The 400 metres at the

World Championships in Athletics The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations). Alongside the Ol ...

has been contested by both men and women since the inaugural edition in 1983. It is the second most prestigious title in the discipline after the

400 metres at the Olympics The 400 metres at the Summer Olympics has been contested since the first edition of the multi-sport event. The men's 400 m has been present on the Athletics at the Summer Olympics, Olympic athletics programme since 1896 Summer Olympics, 1896 b ...

. The competition format typically has two or three qualifying rounds leading to a final between eight athletes. The championship records for the event are 43.18 seconds for men, set by Michael Johnson in 1999, and 47.99 seconds for women, set by Jarmila Kratochvílová in 1983. The men's world record has been broken at the competition on one occasion and Johnson's championship record remains the world record as of 2015. The current women's championship record stood as the women's world record for two years and remains the only time that feat has been accomplished at the championships. Michael Johnson is the most successful athlete of the World Championships 400 m, having won four straight titles from 1993 to 1999. He is the only sprint athlete to have won that many individual titles in an event. The second most successful is

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 ...

– a two-time champion and the only other athlete to have won four medals. The most successful women are Marie-José Pérec,

Cathy Freeman Catherine Astrid Salome Freeman (born 16 February 1973) is an Aboriginal Australian former sprinter, who specialised in the 400 metres event. Her personal best of 48.63 seconds currently ranks her as the ninth-fastest woman of all time, set ...

and Christine Ohuruogu, all of whom have won two world titles.

Jeremy Wariner Jeremy Matthew Wariner (born January 31, 1984) is a retired American track athlete specializing in the 400 meters. He has won four Olympic medals (three gold, one silver) and six World Championships medals. He is the fourth fastest competitor in ...

is the only other person to have won two titles, and also has three medals to his name. The United States is comfortably the most successful nation in the discipline – American men have topped the podium ten times and taken 23 medals in total. American women also top the table with two golds among seven medals. Jamaica is the only other nation to have won more than one medal in the men's race, and has won eleven medals in total across the sexes. Great Britain has had two winners and two runners-up. Australia, France and Bahamas are the only other nations to have won multiple gold medals. Jerome Young is the only athlete to be stripped of a medal in the event, as he lost his 2003 gold medal due to a doping ban.

Age records

* All information from

World Athletics World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body fo ...

Doping

Antonio Pettigrew Antonio Pettigrew (November 3, 1967 – August 10, 2010) was an American sprinter who specialized in the 400 meters. Early life and career Pettigrew was born in Macon, Georgia. While attending St. Augustine's College in Raleigh, North Ca ...

, the 1991 champion, was the first have his results annulled due to doping, although this ban affected his finalist placings from 1997 to 2001 only. His fellow American Jerome Young became the first and thus far only 400 m athlete to be stripped of their world title. His ban covered his 2003 win, a 2001 semi-finalist placing, and a fourth-place finish in 1999. Natalya Sologub of Belarus became the first female 400 m runner to be disqualified from the championships, having originally been a 2001 semi-finalist. The 2003 sixth-place finish of

Calvin Harrison Calvin Harrison (born January 20, 1974) is an American athlete. He won a gold medal in the men's 4 × 400 metres relay at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. He is the identical twin brother of fellow Olympic medalist Alvin Harrison. ...

was annulled for doping, as weer the semi-finalist runs of Amaka Ogoegbunam in 2009 and Antonina Yefremova in 2011.

Age records

Doping

Medalists

Men

Multiple medalists

Women

Multiple medalists

Championship record progression

Men

Women

Finishing times

Top ten fastest World Championship times

References

Bibliography

External links