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 programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor running track, it is o ...

competition at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, th ...

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, was held at the

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on 4–6 August. Forty-nine athletes from 38 nations competed. The event was won by

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 ...

of Grenada, earning the country its first Olympic medal. Luguelín Santos's silver was the Dominican Republic's first medal in the men's 400 metres.

Lalonde Gordon Lalonde Keida Gordon, HBM (born 25 November 1988) is a Tobagonian male track and field sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres. He won the bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics with a personal best of 44.52 seconds. He is the third faste ...

's bronze was Trinidad and Tobago's first medal in the event since 1964. It was only the fourth time that no American was on the podium—following 1908 (where a rules dispute led to disqualification of one of the Americans in the final and the refusal of the other two Americans to run in protest), 1920 (where the top American came in fourth with the same time as the silver and bronze medalists) and 1980 (when the United States boycotted the Games entirely). It was the first time in any Olympic event that three different Caribbean nations shared the podium.

Summary

The first round went largely to form, but 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 the ...

came to the meet injured and re-injured himself, unable to finish.

Renny Quow Renny Quow (born 25 August 1987) is a Trinidadian male track and field sprinter who specializes in the 400 metres and has made it to both the Olympic and World Finals in the event, a rare feat for athletes from the Caribbean in the 400m. He compe ...

also failed to start his heat. In the first race,

Oscar Pistorius Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius (; ; born 22 November 1986) is a South African convicted murderer and former professional sprinter. Both of his feet were amputated when he was 11 months old owing to a congenital defect; he was born missing the ...

ran a season best to qualify. In the second heat, world champion

ran easily to win. The third heat featured three national records as Jonathan Borlée took his twin brother's mark for Belgium (

Kevin Kevin () is the anglicized form of the Irish masculine given name (; mga, Caoimhghín ; sga, Cóemgein ; Latinized as ). It is composed of "dear; noble"; Old Irish and ("birth"; Old Irish ). The variant '' Kevan'' is anglicized from , a ...

also qualified in the seventh heat), Pavel Maslák set the mark for the Czech Republic and Donald Sanford set the mark for Israel. Most of the time qualifiers came from the hotly contested fourth heat, 45.61, the slowest time qualifier, though Conrad Williams got in with a 46.12 in the slow sixth heat. It took under 45 seconds to make the final as

led the qualifiers from heat 1. Heat 2 featured James and Jonathan Borlée, and double-amputee Pistorius' attempt to make the final. But Pistorius' late charge was non-existent and he finished last in the heat. After the race, in a show of sportsmanship, James and Pistorius exchanged bib numbers, which James proudly showed as he celebrated. In the third heat, shotgun survivor

Bryshon Nellum Bryshon Lorenzo Nellum (born May 1, 1989) is an American sprinter. He graduated from University of Southern California in 2012 with a degree in Public Administration and Social Service Professions and is currently a graduate student. Career A ...

ran 45.02 for the fastest non-qualifier. Aside from

Chris Brown Christopher Maurice Brown (born May 5, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. According to ''Billboard'', Brown is one of the most successful R&B singers of his generation, having often been referred to by many contempor ...

, the finals were filled by athletes under age 24, three of them still teenagers.

Demetrius Pinder Demetrius Pinder (born 13 February 1989) is a Bahamian male track and field sprint (running), sprint athlete who competes in the 400 metres. His personal best for the event is 44.77 seconds. At the 2012 London Olympics he was a 400 m finali ...

took the early lead down the back stretch, but reigning World Junior Champion Luguelin Santos (age 18) and reigning

World Champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

(age 19) were in the lead coming off the turn. Down the stretch, James powered ahead for the gold medal. It was also the first Olympic medal for his country.

came from behind but could not overtake Santos; he received a bronze. Santos' silver medal was the third medal for the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

, coming 45 minutes after Felix Sánchez won his second gold.

Background

This was the 27th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Five of the finalists from 2008 returned: gold medalist

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 the ...

of the United States, fourth-place finisher

of the Bahamas, sixth-place finisher

Martyn Rooney Martyn Joseph Rooney (born 3 April 1987) is an English sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres event. He reached the 400 m final at the 2008 Summer Olympics and won bronze in the 4×400 metres relay. A mainstay on the anchor leg of the ...

of Great Britain, seventh-place finisher

of Trinidad and Tobago, and eight-place finisher

Johan Wissman Johan Lukas Wissman (born 2 November 1982) is a Swedish athlete from Helsingborg, specializing in the 200 and 400 m. He is the current national record holder in both of these events. Wissman won the gold medal at the European Indoor Championsh ...

of Sweden. 2008 gold and 2012 silver medalist Jeremy Wariner failed to make the U.S. team. Despite the Americans' string of 7 straight victories, it was the young

of Grenada who was favored going into this event. Merritt was the strongest American, but James had beaten him at the 2011 world championships and Merritt came into the 2012 Games injured. Brunei, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Macedonia, Myanmar, and Palestine appeared in this event for the first time. There was one Independent Olympic Athlete from the former Netherlands Antilles, which had previously competed in 1976. The United States made its 26th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Qualification

National Olympic Committee A National Olympic Committee (NOC) is a national constituent of the worldwide Olympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Olympic Committee, NOCs are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the Olympic Games ...

(NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the men's 100 metres event if all athletes met the A standard, or 1 athlete if they met the B standard. The qualifying time standards could be obtained in various meets during the qualifying period that had the approval of the

IAAF 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 ...

. Indoor and outdoor meets were eligible. The A standard for the 2012 men's 400 metres was 45.30 seconds; the B standard was 45.90 seconds. The qualifying period for was from 1 May 2011 to 8 July 2012. NOCs could also have an athlete enter the 400 metres through a universality place. NOCs could enter one male athlete in an athletics event, regardless of time, if they had no male athletes meeting the qualifying A or B standards in any men's athletic event.

Competition format

The men's 400 metres competition consisted of 7 heats (Round 1), 3 semifinals and a final. The fastest competitors from each race in the heats qualified for the semifinals along with the fastest overall competitors not already qualified that were required to fill the 24 available spaces in the semifinals. A total of eight competitors qualified for the final from the semifinals.

Records

, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows. No new world or Olympic records were set during the event. The following new national records were set during the competition.

Schedule

All times are

British Summer Time During British Summer Time (BST), civil time in the United Kingdom is advanced one hour forward of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), in effect changing the time zone from UTC±00:00 to UTC+01:00, so that mornings have one hour less daylight, and ...

(

UTC+1 UTC+01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in: *Central European Time *West Africa Time *Western European Summer Time **B ...

)

Results

Round 1

Qual. rule: first 3 of each heat (Q) plus the 3 fastest times qualified.

Heat 1

'' Ahmed Mohamed Al-Merjabi was forced to scratch from this race after he injured his foot in a training session three days earlier.

Heat 2

Heat 3

Heat 4

Heat 5

Heat 6

Heat 7

Semifinals

Qual. rule: first 2 of each heat (Q) plus the 2 fastest times (q) qualified.

Semifinal 1

Semifinal 2

Semifinal 3

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics - Men's 400 metres Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics 400 metres at the Olympics Men's events at the 2012 Summer Olympics