28
6	7	Oleg Mishukov	Russia	46.41
7	3	Dadi Denis	Haiti	47.57
—	2	Victor Kibet	Kenya	DNF

Heat 7

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	8	Michael Blackwood	Jamaica	45.23	Q
2	7	Hamdan Al-Bishi	Saudi Arabia	45.31	Q
3	6	Saul Weigopwa	Nigeria	45.59	q
4	5	Matija Šestak	Slovenia	45.88	q
5	3	Yuki Yamaguchi	Japan	46.16
6	1	Nagmeldin Ali Abubakr	Sudan	46.32
7	2	Muhammad Sajid Ahmad	Pakistan	47.45	SB
8	4	Moses Kamut	Vanuatu	48.14	SB

Heat 8

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	4	Leslie Djhone	France	45.40	Q
2	2	Ezra Sambu	Kenya	45.59	Q
3	3	Timothy Benjamin	Great Britain	45.69	q
4	5	Clinton Hill	Australia	45.89
5	6	Adem Hecini	Algeria	46.50
6	7	Luis Luna	Venezuela	47.92
7	1	Jonnie Lowe	Honduras	48.06
8	8	Anderson Jorge dos Santos	Brazil	48.77

Semifinals

Qualification rule: The top two finishers in each heat (Q) plus the next two fastest overall runners (q) advanced to the final.^[6]

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	3	Jeremy Wariner	United States	44.87	Q
2	5	Michael Blackwood	Jamaica	45.00	Q
3	6	Leslie Djhone	France	45.01	q
4	4	Lewis Banda	Zimbabwe	45.23
5	2	Eric Milazar	Mauritius	45.23
6	8	Gary Kikaya	Democratic Republic of the Congo	45.58
7	1	Ezra Sambu	Kenya	45.84
8	7	Cédric van Branteghem	Belgium	46.03

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	4	Derrick Brew	United States	45.05	Q
2	8	Davian Clarke	Jamaica	45.27	Q
3	5	Chris Brown	Bahamas	45.31
4	6	Yeimer López	Cuba	45.52
5	7	Alejandro Cárdenas	Mexico	45.64
6	2	K. Mathews Binu	India	45.97
7	1	Matija Šestak	Slovenia	46.54
—	3	Anton Galkin	Russia	~~45.34~~	DSQ^[7]

Semifinal 3

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	8	Brandon Simpson	Jamaica	44.97	Q
2	5	Otis Harris	United States	44.99	Q
3	6	Alleyne Francique	Grenada	45.08	q
4	4	Carlos Santa	Dominican Republic	45.58
5	3	Hamdan Al-Bishi	Saudi Arabia	45.59
6	2	Saul Weigopwa	Nigeria	45.67
7	1	Ingo Schultz	Germany	46.23
8	7	Timothy Benjamin	Great Britain	46.28

Final

^[8]

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
	4	Jeremy Wariner	United States	44.00	PB
	5	Otis Harris	United States	44.16	PB
	3	Derrick Brew	United States	44.42	SB
4	8	Alleyne Francique	Grenada	44.66
5	6	Brandon Simpson	Jamaica	44.76	PB
6	7	Davian Clarke	Jamaica	44.83	PB
7	2	Leslie Djhone	France	44.94
8	1	Michael Blackwood	Jamaica	45.55