Olympic Summer Games 2008 / Athletics - 400 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	400 meter run
gender	Men
place	Beijing National Stadium
Attendees	56 athletes from 40 countries
Competition phase	August 18-21, 2008
Medalist
gold	LaShawn Merritt ( USA )
silver	Jeremy Wariner ( USA )
bronze	David Neville ( USA )

The 400-meter race of the men at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing was from 18 to 21 August 2008 at the National Stadium Beijing held. 56 athletes took part.

The US team achieved a triple success. LaShawn Merritt won ahead of Jeremy Wariner and David Neville .

Current title holders

Olympic champion 2004	Jeremy Wariner ( USA )	44.00 s	Athens 2004
World Champion 2007		43.45 s	Osaka 2007
European champion 2006	Marc Raquil ( France )	45.02 s	Gothenburg 2006
Pan American Champion 2007	Chris Brown ( Bahamas )	45.85 s	Rio de Janeiro 2007
Central America and Caribbean champions 2008	Renny Quow ( Trinidad and Tobago )	45.27 s	Cali 2008
South America Champion 2007	Andrés Silva ( Uruguay )	45.89 s	São Paulo 2007
Asian champion 2007	Prasanna S. Amarasekara ( Sri Lanka )	46.71 s	Amman 2007
Africa Champion 2008	Ali Babiker Nagmeldin ( Sudan )	45.64 s	Addis Ababa 2008
Oceania Champion 2008	Joshua Ahwong ( Australia )	48.26 s	Saipan 2008

Existing records

World record	43.18 s	Michael Johnson ( USA )	Seville , Spain	August 26, 1999
Olympic record	43.49 s		Atlanta Final , USA	July 29, 1996

Prelims

There were seven preliminary runs. The first three athletes - highlighted in light blue - and the three fastest athletes - highlighted in light green - qualified for the semi-finals.

Forward 1

August 18, 2008 , 9:00 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Leslie Djhone	France	45.12 s
2	David Neville	United States	45.22 s
3	William Collazo	Cuba	45.37 s
4th	Kevin Borlée	Belgium	45.43 s
5	Denis Alexeyev	Russia	45.52 s
6th	Young Talkmore Nyongani	Zimbabwe	45.89 s
7th	Eric Milazar	Mauritius	46.06 s
8th	Gakologelwang Masheto	Botswana	46.29 s

Forward 2

August 18, 2008 , 9:08 am

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Chris Brown	Bahamas	44.79 s
2	Joel Milburn	Australia	44.80 s	PB
3	Johan Wissman	Sweden	44.81 s
4th	Gary Kikaya	Democratic Republic of Congo	44.89 s
5	Sanjay Ayre	Jamaica	45.66 s
6th	Arismendy Peguero	Dominican Republic	20.87 s
7th	Ivano Bucci	San Marino	48.54 s
8th	Liu Xiaosheng	People's Republic of China	53.11 s

Forward 3

August 18, 2008 , 9:16 am

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Nery Brenes	Costa Rica	45.36 s
2	James Godday	Nigeria	45.49 s
3	Andretti Bain	Bahamas	45.96 s
4th	Niko Verekauta	Fiji	46.32 s
5	Fernando de Almeida	Brazil	46.60 s
6th	Lewis Banda	Zimbabwe	46.76 s
7th	Vincent Mumo Kiilu	Kenya	46.79 s
8th	Nagmeldin Ali Abubakr	Sudan	47.12 s

Forward 4

August 18, 2008 , 9:24 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Martyn Rooney	Great Britain	45.00 s
2	Sean Wroe	Australia	45.17 s	PB
3	Ricardo Chambers	Jamaica	45.22 s
4th	Erison Hurtault	Dominica	46.10 s
5	Andrés Silva	Uruguay	46.34 s
6th	Rudolf Götz	Czech Republic	46.38 s
7th	Yūzō Kanemaru	Japan	46.39 s
DNS	California Molefe	Botswana

Forward 5

August 18, 2008 , 9:32 am

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	LaShawn Merritt	United States	44.96 s
2	Saul Weigopwa	Nigeria	45.19 s
3	Claudio Licciardello	Italy	45.25 s	PB
4th	Jonathan Borlée	Belgium	45.25 s	PB
5	Ato Stephens	Trinidad and Tobago	45.63 s
6th	Alleyne Francique	Grenada	46.15 s
7th	Geiner Mosquera	Colombia	46.59 s
8th	Siraj Williams	Liberia	47.89 s

Forward 6

August 18, 2008 , 9:40 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Andrew Steele	Great Britain	44.94 s	PB
2	Renny Quow	Trinidad and Tobago	45.13 s
3	Michael Mathieu	Bahamas	45.17 s	PB
4th	Michael Blackwood	Jamaica	45.56 s
5	Tyler Christopher	Canada	45.67 s
6th	Joel Phillip	Grenada	46.30 s
7th	Félix Martinez	Puerto Rico	46.46 s
8th	Daniel Dąbrowski	Poland	47.83 s

Forward 7

August 18, 2008 , 9:48 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Jeremy Wariner	United States	45.23 s
2	Tabarie Henry	American Virgin Islands	45.36 s
3	Cédric Van Branteghem	Belgium	45.54 s
4th	David Gillick	Ireland	45.83 s
5	Maxim Dyldin	Russia	46.03 s
6th	Mihailo Knisch	Ukraine	46.28 s
7th	Mathieu Gnanligo	Benin	47.10 s
8th	Naiel Santiago D'Almeida	Sao Tome and Principe	49.08 s

Semifinals

The semi-finals were held in three runs, in which the two best runners - highlighted in light blue - and the two fastest runners - highlighted in light green - qualified for the final.

Run 1

August 19, 2008 , 9:45 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Jeremy Wariner	United States	44.15 s
2	Chris Brown	Bahamas	44.59 s
3	Kevin Borlée	Belgium	44.88 s	NO
4th	Nery Brenes	Costa Rica	44.94 s	NO
5	Saul Weigopwa	Nigeria	45.02 s
6th	William Collazo	Cuba	45.06 s	PB
7th	Tabarie Henry	American Virgin Islands	45.19 s	NO
8th	Claudio Licciardello	Italy	45.64 s

Run 2

August 19, 2008 , 9:52 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Leslie Djhone	France	44.79 s
2	David Neville	United States	44.91 s
3	Joel Milburn	Australia	45.06 s
4th	Ricardo Chambers	Jamaica	45.09 s
5	Jonathan Borlée	Belgium	45.11 s	PB
6th	James Godday	Nigeria	45.24 s
7th	Andretti Bain	Bahamas	45.52 s
8th	Andrew Steele	Great Britain	45.59 s

Run 3

August 19, 2008 , 9:59 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	LaShawn Merritt	United States	44.12 s
2	Martyn Rooney	Great Britain	44.60 s	PB
3	Johan Wissman	Sweden	44.64 s
4th	Renny Quow	Trinidad and Tobago	44.82 s	PB
5	Gary Kikaya	Democratic Republic of Congo	44.94 s
6th	Michael Mathieu	Bahamas	45.56 s
7th	Sean Wroe	Australia	45.56 s
8th	Cédric Van Branteghem	Belgium	45.81 s

• 

  The Belgian twin brothers Kevin (left) and Jonathan Borlée (right) are eliminated in the semifinals

• 

  Nery Brenes from Costa Rica is eliminated in the semi-finals

• 

  Out in the semifinals for the Jamaican Ricardo Chambers

• 

  With Cédric Van Branteghem, the third Belgian also fails in the semi-finals

final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	LaShawn Merritt	United States	43.75 s	PB
2	Jeremy Wariner	United States	44.74 s
3	David Neville	United States	44.80 s
4th	Chris Brown	Bahamas	44.84 s
5	Leslie Djhone	France	45.11 s
6th	Martyn Rooney	Great Britain	45.12 s
7th	Renny Quow	Trinidad and Tobago	45.22 s
8th	Johan Wissman	Sweden	45.39 s

August 21, 2008 , 9:20 pm

At the last three championships at world level, the 2004 Olympic Games and the 2005 and 2007 World Championships , there had been triple successes for the US athletes. Here in Beijing they were again at the top of the favorites list. Jeremy Wariner was at the forefront of all three of the above-mentioned events and was once again in the race. The strongest competitor was his compatriot LaShawn Merritt, last year's runner-up. The third American, David Neville, was not rated quite as highly. Most likely, Chris Brown from the Bahamas was trusted to slow down the superiority of US runners. He was fourth in the last two World Championships. Of the Europeans, the French 2007 World Cup fifth, Leslie Djhone, was the strongest.

Three Americans and one runner each from the Bahamas, France, Great Britain, Sweden and Trinidad and Tobago had reached the finals.

Wariner led the field for the first two hundred meters of the final. But in the target corner, his two compatriots Neville and especially Merritt came up strong. At the start of the home stretch, the three Americans were pretty much tied, with Brown fighting behind them. LaShawn Merritt clearly had the greatest stamina in the last hundred meters, who was superior to the Olympic champion by almost a full second. The success-used Jeremy Wariner had to be satisfied with silver this time. The battle for the bronze medal was very close. Brown was actually already past Neville in the last few meters, but he released the very last reserves with a dive to the finish, while Brown stumbled a little. So David Neville got bronze after all and Chris Brown finished fourth again, four hundredths of a second behind him. Leslie Djhone came in fifth as the best European, ahead of the British Martyn Rooney.

LaShawn Merritt, Jeremy Wariner and David Neville achieved the USA's second triple win over 400 meters at the Olympic Games in a row.

With 20 victories by US athletes in 26 Olympic finals, this was the seventh US victory in a row.

• 

  Olympic Champion LaShawn Merritt, USA

• 

  Silver medal for 2004 Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner from the USA

• 

  The finish behind Merritt: Wariner (7) takes silver, Neville (9) crashes over the finish line and wins bronze

• 

  Chris Brown of the Bahamas missed the bronze medal in fourth, four hundredths of a second behind

• 

  Fifth place for Frenchman Leslie Djhone

• 

  Briton Martyn Rooney finished sixth

• 

  Eighth place in the final: Johan Wissman from Sweden

Web links

• SportsReference 400m , accessed May 29, 2018
• Official Report of the XXVIIIth Olympiad, Results Athletics , English / French (PDF, 3054 kB), accessed on May 29, 2018

Video

• Athletics - Men's 400M - Final - Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games , published August 22, 2008 on youtube.com, accessed on May 29, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Campeonato CAC de Atletismo 2008 on athlecac.org, accessed on May 28, 2018
2. ↑ Campeonato Sudamericano de Atletismo 2007 on athlecac.org, accessed on May 28, 2018
3. ↑ 17th Asian Athletics Championship 2007 ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at athleticsasia.org (PDF, 417 kB), accessed on May 28, 2018 
4. ↑ Oceania Area Championships - 25/06/2008 to 28/06/2008 on athletics-oceania.com (PDF, 130 kB), accessed on May 28, 2018
5. ^ IAAF, 400 m men , accessed on May 29, 2018