European Athletics Championships 1969/400 m men

9th European Athletics Championships
discipline	Men's 400-meter run
city	Athens
Stadion	Karaiskakis Stadium
Attendees	24 athletes from 14 countries
Competition phase	September 16 (preliminary) September 17 (semi-finals) September 18 (final)
Medalist
gold	Jan Werner ( POL )
silver	Jean-Claude Nallet ( FRA )
bronze	Stanisław Grędziński ( POL )

The Athens Karaiskakis Stadium in 2009

The men's 400-meter race at the European Athletics Championships in 1969 was held from September 16 to 18, 1969 in the Karaiskakis Stadium in Athens .

With gold and bronze there were two medals for Poland in this competition. Jan Werner became European champion . Second place went to Frenchman Jean-Claude Nallet . Defending champion Stanisław Grędziński won bronze.

Records

Existing records

World record	43.8 s	Lee Evans	OS Mexico City , Mexico	October 18, 1968
European record	44.9 s	Carl Kaufmann	OS Rome , Italy	September 6, 1960
		Martin Jellinghaus	OS Mexico City , Mexico	17th October 1968
Championship record	45.9 s	Robbie Brightwell	EM Belgrade , Yugoslavia	September 14, 1962

Record improvement

European champion Jan Werner improved the existing EM record in the final on September 18 by two tenths of a second to 45.7 seconds.

Preliminary round

September 16, 1969, 9:00 p.m.

The preliminary round was held in four runs. The first four athletes per run - highlighted in light blue - qualified for the semi-finals.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Andrzej Badeński	Poland	46.9
2	Claudio Trachelio	Italy	47.0
3	Boris Savchuk	Soviet Union	47.3
4th	Gilles Bertould	France	47.6
5	Luciano Sušanj	Yugoslavia	48.4
6th	Georgi Boschkov	Bulgaria	48.5

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Jean-Claude Nallet	France	47.8
2	Jan Werner	Poland	47.8
3	John Robertson	Great Britain	47.8
4th	Manuel Gayoso	Spain	48.1
5	Émile Jung	Luxembourg	48.6

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Stanisław Grędziński	Poland	46.6
2	Alexandr Bratchikov	Soviet Union	46.7
3	Colin Campbell	Great Britain	46.8
4th	Sergio Bello	Italy	47.2
5	Willy Vandenwyngaerden	Belgium	47.5
6th	Richard Simonsen	Norway	47.8
7th	Haris Dimitriou	Greece	48.8

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Yuri Sorin	Soviet Union	46.5
2	Jacques Carette	France	46.7
3	Martin Winbolt-Lewis	Great Britain	46.7
4th	Ulf Nilsson	Sweden	46.9
5	Barcelo de Carvalho	Portugal	47.2
6th	Ramón Magariños	Spain	48.0

Semifinals

September 17, 1969, 6:30 p.m.

In each of the two semi-finals, the first four athletes - highlighted in light blue - qualified for the final.

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Andrzej Badeński	Poland	46.4
2	Jean-Claude Nallet	France	46.6
3	Jacques Carette	France	46.7
4th	Boris Savchuk	Soviet Union	46.7
5	Claudio Trachelio	Italy	46.9
6th	John Robertson	Great Britain	47.0
7th	Martin Winbolt-Lewis	Great Britain	47.2
8th	Yuri Sorin	Soviet Union	47.8

Ulf Nilsson, later Ulf Rönner (here in 2017) , reached the semi-finals and was eliminated in seventh place in his race

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Stanisław Grędziński	Poland	46.4
2	Alexandr Bratchikov	Soviet Union	46.5
3	Jan Werner	Poland	46.6
4th	Sergio Bello	Italy	47.0
5	Colin Campbell	Great Britain	47.2
6th	Gilles Bertould	France	47.2
7th	Ulf Nilsson	Sweden	47.4
8th	Manuel Gayoso	Spain	47.6

final

September 18, 1969, 7:40 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Jan Werner	Poland	45.7 CR
2	Jean-Claude Nallet	France	45.8 SB
3	Stanisław Grędziński	Poland	45.8 PB
4th	Jacques Carette	France	45.9 PB
5	Alexandr Bratchikov	Soviet Union	45.9 NO
6th	Andrzej Badeński	Poland	45.9 SB
7th	Boris Savchuk	Soviet Union	46.3 PB
8th	Sergio Bello	Italy	46.6 PB

• 

  Defending champion Stanisław Grędziński (here in 2011) won the bronze medal

• 

  Andrzej Badeński, Vice European Champion from 1966 , finished sixth in a very close race

Web links

• European Athletics Championships - Athens 1969 from european-athletics.org, accessed June 5, 2019
• Men 400m European Championship 1969 Athens on todor66.com, accessed June 5, 2019
• Track and Field Statistics, EM 1969 from trackfield.brinkster.net, accessed June 5, 2019
• European Athletics Championships Zurich 2014 - Statistics Handbook , Men 400m European Championship 1969 Athens, p. 405 (PDF, 13,363 kB), in English at european-athletics.org, accessed on June 5, 2019
• Results of all European Athletics Championships - 1969, 400 m men on sportschau.de, accessed on June 5, 2019
• 9th European Athletics Championships 1969 in Athens, Greece from ifosta.de, accessed on June 5, 2019

Video

• European Athletics 1969 Athens 400 Werner , published June 14, 2018 on youtube.com, accessed June 6, 2019

References and comments

1. ↑ IAAF world records. 400m men , accessed June 5, 2019
2. ↑ Progression of the European Outdoor Records, 400 m Men , p. 10 (PDF, 271 kB), accessed on June 5, 2019 (French / English)