1988 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 400 m hurdles (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	400 meter hurdles
gender	Men
Attendees	37 athletes from 28 countries
Competition location	Seoul Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	September 23, 1988 (preliminary round) September 24, 1988 (semi-finals) September 25, 1988 (final)
Medalist Andre Phillips ( USA )   Amadou Dia Ba ( SEN )   Edwin Moses ( USA )

The men's 400-meter hurdles at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul was held on September 23, 24 and 25, 1988 in the Seoul Olympic Stadium. 37 athletes took part.

The American Andre Phillips was Olympic champion . He won ahead of the Senegalese Amadou Dia Ba and Edwin Moses , also from the USA.

Edgar Itt and Harald Schmid started for the Federal Republic of Germany . Both reached the final, Schmid finished seventh and Itt eighth.

The Austrian Klaus Ehrle was eliminated in the semi-finals.

Runners from the GDR, Switzerland and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Current title holders

Olympic champion 1984	Edwin Moses ( USA )	47.75 s	Los Angeles 1984
World Champion 1987		47.46 s	Rome 1987
European champion 1986	Harald Schmid ( Federal Republic of Germany )	48.65 s	Stuttgart 1986
Pan American champion 1987	Winthrop Graham ( Jamaica )	48.49 s	Indianapolis 1987
Central America and Caribbean Champion 1987		49.58 s	Caracas 1987
South America Champion 1987	Pablo Squella ( Chile )	50.42 s	São Paulo 1987
Asian champion 1987	Shigenori Ohmori ( Japan )	50.09 s	Singapore 1987
African Champion 1988	Amadou Dia Ba ( Senegal )	48.81 s	Annaba 1988

Existing records

World record	47.02 s	Edwin Moses ( USA )	Koblenz , Federal Republic of Germany (now Germany )	August 31, 1983
Olympic record	47.64 s		Final of Montreal , Canada	July 25, 1976

Preliminary round

Date: September 23, 1988

The athletes competed in a total of five heats. The first three athletes per run qualified for the semifinals. In addition, the next fastest, the so-called lucky loser , made it through. The directly qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue, the lucky loser in light green.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Amadou Dia Ba	Senegal	49.41 s
2	Klaus Ehrle	Austria	50.10 s
3	John Graham	Canada	50.30 s
4th	Hwang Hong-chul	South Korea	50.52 s
5	Philip Harries	Great Britain	50.81 s
6th	Jasem Al-Dowaila	Kuwait	51.87 s
7th	Dumbar Kuwar	Kingdom of Nepal	56.80 s
DNS	Sven Nylander	Sweden

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Harald Schmid	BR Germany	49.77 s
2	Simon Kitur	Kenya	49.88 s
3	Alain Cuypers	Belgium	50.42 s
4th	Ahmed Ghanem	Egypt	50.44 s
5	Ryoichi Yoshida	Japan	50.49 s
6th	Samuel Matete	Zambia	51.06 s
7th	Domingo Cordero	Puerto Rico	51.26 s
8th	Jorge Fidel Ponce	Honduras	55.38 s

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Edwin Moses	United States	49.38 s
2	Edgar Itt	BR Germany	50.10 s
3	José Alonso	Spain	50.12 s
4th	Leigh Miller	Australia	50.53 s
5	Branislav Karaulic	Yugoslavia	51.32 s
6th	Allan Ince	Barbados	52.76 s
7th	Oral Selkridge	Antigua and Barbuda	53.44 s

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Kevin Young	United States	49.35 s
2	Kriss Akabusi	Great Britain	49.62 s
3	Gideon Yego	Kenya	49.80 s
4th	Jozef Kucej	Czechoslovakia	49.89 s
5	Rok Kopitar	Yugoslavia	50.54 s
6th	Hamidou M'Baye	Senegal	50.58 s
7th	Benjamin Grant	Sierra Leone	51.73 s
8th	Joseph Rodan	Fiji	53.66 s

Forward 5

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Andre Phillips	United States	49.34 s
2	Winthrop Graham	Jamaica	49.40 s
3	Joseph Maritime	Kenya	49.64 s
4th	Toma Tomow	Bulgaria	49.66 s
5	Max Robertson	Great Britain	50.67 s
6th	Ahmed Hamada	Bahrain	51.34 s
7th	Youssef Al-Dosari	Saudi Arabia	53.51 s

Semifinals

Date: September 24, 1988

The first four athletes in each of the two runs qualified for the final (highlighted in light blue).

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Edwin Moses	United States	47.89 s
2	Kevin Young	United States	48.56 s
3	Harald Schmid	BR Germany	48.93 s
4th	Kriss Akabusi	Great Britain	49.22 s
5	Joseph Maritime	Kenya	49.50 s
6th	José Alonso	Spain	49.87 s
7th	Klaus Ehrle	Austria	51.04 s
8th	John Graham	Canada	51.33 s

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Andre Phillips	United States	48.19 s
2	Winthrop Graham	Jamaica	48.37 s
3	Amadou Dia Ba	Senegal	48.48 s
4th	Edgar Itt	BR Germany	48.86 s
5	Toma Tomow	Bulgaria	48.90 s
6th	Simon Kitur	Kenya	49.74 s
7th	Alain Cuypers	Belgium	49.75 s
DSQ	Gideon Yego	Kenya

European champion Harald Schmid, Federal Republic of Germany, was Olympic gold medalist

final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Andre Phillips	United States	47.19 s	ORe
2	Amadou Dia Ba	Senegal	47.23 s
3	Edwin Moses	United States	47.56 s
4th	Kevin Young	United States	47.94 s
5	Winthrop Graham	Jamaica	48.04 s
6th	Kriss Akabusi	Great Britain	48.69 s
7th	Harald Schmid	BR Germany	48.76 s
8th	Edgar Itt	BR Germany	48.78 s

Date: September 25, 1988

All three US runners and two runners from the Federal Republic of Germany qualified for the final on September 25th. The starting field was completed by one participant each from Great Britain, Senegal and Jamaica.

The multiple world and Olympic champion Edwin Moses was as strong as in the best of times, but had tough competition in Kevin Young and Andre Phillips in his own camp. They had all run under 47.80 seconds each in the US Olympic eliminations. The German European champion Harald Schmid also reached the final again, but no longer had the form of previous years with which he could have competed for the medals.

In the final race, Phillips quickly took the lead and had a comfortable lead on the third hurdle. The other two Americans followed in the next places. Young lost ground in the target corner. Phillips came out on the home straight with a clear lead, Moses was second ahead of the Senegalese Amadou Dia Ba, who was now the fastest of all runners. He passed Moses and on the last few meters it was even very tight for the leader. Andre Phillips managed to save four hundredths of a second to his Olympic victory and set a new Olympic record with 47.19 s . Amadou Dia Ba won the silver medal ahead of Edwin Moses. Kevin Young finished fourth, ahead of Jamaican Winthrop Graham and Briton Kriss Akabusi in sixth. The two German participants, Harald Schmid and Edgar Itt, came in seventh and eighth.

Andre Phillips won the fourteenth gold medal for the USA in the twentieth Olympic final of this discipline.

Amadou Dia Ba was Senegal's first Olympic medalist.

Web links

• SportsReference 400m hurdles , accessed January 24, 2018
• Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , athletics results: p. 233f, English / French (PDF; 25.6 MB), accessed on January 24, 2018

Video

• 1988 Olympics Men's 400m Hurdles Final, Seoul, South Korea , published March 13, 2015 on youtube.com, accessed January 24, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 675 , accessed on January 24, 2018
2. ↑ Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , Athletics results: p. 233f, English / French (PDF; 25.6 MB), accessed on January 24, 2018
3. ↑ ^{a b} Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , Athletics results: p. 234, English / French (PDF; 25.6 MB), accessed on January 24, 2018