2015 World Championships in Athletics – Men's 400 metres

Men's 400 metres
at the 2015 World Championships
Men's 400 metres ; at the 2015 World Championships
	Wayde van Niekerk fourth fastest in history
Venue	Beijing National Stadium
Dates	23 August (heats); 24 August (semifinals); 26 August (final)
Competitors	44 from 27 nations
Winning time	43.48
Medalists
	← 2013 2017 →

The men's 400 metres at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Beijing National Stadium on 23, 24 and 26 August.^[1]^[2] The winning margin was 0.17 seconds.

Summary

Since 2008, all of the major gold medals had been won by either reigning Olympic champion Kirani James or defending champion LaShawn Merritt. In the final, both were out ahead, along with Wayde van Niekerk and Isaac Makwala, Africans with none of those credentials. Through the final turn, van Niekerk took sole possession of the lead, Makwala passed James to hit the home stretch with a slight advantage in second. Far off the pace was Luguelín Santos. Down the home stretch, Makwala was unable to hold his position and was passed by a burst from James. James was unable to hold that burst, Merritt cruised past James but was unable to make any headway on van Niekerk's lead.^[3] Merritt made a desperate lean that actually cost him time but was well beaten, Santos followed Merritt down the home stretch to take fourth beating the National Record he set in the semi-final round.^[4] van Niekerk's 43.48 improved upon his own African Record, putting him at number 4 on the all-time list. For the first time in history, three men broke 44 seconds. Merritt set the fastest non-winning time of all time at 43.65 seconds. In fact, places 2, 3 and 4 were all the fastest ever in that position.^[5]

Records

Prior to the competition, the records were as follows:^[6]

The following records were established during the competition:
World record	Michael Johnson (USA)	43.18	Sevilla, Spain	26 August 1999
Championship record	Michael Johnson (USA)	43.18	Sevilla, Spain	26 August 1999
World Leading	Isaac Makwala (BOT)	43.72	La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland	5 July 2015
African Record	Isaac Makwala (BOT)	43.72	La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland	5 July 2015
Asian Record	Abdelalelah Haroun (QAT)	44.27	La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland	5 July 2015
NACAC record	Michael Johnson (USA)	43.18	Seville, Spain	26 August 1999
South American Record	Sanderlei Parrela (BRA)	44.29	Seville, Spain	26 August 1999
European Record	Thomas Schönlebe (GDR)	44.33	Rome, Italy	3 September 1987
Oceanian record	Darren Clark (AUS)	44.38	Seoul, South Korea	26 September 1988
Asian Record	Yousef Masrahi (KSA)	43.93	Beijing, China	23 August 2015
World Leading	Wayde van Niekerk (RSA)	43.48	Beijing, China	26 August 2015
African Record	Wayde van Niekerk (RSA)	43.48	Beijing, China	26 August 2015

Qualification standards

Entry standards^[7]
45.50

Schedule

Date	Time	Round
23 August 2015	11:10	Heats
24 August 2015	20:05	Semifinals
26 August 2015	21:25	Final

All times are local times (UTC+8)

Results

KEY:	Q	Qualified	q	Fastest non-qualifiers	NR	National record	PB	Personal best	SB	Seasonal best

Heats

Qualification: Best 3 (Q) and next 6 fastest (q) qualify for the next round.^[8]

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	2	Yousef Masrahi	Saudi Arabia (KSA)	43.93	Q, AR
2	2	Rusheen McDonald	Jamaica (JAM)	43.93	Q, NR
3	2	Isaac Makwala	Botswana (BOT)	44.19	Q
4	6	Wayde van Niekerk	South Africa (RSA)	44.42	Q
5	1	David Verburg	United States (USA)	44.43	Q
6	2	Martyn Rooney	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	44.45	q, PB
7	3	LaShawn Merritt	United States (USA)	44.51	Q
8	1	Machel Cedenio	Trinidad and Tobago (TTO)	44.54	Q
8	6	Renny Quow	Trinidad and Tobago (TTO)	44.54	Q, SB
10	4	Kirani James	Grenada (GRN)	44.56	Q
11	4	Luguelín Santos	Dominican Republic (DOM)	44.62	Q
12	6	Bryshon Nellum	United States (USA)	44.65	Q, PB
13	1	Jonathan Borlée	Belgium (BEL)	44.67	Q, SB
14	6	Chris Brown	Bahamas (BAH)	44.68	q
15	1	Peter Matthews	Jamaica (JAM)	44.69	q, PB
16	2	Liemarvin Bonevacia	Netherlands (NED)	44.72	q, NR
17	3	Javon Francis	Jamaica (JAM)	44.83	Q
18	4	Lalonde Gordon	Trinidad and Tobago (TTO)	44.97	Q
19	3	Kevin Borlée	Belgium (BEL)	45.01	Q, SB
20	3	Michael Mathieu	Bahamas (BAH)	45.07	q
21	3	Nery Brenes	Costa Rica (CRC)	45.08	q
22	2	Pavel Maslák	Czech Republic (CZE)	45.16
23	4	Onkabetse Nkobolo	Botswana (BOT)	45.17	PB
24	5	Rabah Yousif	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	45.24	Q
25	1	Pavel Ivashko	Russia (RUS)	45.25	PB
25	6	Winston George	Guyana (GUY)	45.25	NR
27	5	Steven Gardiner	Bahamas (BAH)	45.26	Q
28	1	Luka Janežič	Slovenia (SLO)	45.28	NR
28	1	Alberth Bravo	Venezuela (VEN)	45.28
30	4	Hederson Estefani	Brazil (BRA)	45.36	SB
31	6	Hugo de Sousa	Brazil (BRA)	45.42	SB
32	4	Jarryd Dunn	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	45.49
33	5	Vernon Norwood	United States (USA)	45.53	Q
34	5	Mame-Ibra Anne	France (FRA)	45.55
35	6	Gustavo Cuesta	Dominican Republic (DOM)	45.59
36	5	Abubakar Abbas	Bahrain (BHR)	45.64
37	3	Yuzo Kanemaru	Japan (JPN)	45.65
38	3	Aliaksandr Linnik	Belarus (BLR)	45.79
39	4	Vitaliy Butrym	Ukraine (UKR)	45.88
40	5	Alphas Kishoyian	Kenya (KEN)	46.02
41	1	Bralon Taplin	Grenada (GRN)	46.27
42	3	Guo Zhongze	China (CHN)	46.42
43	5	Mohamed Khouaja	Libya (LBA)	46.50	SB
44	5	Berend Koekemoer	South Africa (RSA)	46.52
	2	Donald Sanford	Israel (ISR)	DNS

Semifinals

Qualification: Best 2 (Q) and next 2 fastest (q) qualify for the next round.^[9]

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	2	Isaac Makwala	Botswana (BOT)	44.11	Q
2	1	Kirani James	Grenada (GRN)	44.16	Q
3	1	Luguelín Santos	Dominican Republic (DOM)	44.26	Q, NR
4	3	Wayde van Niekerk	South Africa (RSA)	44.31	Q
5	3	LaShawn Merritt	United States (USA)	44.34	Q, SB
6	2	Yousef Masrahi	Saudi Arabia (KSA)	44.40	Q
7	2	Rabah Yousif	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	44.54	q, PB
8	3	Machel Cedenio	Trinidad and Tobago (TTO)	44.64	q
9	2	Lalonde Gordon	Trinidad and Tobago (TTO)	44.70
10	1	David Verburg	United States (USA)	44.71
11	1	Kevin Borlée	Belgium (BEL)	44.74	SB
12	3	Javon Francis	Jamaica (JAM)	44.77
12	2	Bryshon Nellum	United States (USA)	44.77
14	3	Jonathan Borlée	Belgium (BEL)	44.85
15	2	Rusheen McDonald	Jamaica (JAM)	44.86
16	1	Renny Quow	Trinidad and Tobago (TTO)	44.98
16	2	Steven Gardiner	Bahamas (BAH)	44.98
18	1	Vernon Norwood	United States (USA)	45.07
18	1	Chris Brown	Bahamas (BAH)	45.07
20	3	Martyn Rooney	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	45.29
21	2	Nery Brenes	Costa Rica (CRC)	45.41
22	1	Peter Matthews	Jamaica (JAM)	45.42
23	3	Michael Mathieu	Bahamas (BAH)	45.43
24	3	Liemarvin Bonevacia	Netherlands (NED)	45.65

Final

The final was held at 21:25.^[10]

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	6	Wayde van Niekerk	South Africa (RSA)	43.48	WL, AR
	8	LaShawn Merritt	United States (USA)	43.65	PB
	5	Kirani James	Grenada (GRN)	43.78	SB
4	7	Luguelín Santos	Dominican Republic (DOM)	44.11	NR
5	4	Isaac Makwala	Botswana (BOT)	44.63
6	3	Rabah Yousif	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	44.68
7	2	Machel Cedenio	Trinidad and Tobago (TTO)	45.06
8	9	Yousef Masrahi	Saudi Arabia (KSA)	45.15