The men'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

2015 World Championships in Athletics The 2015 IAAF World Championships ( zh, 第十五届世界田径锦标赛), the fifteenth edition of the IAAF World Championships, were held from 22 to 30 August at the National Stadium in Beijing, China. Forty-three nations won medals, 144 of ...

was held at the

Beijing National Stadium The National Stadium (), also known as the Bird's Nest (), is an 80,000-capacity stadium in Beijing. The stadium was jointly designed by architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron from Basel-based architecture team Herzog & de Meuron, p ...

on 23, 24 and 26 August.

Summary

Since 2008, all of the major gold medals had been won by either reigning Olympic champion

Kirani James Kirani James (born 1 September 1992) is a Grenadian professional sprinter who specializes in the 200 and 400 metres. He won the 400 m at the World Championships in 2011 and the 2012 London Olympics. In the 400 metres James also won the sil ...

or defending champion

LaShawn Merritt LaShawn Merritt (born June 27, 1986) is an American track and field athlete who competes in sprinting events, specializing in the 400 metres. He is a former Olympic champion over the distance and his personal best of 43.65 seconds makes him th ...

. In the final, both were out ahead, along with

Wayde van Niekerk Wayde van Niekerk (South African English: , ; born 15 July 1992) is a South African track and field sprinter who competes in the 200 and 400 metres. In the 400 metres, he is the current world and Olympic record holder, having set the reco ...

and

Isaac Makwala Isaac Makwala (born 24 September 1985) is a Botswana sprinter who specializes in the 400 metres. Career He was the gold medallist at the Commonwealth Games in 2018. He has also won continental titles at the distance, winning at the 2015 A ...

, 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 Luguelín Miguel Santos Aquino (born 12 November 1992) is a Dominican sprinter, who specialises in the 400 m. He was the silver medallist in the event at the 2012 London Olympics at the age of eighteen. His personal best is 44.11 seconds. Sa ...

. 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. 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. 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.

Records

Prior to the competition, the records were as follows:

Qualification standards

Schedule

Results

Heats

Qualification: Best 3 (Q) and next 6 fastest (q) qualify for the next round. 400m men heats Beijing 2015

Semifinals

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

Final

The final was held at 21:25.Final results
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2015 World Championships in Athletics - Men'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