World Athletics Championships 1987/400 m men

2. World Athletics Championships
discipline	400 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	46 athletes from 33 countries
venue	Rome
Competition location	Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 30th (preliminary) August 31st (quarter-finals) September 1st (semi-finals) September 3rd (final)
Medalist Thomas Schönlebe ( GDR )   Innocent Egbunike ( NGR )   Harry Reynolds ( USA )

The Olympic Stadium in Rome in 2009

The men's 400-meter race at the World Athletics Championships in 1987 was held from August 30 to September 1, 1987 in the Olympic Stadium in the Italian capital, Rome .

World champion in the new European record time of 44.33 s was the 1986 vice European champion Thomas Schönlebe from the GDR , who also won the 1983 World Cup bronze with his country's 4 x 400 meter relay . The two best of the year in the world and actual favorites of this competition took second and third place. Second was the Nigerian Innocent Egbunike , who had set a new world championship record with 44.26 seconds in the semifinals. Bronze went to the US world best of the year Harry Reynolds , who three days later won the gold medal with the US relay over 4 × 400 meters.

Records

Existing records

World record	43.86 s	Lee Evans	Olympic Games in Mexico City , Mexico	October 18, 1968
World championship record	45.05 s	Bert Cameron	1983 World Cup in Helsinki , Finland	August 10, 1983

Record improvement

The World Cup record was improved three times at these World Championships:

• 45.03s - Derek Redmond ( Great Britain ), 1st quarter-finals on August 31
• 44.81s - Thomas Schönlebe ( GDR ), 2nd quarter-finals on August 31
• 44.26 s - Innocent Egbunike ( Nigeria ), 1st semi-final on September 1st

Preliminary round

August 30, 1987

The preliminary round was carried out in six runs. The first four athletes per run - highlighted in light blue - as well as the eight fastest runners - highlighted in light green - qualified for the quarter-finals.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Harry Reynolds	United States	45.51
2	Susumu Takano	Japan	45.68
3	Mathias Schersing	GDR	45.86
4th	Anton Skerritt	Canada	46.15
5	Mohamed Amer Al-Malky	Oman	46.23
6th	Bruce Phillip	Dominica	46.56
7th	Felix Stevens	Cuba	46.89
DNS	Mohamed Hossain Milzer	Bangladesh

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	David Kitur	Kenya	45.39
2	Innocent Egbunike	Nigeria	45.84
3	Elvis Forde	Barbados	45.99
4th	Hector Daley	Panama	46.26
5	Todd Bennett	Great Britain	46.58
6th	Lyndon George	St. Lucia	47.25
7th	Ian Morris	Trinidad and Tobago	48.06
8th	Bienvenu Yagbongo	Central African Republic	50.14

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Gabriel Tiacoh	Ivory Coast	45.65
2	Darren Clark	Australia	45.70
3	Alexander Kurochkin	Soviet Union	45.74
4th	Marcel Arnold	Switzerland	45.76
5	Devon Morris	Jamaica	45.83
6th	Ismail Macev	Yugoslavia	46.30
7th	Gerson Souza	Brazil	46.39
DNS	Yaya Seyba	Mali

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Moses Ugbisie	Nigeria	45.55
2	Thomas Schönlebe	GDR	45.85
3	Antonio McKay	United States	46.30
4th	Roberto Ribaud	Italy	46.37
5	Yann Quentrec	France	46.78
6th	Mark Senior	Jamaica	47.30
7th	Adramu Mikumi	Tanzania	47.39
8th	Dawda Jallow	Gambia	48.40

Forward 5

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Derek Redmond	Great Britain	45.33
2	Jens Carlowitz	GDR	45.52
3	Roddie Haley	United States	45.73
4th	Tito Sawe	Kenya	45.93
5	Lubos Balosak	Czechoslovakia	46.49
6th	Antonio Sánchez	Spain	46.54
7th	Tamás Molnár	Hungary	46.80
8th	Elieser Wattebosi	Indonesia	47.32

Forward 6

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Roberto Hernández	Cuba	45.68
2	John Anzrah	Kenya	45.91
3	Bert Cameron	Jamaica	45.94
4th	Philip Brown	Great Britain	46.08
5	Alemayehu Gudeta	Ethiopia	46.25
6th	Vladimir Pronin	Soviet Union	46.26
7th	Jesús Malave	Venezuela	47.10
8th	Lenford O'Garro	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	49.19

Quarter finals

August 31, 1987

From the four quarter-finals, the first three athletes - highlighted in light blue - as well as the four fastest runners qualified for the semi-finals. However, there were two athletes of the same kind who were four ranks behind the athletes who were qualified by their placement. Both were admitted to the next round. So five runners reached the semi-finals over their time - highlighted in light green. A total of seventeen runners qualified for the semi-finals, which was not a problem because the stadium had the nine lanes required in one of the two semi-finals.

Quarter-finals 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Derek Redmond	Great Britain	45.03 CR
2	Roberto Hernández	Cuba	45.33
3	Mathias Schersing	GDR	45.50
4th	Darren Clark	Australia	45.58
5	Hector Daley	Panama	46.05
6th	Antonio Sánchez	Spain	46.19
7th	John Anzrah	Kenya	46.45
DNS	Alemayehu Gudeta	Ethiopia

Quarter-finals 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Thomas Schönlebe	GDR	44.81 CR
2	David Kitur	Kenya	44.84
3	Roddie Haley	United States	45.14
4th	Bert Cameron	Jamaica	45.14
5	Susumu Takano	Japan	45.81
6th	Mohamed Amer Al-Malky	Oman	45.94
7th	Vladimir Pronin	Soviet Union	45.94
8th	Lubos Balosak	Czechoslovakia	46.76

Quarter-finals 3

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Innocent Egbunike	Nigeria	45.46
2	Devon Morris	Jamaica	45.49
3	Harry Reynolds	United States	45.49
4th	Anton Skerritt	Canada	45.65
5	Alexander Kurochkin	Soviet Union	45.76
6th	Tito Sawe	Kenya	45.93
7th	Gerson Souza	Brazil	46.46
8th	Ismail Macev	Yugoslavia	46.54

Antonio McKay missed the semi-finals by nine hundredths of a second with his 45.85 s

Quarter-finals 4

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Jens Carlowitz	GDR	45.27
2	Moses Ugbisie	Nigeria	45.30
3	Gabriel Tiacoh	Ivory Coast	45.33
4th	Marcel Arnold	Switzerland	45.76
5	Antonio McKay	United States	45.85
6th	Elvis Forde	Barbados	45.92
7th	Philip Brown	Great Britain	46.49
8th	Roberto Ribaud	Italy	46.68

Semifinals

September 1, 1987

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

Mathias Schersing was eliminated in seventh place in his semi-final run

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Innocent Egbunike	Nigeria	44.26 CR
2	Thomas Schönlebe	GDR	44.60
3	Roberto Hernández	Cuba	44.83
4th	Roddie Haley	United States	45.21
5	Anton Skerritt	Canada	45.26
6th	Marcel Arnold	Switzerland	45.62
7th	Mathias Schersing	GDR	45.67
8th	Alexander Kurochkin	Soviet Union	45.73
9	Devon Morris	Jamaica	45.76

Run 2

Jens Carlowitz missed the final by one place or three hundredths of a second with his 44.97 seconds

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Derek Redmond	Great Britain	44.50
2	Gabriel Tiacoh	Ivory Coast	44.69
3	David Kitur	Kenya	44.73
4th	Harry Reynolds	United States	44.94
5	Jens Carlowitz	GDR	44.97
6th	Bert Cameron	Jamaica	45.19
7th	Moses Ugbisie	Nigeria	45.72
8th	Darren Clark	Australia	45.93

final

Surprise world champion Thomas Schönlebe, vice European champion the year before

3rd September 1987

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Thomas Schönlebe	GDR	44.33 ER
2	Innocent Egbunike	Nigeria	44.56
3	Harry Reynolds	United States	44.80
4th	Roberto Hernández	Cuba	44.99
5	Derek Redmond	Great Britain	45.06
6th	David Kitur	Kenya	45.34
7th	Gabriel Tiacoh	Ivory Coast	46.27
8th	Roddie Haley	United States	46.77

• 

  In the final, Derek Redmond could not quite build on his strong performance from the semifinals, with which he would have won silver, and finished fifth

• 

  The 1984 Olympic runner-up, Gabriel Tiacoh, came seventh here

Web links

• IAAF World Championships in Athletics, 2nd IAAF World Championships in Athletics , accessed March 21, 2020
• Men 400m Athletics II World Championship Rome (ITA) 1987 at todor66.com, accessed March 21, 2020
• Results in the IAAF Statistics Handbook for the 2019 World Cup in Doha, Men 400 m, Rome 1987 (PDF 10.3 MB, p. 104f), English, accessed on March 21, 2020

References and comments

1. ↑ IAAF world records. 400 m men on rekorde-im-sport.de, accessed on March 21, 2020