1988 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 400 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	400 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	75 athletes from 55 countries
Competition location	Seoul Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	September 24, 1988 (preliminary round) September 25, 1988 (quarter-finals) September 26, 1988 (semi-finals) September 27, 1988 (final)
Medalist Steve Lewis ( USA )   Harry Reynolds ( USA )   Danny Everett ( USA )

The men's 400-meter run at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul was held on September 24, 25, 26 and 28, 1988 in the Seoul Olympic Stadium. 75 athletes took part.

The USA team celebrated a triple success. Olympic champion was Steve Lewis ahead of Harry Reynolds and Danny Everett .

Jens Carlowitz and Thomas Schönlebe started for the GDR . Both were eliminated in the semi-finals.
Runners from the Federal Republic of Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Current title holders

Olympic champion 1984	Alonzo Babers ( USA )	44.27 s	Los Angeles 1984
World Champion 1987	Thomas Schönlebe ( GDR )	44.33 s	Rome 1987
European champion 1986	Roger Black ( Great Britain )	44.59 s	Stuttgart 1986
Pan American champion 1987	Raymond Pierre ( USA )	44.60 s	Indianapolis 1987
Central America and Caribbean Champion 1987	Elvis Forde ( Barbados )	45.63 s	Caracas 1987
South America Champion 1987	Héctor Daley ( Panama )	45.80 s	São Paulo 1987
Asian champion 1987	Mohamed Amer Al-Malky ( Oman )	45.77 s	Singapore 1987
African Champion 1988	Innocent Egbunike ( Nigeria )	45.43 s	Annaba 1988

Existing records

World record	43.29 s	Harry Reynolds ( USA )	Zurich , Switzerland	17th August 1988
Olympic record	43.86 s	Lee Evans ( USA )	Mexico City Final , Mexico	October 18, 1968

Preliminary round

Date: September 24, 1988

The athletes competed in a total of ten preliminary runs. The first three athletes per run qualified for the quarter-finals. In addition, the two fastest times, the so-called lucky losers , made it through. The directly qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue, the lucky losers in light green.

Forward 1

At 37, Joe Rodan was the oldest starter in this discipline.

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Todd Bennett	Great Britain	46.37 s
2	MIles Murphy	Australia	46.38 s
3	Anton Skerritt	Canada	46.64 s
4th	Richard Louis	Barbados	46.80 s
5	Felix Sandy	Sierra Leone	46.82 s
6th	Gustavo Envela	Equatorial Guinea	48.11 s
7th	Joe Rodan	Fiji	48.69 s
8th	Odiya Silweya	Malawi	49.73 s

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Brian Whittle	Great Britain	46.07 s
2	Cayetano Cornet	Spain	46.16 s
3	Harry Reynolds	United States	46.28 s
4th	Seibert Straughn	Barbados	47.37 s
5	Felipe Lombá	Portugal	47.57 s
6th	Aouf Abdul Rahman Youssef	Iraq	21.88 s
7th	Ali Faudet	Chad	48.69 s
8th	Baptiste Firiam	Vanuatu	51.77 s

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Mohamed Amer Al-Malky	Oman	46.79 s
2	Lucas Sang	Kenya	46.85 s
3	Ousmane Diarra	Senegal	46.86 s
4th	Douglas Kalembo	Zambia	47.44 s
5	Mohamed Hossain Milzer	Uganda	21.79 s
6th	Akossi Gnalo	Togo	51.46 s
DNF	Sérgio de Menezes	Brazil
DNS	William Taramai	Cook Islands

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Ian Morris	Trinidad and Tobago	45.84 s
2	Thomas Schönlebe	GDR	47.07 s
3	Sunday Uti	Nigeria	47.08 s
4th	Kuang-Liang Lin	Chinese Taipei	48.18 s
5	Ernest Tché-Noubossie	Cameroon	48.31 s
6th	Hadi Bakr Al-Qahtani	Saudi Arabia	48.53 s
7th	Enock Musonda	Zambia	49.21 s
8th	Ahmed Shageef	Maldives	50.61 s

Forward 5

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Steve Lewis	United States	45.31 s
2	Jens Carlowitz	GDR	45.64 s
3	Gabriel Tiacoh	Ivory Coast	47.19 s
4th	Jean-Didiace Bémou	People's Republic of the Congo	48.46 s
5	Abdullah Ali Ahmed	Libya	48.89 s
6th	Jonathan Chipalo	Zambia	48.97 s
7th	Maher Abbas	Lebanon	51.29 s
8th	Carlton Usher	Belize	51.42s

Forward 6

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Gérson de Souza	Brazil	45.90 s
2	Howard Davis	Jamaica	45.97 s
3	Takale Tuna	Papua New Guinea	47.87 s
4th	Sunday Maweni	Botswana	47.97 s
5	Sulaiman Juma Al-Habsi	Oman	48.30 s
6th	Nordin Mohamed Jadi	Malaysia	49.52 s
7th	Michael Williams	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	51.22 s
DNS	Derek Redmond	Great Britain

Forward 7

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Darren Clark	Australia	45.93 s
2	Simon Kipkemboi	Kenya	45.15 s
3	Elvis Forde	Barbados	46.47 s
4th	Elijah Nkala	Zimbabwe	46.60 s
5	Antonio Sánchez	Spain	47.18 s
6th	Jaime Rodrigues	Mozambique	47.33 s
7th	Aouf Abdul Rahman Youssef	Iraq	47.45 s
8th	Desai Wynter	American Virgin Islands	48.39 s

Forward 8

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Bert Cameron	Jamaica	46.24 s
2	Robert Stone	Australia	46.52 s
3	Dawda Jallow	Gambia	46.91 s
4th	Yun Nam-han	South Korea	47.02 s
5	John Goville	Uganda	47.11 s
6th	Muhammad Fayyaz	Pakistan	47.13 s
7th	Yaya Seyba	Mali	48.83 s
8th	Alfred Browne	Antigua and Barbuda	48.92 s

Forward 9

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Danny Everett	United States	45.63 s
2	Devon Morris	Jamaica	45.95 s
3	Tomasz Jędrusik	Poland	46.12 s
4th	Patrick Delice	Trinidad and Tobago	46.14 s
5	Slobodan Branković	Yugoslavia	46.59 s
6th	Jorge Fidel Ponce	Honduras	51.11 s
DSQ	Mwana Bute Kasongo	Zaire
DNS	Luis Neto	Angola

Forward 10

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Susumu Takano	Japan	45.42 s
2	Troy Douglas	Bermuda	45.69 s
3	Innocent Egbunike	Nigeria	46.02 s
4th	Elkanah Nyangau	Kenya	46.25 s
5	Ismail Mačev	Yugoslavia	46.37 s
6th	Elieser Wattebosi	Indonesia	47.10 s
7th	Willis Todman	British Virgin Islands	50.11 s
DNS	Porfirio Mendez	Paraguay

Quarter finals

Date: September 25, 1988

The first four athletes (highlighted in light blue) from the four races qualified for the semi-finals.

Run 1

GDR runner Jens Carlowitz reached the semi-finals and was eliminated there in sixth place in his run

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Ian Morris	Trinidad and Tobago	44.70 s
2	Jens Carlowitz	GDR	45.09 s
3	Brian Whittle	Great Britain	45.22 s
4th	Tomasz Jędrusik	Poland	45.27 s
5	Sunday Uti	Nigeria	45.33 s
6th	Miles Murphy	Australia	45.93 s
7th	Dawda Jallow	Gambia	46.35 s
8th	Elvis Forde	Barbados	46.59 s

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Danny Everett	United States	44.83 s
2	Innocent Egbunike	Nigeria	45.02 s
3	Thomas Schönlebe	GDR	45.09 s
4th	Bert Cameron	Jamaica	45.16 s
5	Simon Kipkemboi	Kenya	45.44 s
6th	Todd Bennett	Great Britain	45.96 s
7th	Ousmane Diarra	Senegal	46.23 s
8th	Troy Douglas	Bermuda	46.28 s

Run 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Steve Lewis	United States	44.41 s
2	Darren Clark	Australia	44.96 s
3	Mohamed Amer Al-Malky	Oman	45.02 s
4th	Devon Morris	Jamaica	45.30 s
5	Cayetano Cornet	Spain	45.39 s
6th	Anton Skerritt	Canada	46.08 s
7th	Elkanah Nyangau	Kenya	46.09 s
8th	Takale Tuna	Papua New Guinea	47.48 s

Run 4

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Harry Reynolds	United States	44.46 s
2	Susumu Takano	Japan	45.00 s
3	Gérson de Souza	Brazil	45.35 s
4th	Howard Davis	Jamaica	45.40 s
5	Gabriel Tiacoh	Ivory Coast	45.49 s
6th	Lucas Sang	Kenya	45.72 s
7th	Patrick Delice	Trinidad and Tobago	45.75 s
8th	Robert Stone	Australia	46.04 s

Semifinals

Date: September 26, 1988

The first four athletes (highlighted in light blue) from both races qualified for the final.

Run 1

World champion Thomas Schönlebe, GDR, was eliminated in the semifinals as fifth in his run

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Steve Lewis	United States	44.35 s
2	Danny Everett	United States	44.36 s
3	Darren Clark	Australia	44.38 s
4th	Bert Cameron	Jamaica	44.50 s
5	Susumu Takano	Japan	44.90 s
6th	Jens Carlowitz	GDR	45.08 s
7th	Gérson de Souza	Brazil	45.27 s
8th	Tomasz Jędrusik	Poland	46.17 s

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Harry Reynolds	United States	44.33 s
2	Ian Morris	Trinidad and Tobago	44.60 s
3	Mohamed Amer Al-Malky	Oman	44.69 s
4th	Innocent Egbunike	Nigeria	44.74 s
5	Thomas Schönlebe	GDR	44.90 s
6th	Howard Davis	Jamaica	45.48 s
7th	Devon Morris	Jamaica	45.68 s
8th	Brian Whittle	Great Britain	46.07 s

final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Steve Lewis	United States	43.87 s
2	Harry Reynolds	United States	43.93 s
3	Danny Everett	United States	44.09 s
4th	Darren Clark	Australia	44.55 s
5	Innocent Egbunike	Nigeria	44.72 s
6th	Bert Cameron	Jamaica	44.94 s
7th	Ian Morris	Trinidad and Tobago	44.95 s
8th	Mohamed Amer Al-Malky	Oman	45.03 s

Date: September 28, 1988

All three US runners had qualified for the final. There was also one athlete from Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Australia and Oman.

The favorite was the American Harry Reynolds, who shortly before the Olympic Games had broken the twenty-year-old world record of his compatriot Lee Evans by over half a second. But even at last year's World Championships , Reynolds was clearly the leader of the world's best list for the year and had to be content with bronze. One of his conquerors from this race, world champion Thomas Schönlebe from the GDR, did not qualify for the final here in Seoul . The Nigerian Innocent Egbunike, second in the World Cup in 1987, was again one of Reynolds' opponents, but no longer had the form of the previous year. Main competitors were therefore Reynolds compatriots Steve Lewis and Danny Everett.

In the final race, Everett accelerated the pace and was in the lead halfway through the race. Reynolds relied on his stamina and was well behind. At the corner of the corner, Lewis pulled past Everett. Now Reynolds came up strongly, was initially on the same level as Everett and at the beginning of the home straight was second behind Lewis. Reynolds was now getting closer and closer to Lewis, but Steve Lewis was able to save his unexpected victory across the finish line. Danny Everett won the bronze medal behind Harry Reynolds, making it a complete US success. With his winning time of 43.87 s, Lewis missed Lee Evans' 1968 Olympic record by just a hundredth of a second. The runners in ranks four to seven all undercut the 45-second mark, while eighth-placed Mohamed Amer Al-Malky only missed this limit by a very thin margin. Fourth went to Australian Darren Clark, fifth was Innocent Egbunike, sixth went to Bert Cameron from Jamaica, and seventh went to Ian Morris, Trinidad and Tobago.

In the 21st Olympic final, Steve Lewis won the 14th US gold medal. At the same time, it was the third triple success of the USA after 1904 and 1968 .

Web links

• SportsReference 400m , accessed January 22, 2018
• Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , athletics results: pp. 222–224, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 22, 2018

Video

• Men's 400m Final at Seoul Olympics 1988 , published July 29, 2015 on youtube.com, accessed January 22, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ^ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 669 , accessed on January 22, 2018
2. ↑ Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , athletics results: p. 222f, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 22, 2018
3. ↑ Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , Athletics results: p. 223f, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 22, 2018
4. ↑ ^{a b} Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , Athletics results: p. 224, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 22, 2018