World Athletics Championships 1991/400 m hurdles for men

3rd World Athletics Championships
discipline	400 meter hurdles
gender	Men
Attendees	46 athletes from 28 countries
venue	Tokyo
Competition location	Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 25th (preliminary) August 26th (semi-finals) August 27th (final)
Medalist Samuel Matete ( ZMB )   Winthrop Graham ( JAM )   Kriss Akabusi ( GBR )

The Olympic Stadium in Tokyo in 2008

The men's 400-meter hurdles at the World Athletics Championships in 1991 took place from August 25 to 27, 1991 in the Olympic Stadium in the Japanese capital, Tokyo .

World champion was Samuel Matete from Zambia . He won ahead of the Jamaican Winthrop Graham . Bronze went to the reigning European champion Kriss Akabusi from Great Britain .

Records

Existing records

World record	47.02 s	Edwin Moses	Koblenz , FR Germany	August 31, 1983
World championship record	47.46 s		World Cup 1987 in Rome , Italy	September 1, 1987

Record improvements

The World Cup record was not set and not improved at these World Cups.

There were two national records in the final on August 27:

• 47.74 s - Winthrop Graham ( Jamaica ), second place
• 47.86 s - Kriss Akabusi ( Great Britain ), third place

Preliminary round

August 25, 1991, 5:30 p.m.

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

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Danny Harris	United States	48.32
2	Erick Keter	Kenya	48.62
3	Fabrizio Mori	Italy	48.92
4th	Amadou Dia Bâ	Senegal	49.77
5	Olaf Hense	Germany	50.44
6th	Pedro Rodrigues	Portugal	50.50
7th	Marc Dollendorf	Belgium	51.45

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Kriss Akabusi	Great Britain	48.79
2	Vladimir Budko	Soviet Union	49.26
3	Eronilde de Araújo	Brazil	49.60
4th	Niklas Wallenlind	Sweden	49.77
5	Kazuhiko Yamazaki	Japan	49.98
6th	Michael Green	Germany	50.30
7th	Ghulam Abbas	Pakistan	52.83

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Kevin Young	United States	49.08
2	Gideon Yego	Kenya	49.49
3	Pedro Chiamulera	Brazil	49.67
4th	Yoshihiko Saito	Japan	49.89
5	Alain Cuypers	Belgium	50.21
6th	Antonio Smith	Venezuela	50.59
7th	Carsten Koehrbrück	Germany	50.88

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Winthrop Graham	Jamaica	49.13
2	Sven Nylander	Sweden	49.61
3	Krasimir Demirev	Bulgaria	49.77
4th	Jozef Kucej	Czechoslovakia	49.93
5	Paolo Bellino	Italy	50.74
6th	Ahmed Ghamen	Egypt	50.98
7th	Sylvain Moreau	France	51.26
8th	Zed Abo Hamed	Syria	51.57

Forward 5

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Samuel Matete	Zambia	49.13
2	Derrick Adkins	United States	49.40
3	Shunji Karube	Japan	49.57
4th	Domingo Cordero	Puerto Rico	49.60
5	Mark Jackson	Canada	50.13
6th	Leigh Miller	Australia	51.76
DSQ	Gideon Biwott	Kenya

Semifinals

August 26, 1991, 6:45 p.m.

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

Semi-final run 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Danny Harris	United States	48.21
2	Winthrop Graham	Jamaica	48.31
3	Derrick Adkins	United States	49.37
4th	Niklas Wallenlind	Sweden	49.81
5	Eronilde de Araújo	Brazil	49.91
6th	Shunji Karube	Japan	49.94
7th	Gideon Yego	Kenya	50.07
8th	Fabrizio Mori	Italy	50.70

Sixth place in the second semi-final was not enough for Sven Nylander (here in 2014) to take part in the final

Semi-final run 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Kriss Akabusi	Great Britain	47.91
2	Samuel Matete	Zambia	48.30
3	Kevin Young	United States	48.39
4th	Erick Keter	Kenya	48.47
5	Vladimir Budko	Soviet Union	49.53
6th	Sven Nylander	Sweden	49.59
7th	Domingo Cordero	Puerto Rico	49.86
8th	Pedro Chiamulera	Brazil	50.02

Kriss Akabusi (in 2012) , reigning European champion , won the bronze medal

final

August 27, 1991, 6:00 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Samuel Matete	Zambia	47.64
2	Winthrop Graham	Jamaica	47.74 NO
3	Kriss Akabusi	Great Britain	47.86 NO
4th	Kevin Young	United States	48.01
5	Danny Harris	United States	48.46
6th	Derrick Adkins	United States	49.28
7th	Erick Keter	Kenya	49.99
8th	Niklas Wallenlind	Sweden	50.28

• 

  Danny Harris, Olympic runner-up in 1984 and vice world champion in 1987 , came in fifth

• 

  Derrick Adkins came in sixth - he became world champion in 1995 and  Olympic champion in 1996

Video

• Men's 400m Hurdles Final World Champs in Tokyo 1991 on youtube.com, accessed April 21, 2020

Web links

• World Championships in Athletics, 3rd IAAF World Championships in Athletics , accessed April 21, 2020
• Men 400m Hurdles Athletics III World Championship 1991 Tokyo (JPN) on todor66.com, accessed April 21, 2020
• Results in the IAAF Statistics Handbook for the 2019 World Cup in Doha, Men 400m Hurdles, Tokyo 1991, p. 153 (PDF 10.3 MB), English, accessed on April 21, 2020

References and comments

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