World Athletics Championships 1997/400 m men

6th World Athletics Championships
discipline	400 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	50 athletes from 34 countries
venue	Athens
Competition location	Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 3rd (preliminary / quarter-finals) August 4th (semi-finals) August 5th (final)
Medalist Michael Johnson ( USA )   Davis Kamoga ( UGA )   Tyree Washington ( USA )

The Athens Olympic Stadium in 2014

The men's 400-meter run at the 1997 World Athletics Championships was held from August 3 to 5, 1997 in the Olympic Stadium in the Greek capital, Athens .

In this competition, the US runners won two gold and bronze medals. The winner of the two-time world champion ( 1993 / 1995 ) and the Olympic champion in 1996 Michael Johnson , who also 200 meters double world champion ( 1991 /1995) and Olympic champion from 1996 was. He had also won two World Cup titles (1993/1995) and the 1996 Olympic victory with the 4 x 400 meter relay of the USA . Michael Johnson was now seven times world champion. Silver went to the 1996 Olympic third party Davis Kamoga from Uganda . Tyree Washington won the bronze medal.

Existing records

World record	43.29 s	Harry Reynolds	Zurich , Switzerland	17th August 1988
World Cup record	43.39 s	Michael Johnson	World Cup 1993 in 1995 in Gothenburg , Sweden	August 9, 1995

The existing world championship record was not set and not improved at these world championships.

Times under 44 seconds were never achieved in any race.

Five new national records were set:

• Benjamin Youla ( Republic of the Congo ): 46.62 s (2nd forerun)
• Sugath Thilakaratne ( Sri Lanka ): 45.58 s (3rd forerun )
• Robert Maćkowiak ( Poland ): 45.26 s (1st quarter-final)
• Benjamin Youla (Republic of the Congo): 46.29 s (2nd quarter-finals)
• Davis Kamoga ( Uganda ): 44.37 s (final)

doping

There was a doping case in this competition .

The US American Antonio Pettigrew, who initially placed seventh , confessed to having obtained doping agents from Angel Heredia, a Mexican dealer, from 1997, including erythropoietin , also known as EPO, and growth hormones. As a result, he was stripped of some results, including his seventh place over 400 meters and his victory with the US 4-by-400-meter relay at these world championships.

Three athletes were disadvantaged who were not allowed to advance to the next round:

• Odair Pericles from São Tomé and Príncipe would have been eligible to start in the quarter-finals during his time.
• Eswort Coombs ( St. Vincent and the Grenadines ) had actually qualified for the semi-finals during his time.
• The Jamaican Davian Clarke had actually earned the right to start for the final through his placement.

Preliminary round

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

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Jamie Baulch	Great Britain	45.85
2	Roxbert Martin	Jamaica	46.04
3	Tawanda Chiwira	Zimbabwe	46.09
4th	Benjamin Youla	Republic of the Congo	46.62 NO
5	Roman Galkin	Ukraine	46.82
6th	Antonio Andrés	Spain	46.94
DNF	Neil de Silva	Trinidad and Tobago

Forward 2

August 3, 1997, 9:23 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Michael McDonald	Jamaica	45.89
2	Davis Kamoga	Uganda	46.17
3	Alejandro Cardenas	Mexico	46.26
4th	Shon Ju-Il	South Korea	47.47
5	Liod Kgopong	South Africa	47.66
6th	Kendon Maynard	American Virgin Islands	47.83
7th	Mohsin Munir	Pakistan	49.61
DNS	Jew Monye	Nigeria

Forward 3

August 3, 1997, 9:31 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Sanderlei Parrela	Brazil	45.35
2	Tyree Washington	United States	45.35
3	Sugath Thilakaratne	Sri Lanka	45.58 NO
4th	Ibrahima Wade	Senegal	45.61
5	Mathias Rusterholz	Switzerland	45.76
6th	Jean-Louis Rapnouil	France	45.85
7th	Kenmore Hughes	Antigua and Barbuda	47.11

Forward 4

August 3, 1997, 9:39 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Ivan Thomas	Great Britain	45.62
2	Davian Clarke	Jamaica	45.77
3	Tomasz Czubak	Poland	45.82
4th	Arnaud Malherbe	South Africa	46.08
5	Samir nobility Louahla	Algeria	46.22
6th	Konstantinos Moumoulidis	Greece	46.64
7th	Evripides Demosthenous	Cyprus	47.57

Forward 5

August 3, 1997, 9:47 am

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Michael Johnson	United States	45.66
2	Word Coombs	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	45.78
3	Hachim Ndiaye	Senegal	45.84
4th	Kennedy Ochieng	Kenya	45.88
5	Marco Vaccari	Italy	46.00
6th	Odair Pericles	Sao Tome and Principe	46.48 actually qualified for the quarterfinals
7th	Jan Poděbradský	Czech Republic	46.52

Forward 6

August 3, 1997, 9:55 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Jerome Young	United States	45.34
2	Mark Richardson	Great Britain	45.44
3	Sunday Bada	Nigeria	45.79
4th	Ibrahim Ismail Muftah	Qatar	45.88
5	Soloveni Koroi	Fiji	46.51
6th	Shigekazu Omori	Japan	47.09
7th	Eugene Farrell	Ireland	48.20
8th	Bashir Mohamed Al Khewani	Yemen	50.96

Forward 7

August 3, 1997, 10:03 am

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Štefan Balošák	Slovakia	45.67
2	Clement Chukwu	Nigeria	45.84
3	Robert Maćkowiak	Poland	46.10
4th	Rafik Elouardi	Austria	46.15
5	Dennis Darling	Bahamas	46.95
6th	Angelo Ignatius	Netherlands Antilles	49.01
DOP	Antonio Pettigrew	United States	admitted to the quarter-finals

Quarter finals

From each of the four quarter-finals, the first three athletes - highlighted in light blue - and the four fastest runners - highlighted in light green - qualified for the semi-finals.

Quarter-finals 1

August 3, 1997, 6:00 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Ivan Thomas	Great Britain	44.98
2	Robert Maćkowiak	Poland	45.26 NO
3	Roxbert Martin	Jamaica	45.37
4th	Štefan Balošák	Slovakia	45.48
5	Mathias Rusterholz	Switzerland	45.89
6th	Alejandro Cardenas	Mexico	46.63
7th	Shon Ju-Il	South Korea	47.36
DOP	Antonio Pettigrew	United States	admitted to the semifinals

Quarter-finals 2

August 3, 1997, 6:07 pm

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Jamie Baulch	Great Britain	45.06
2	Davis Kamoga	Uganda	45.25
3	Ibrahima Wade	Senegal	45.38
4th	Michael Johnson	United States	45.39
5	Word Coombs	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	45.47 actually qualified for the semi-finals
6th	Jean-Louis Rapnouil	France	46.14
7th	Tawanda Chiwira	Zimbabwe	46.22
8th	Benjamin Youla	Republic of the Congo	46.29 NO

Quarter-finals 3

August 3, 1997, 6:14 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Clement Chukwu	Nigeria	45.06
2	Tyree Washington	United States	45.09
3	Davian Clarke	Jamaica	45.27
4th	Hachim Ndiaye	Senegal	45.44
5	Sugath Thilakaratne	Sri Lanka	46.11
6th	Kennedy Ochieng	Kenya	46.28
7th	Marco Vaccari	Italy	46.32
DNS	Sanderlei Parrela	Brazil

Quarter-finals 4

August 3, 1997, 6:21 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Jerome Young	United States	44.87
2	Mark Richardson	Great Britain	45.05
3	Michael McDonald	Jamaica	45.16
4th	Sunday Bada	Nigeria	45.37
5	Tomasz Czubak	Poland	45.41
6th	Ibrahim Ismail Muftah	Qatar	46.12
7th	Samir nobility Louahla	Algeria	46.23
8th	Arnaud Malherbe	South Africa	46.73

Semifinals

• 

  Robert Maćkowiak - in the quarter-finals he set a Polish national record, he could not compete in the semi-finals

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

Semi-final run 1

August 4, 1997, 7:35 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Tyree Washington	United States	44.61
2	Mark Richardson	Great Britain	44.62
3	Jamie Baulch	Great Britain	44.69
4th	Davian Clarke	Jamaica	45.07 actually qualified for the final
5	Ibrahima Wade	Senegal	45.47
6th	Sunday Bada	Nigeria	45.96
DOP	Antonio Pettigrew	United States	admitted to the finals
DNS	Robert Maćkowiak	Poland

• 

  Tomasz Czubak (Photo: 2016) made it to the semi-finals and was eliminated in seventh place in his race

Semi-final run 2

August 4, 1997, 7:45 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Michael Johnson	United States	44.37
2	Jerome Young	United States	44.50
3	Davis Kamoga	Uganda	44.57
4th	Ivan Thomas	Great Britain	44.61
5	Clement Chukwu	Nigeria	45.26
6th	Roxbert Martin	Jamaica	45.49
7th	Tomasz Czubak	Poland	45.51
8th	Michael McDonald	Jamaica	45.74

final

• 

  World champion Michael Johnson won his seventh World Championship title (disciplines: 200 , 400 meters and 4 × 400 m )

• 

  Bronze medalist Tyree Washington

August 5, 1997, 8:40 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Michael Johnson	United States	44.12
2	Davis Kamoga	Uganda	44.37 NO
3	Tyree Washington	United States	44.39
4th	Mark Richardson	Great Britain	44.47
5	Jerome Young	United States	44.51
6th	Ivan Thomas	Great Britain	44.52
7th	Jamie Baulch	Great Britain	45.22
DOP	Antonio Pettigrew	United States

Video

• Men's 400m Final - 1997 IAAF World Championships on youtube.com, accessed June 13, 2020

Web links

• 6th IAAF World Championships In Athletics , accessed June 4, 2020
• Men 400m Athletics VI World Championship 1997 Athens (GRE) on todor66.com, accessed May 18, 2020
• Results in the IAAF Statistics Handbook for the 2019 World Cup in Doha, Men 400 m, Athens 1997, p. 106 (PDF 10.3 MB), English, accessed on June 14, 2020

References and comments

1. ↑ IAAF world records. 400 m men on rekorde-im-sport.de, accessed on June 15, 2020
2. ↑ US runner Pettigrew receives severe punishment , Handelsblatt November 21, 2008, accessed June 15, 2020