The women's

400 metres The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics (sport), athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor runn ...

at the

2023 World Athletics Championships The 2023 World Athletics Championships ( hu, 2023-as atlétikai világbajnokság), the nineteenth edition of the World Athletics Championships, are scheduled to be held from 19 August to 27 August 2023 in Budapest, Hungary. The city of Budapes ...

was held at the National Athletics Centre in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

from 20 to 23 August 2023. The winning margin was 0.81 seconds which as of 2024 is the only time the women's 400 metres has been won by more than 0.7 seconds at these championships.

Summary

The buildup to the event was very hectic, as world leader

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (, born August 7, 1999) is an American hurdler and sprinter who competes in the 400 meters hurdles. She is the 2020 Tokyo Olympic champion with the Games record, and 2022 World champion with a world record time of 50 ...

withdrew just a few weeks before the championships started, citing a minor knee injury. 2019 champion and #3 all-time

Salwa Eid Naser Salwa Eid Naser (née Ebelechukwu Agbapuonwu, born 23 May 1998) is a Nigerian-born Bahraini Sprint (running), sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres. She was the 2019 World Championships in Athletics, 2019 World champion with the 400 metres# ...

also withdrew, just days before the heats started. Aside from the withdrawals, some big names also failed to make it past the first round. Defending champion and #6 all-time

Shaunae Miller-Uibo Shaunae Miller-Uibo (born 15 April 1994) is a Bahamian track and field sprinter who competes in the 200 and 400 metres. She is a two-time Olympic champion after winning the women's 400 metres at the 2016 Rio Olympics and again at the 2020 Tok ...

was not back in full form, as she returned to the track just four months after giving birth to her first child. Another big name that failed to make it to the semi-final round was world number three Britton Wilson, who finished last in her opening heat. All of the semi-finalists had sub-50 credentials, six of them broke 50 in the semi-final round. That also meant they all had a sub-50 recently. In the final, Lieke Klaver was out fast, making up the stagger on

Natalia Kaczmarek Natalia Kaczmarek (born 17 January 1998) is a Polish athlete sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres. She won the silver medal in the event at the 2022 European Championships. Kaczmarek earned several global medals as part of 4 x ...

to her outside down the backstretch. After the halfway mark, returning silver medalist

Marileidy Paulino Marileidy Paulino (born 25 October 1996) is a Dominican Sport of athletics, athlete Sprint (running), sprinter specializing in the 400 metres, 400 meters. She won the silver medal at the Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics, 2020 Tokyo Olympics ...

began to make up ground on returning bronze medalist

Sada Williams Sada Williams (born 1 December 1997) is a Barbadian sprinter competing primarily in the 200 and 400 metres. She won the bronze medal in the 400 m at the 2022 World Championships, becoming the first Barbadian woman ever to win a medal at t ...

to her outside. When Paulino hit the 100 metre start line, she had a step on Klaver and two more on her next pursuers Williams,

Rhasidat Adeleke Rhasidat Adeleke ( ; born 29 August 2002) is an Irish sprinter. She won the 100 metres / 200 m double at the 2021 European Athletics Under-20 Championships. Adeleke was the first Irish woman to break the 50-second barrier in the 400 met ...

and Kaczmarek. Down the stretch, Klaver was gritting her teeth but was moving backwards relative to Kaczmarek, Adeleke and Williams, but Paulino was so far this was clearly a battle just for silver. Kaczmarek emerged as the next best, holding a step on Williams as Adeleke faded. Paulino finished 6 metres up on Kaczmarek with Williams taking a second bronze in a row. Paulino's 48.76 National Record makes her the eleventh fastest in history. Only the three medalists were able to break 50 in the final.

Records

Before the competition records were as follows:

Qualification standard

The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 51.00.

Schedule

The event schedule, in local time (UTC+2), was as follows:

Results

Heats

The first 3 athletes in each heat (Q) and the next 6 fastest (q) qualify for the semi-finals.

Semi-finals

The first 2 athletes in each heat (Q) and the next 2 fastest (q) qualify for the final.

Final

The final was held on Wednesday 23 August 2023.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2023 World Championships in Athletics - Women's 400 metres

400 __NOTOC__ Year 400 ( CD) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Stilicho and Aurelianus (or, less frequently, year 11 ...

400 metres at the World Athletics Championships 2023 in women's athletics