The men's 400 metres at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea took place between 24 and 28 September 1988. Seventy-five athletes from 55 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at three since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by 0.06 seconds by Steve Lewis of the United States, the second in what would ultimately be seven consecutive American victories stretching from 1984 to 2008. The United States swept the podium in the event for the third time, having previously done so in 1904 and 1968.

Summary

It always promised to be a classic. The clear favourite was the legendary American Harry "Butch" Reynolds. He had set a new world record of 43.29 seconds six weeks before. Reynolds breezed through the heats and into the final.

The final, ran on Thursday September 28, 1988, started somewhat as expected, with Reynolds holding back and saving himself for his normal strong finish. To the surprise of most watching a young American Steve Lewis went out strong from the start and gave Reynolds a run for his money. Entering the home straight Lewis was leading and Reynolds charging back at him but Reynolds left it too late and the 19yr old Lewis hung on for victory in an amazing time of 43.87sec. Reynolds finished second and Danny Everett third for an American sweep. The same trio was also involved with Kevin Robinzine in winning the 4 × 400 m relay.

The career of Lewis was blighted by injury although he did compete in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, placing second in 400m and being part of the American quartet who took gold in 4 × 400 m relay.

Background

This was the 21st appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. None of the Americans from 1984 returned, but all five non-American finalists did: silver medalist Gabriel Tiacoh of the Ivory Coast, fourth-place finisher Darren Clark of Australia, sixth-place finisher Sunday Uti and seventh-place finisher Innocent Egbunike of Nigeria, and Bert Cameron of Jamaica (who had qualified for but did not start the Los Angeles final due to injury). The new American team was favored, however; Butch Reynolds had just broken the 20-year-old world record, and Danny Everett and Steve Lewis were strong contenders. The 1987 world champion, Thomas Schönlebe of East Germany, was also a significant challenger.

Bangladesh, Honduras, Indonesia, the Maldives, Mali, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, South Korea, Vanuatu, the (U.S.) Virgin Islands, and Zaire appeared in this event for the first time; the Republic of China had previously competed, but now appeared as Chinese Taipei for the first time. The United States made its 20th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Competition format

The competition retained the basic four-round format from 1920. The "fastest loser" system, introduced in 1964, was used for the first round. There were 10 first-round heats, each with 7 or 8 runners. The top three runners in each heat advanced, along with the next two fastest overall. The 32 quarterfinalists were divided into 4 quarterfinals with 8 runners each; the top four athletes in each quarterfinal heat advanced to the semifinals, with no "fastest loser" spots. The semifinals featured 2 heats of 8 runners each. The top four runners in each semifinal heat advanced, making an eight-man final.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1976 Summer Olympics.

No world or Olympic records were set during this event.

Schedule

Following the 1984 schedule, the event was held on four separate days, with each round being on a different day.

All times are Korea Standard Time adjusted for daylight savings (UTC+10)

Date Time Round Saturday, 24 September 1988 9:30 Round 1 Sunday, 25 September 1988 12:20 Quarterfinals Monday, 26 September 1988 15:45 Semifinals Wednesday, 28 September 1988 12:55 Final

Results

Round 1

Heat 1

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 2 Todd Bennett 46.37 2 7 Miles Murphy 46.38 3 3 Anton Skerritt 46.64 4 4 Richard Louis 46.80 5 8 Felix Sandy 46.82 6 5 Gustavo Envela 48.11 7 6 Joe Rodan 48.69 8 1 Odiya Silweya 49.73

Heat 2

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 7 Brian Whittle 46.07 2 6 Gaietà Cornet 46.16 3 3 Butch Reynolds 46.28 4 4 Seibert Straughn 47.37 5 1 Filipe Lombá 47.57 6 5 Ali Faudet 48.69 7 2 Baptiste Firiam 51.77

Heat 3

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 3 Mohamed Amer Al-Malki 46.79 2 6 Lucas Sang 46.85 3 2 Ousmane Diarra 46.86 4 4 Douglas Kalembo 47.44 5 8 Mohamed Hossain Milzer 48.76 6 1 Akossi Gnalo 51.46 — 7 Sérgio de Menezes — — William Taramai

Heat 4

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 1 Ian Morris 45.84 2 4 Thomas Schönlebe 47.07 3 2 Sunday Uti 47.08 4 3 Lin Kuang-liang 48.18 5 8 Ernest Tché-Noubossie 48.31 6 7 Haji Bakr Al-Qahtani 48.53 7 6 Enock Musonda 49.21 8 5 Ahmed Shageef 50.61

Heat 5

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 7 Steve Lewis 45.31 2 6 Jens Carlowitz 45.64 3 3 Gabriel Tiacoh 47.19 4 5 Jean-Didiace Bémou 48.46 5 2 Abdullah Ali Ahmed 48.89 6 4 Jonathan Chipalo 48.97 7 1 Maher Abbas 51.29 8 8 Carlton Usher 51.42

Heat 6

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 6 Gérson de Souza 45.90 2 2 Howard Davis 45.97 3 8 Takale Tuna 47.87 4 7 Sunday Maweni 47.97 5 5 Sulaiman Juma Al-Habsi 48.30 6 3 Nordin Mohamed Jadi 49.52 7 1 Michael Williams 51.22

Heat 7

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 7 Darren Clark 45.93 2 5 Simeon Kipkemboi 46.15 3 3 Elvis Forde 46.47 4 4 Elijah Nkala 46.60 5 1 Antonio Sánchez 47.18 6 6 Jaime Rodrigues 47.33 7 2 Aouf Abdul Rahman Youssef 47.45 8 8 Desai Wynter 48.39

Heat 8

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 3 Bert Cameron 46.24 2 2 Rob Stone 46.52 3 6 Dawda Jallow 46.91 4 8 Yun Nam-han 47.02 5 1 John Goville 47.11 6 5 Muhammad Fayyaz 47.13 7 7 Yaya Seyba 48.83 8 4 Alfred Browne 48.92

Heat 9

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 1 Danny Everett 45.63 2 3 Devon Morris 45.95 3 2 Tomasz Jędrusik 46.12 4 6 Patrick Delice 46.14 5 5 Slobodan Branković 46.59 6 7 Jorge Fidel Ponce 51.11 — 8 Mwana Bute Kasongo

Heat 10

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 5 Susumu Takano 45.42 2 7 Troy Douglas 45.69 3 4 Innocent Egbunike 46.02 4 6 Elkana Nyangau 46.25 5 3 Ismail Mačev 46.37 6 8 Elieser Wattebosi 47.10 7 2 Willis Todman 50.11

Quarterfinals

Quarterfinal 1

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 6 Ian Morris 44.70 2 3 Jens Carlowitz 45.09 3 4 Brian Whittle 45.22 4 5 Tomasz Jędrusik 45.27 5 7 Sunday Uti 45.33 6 2 Miles Murphy 45.93 7 1 Dawda Jallow 46.35 8 8 Elvis Forde 46.59

Quarterfinal 2

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 5 Danny Everett 44.33 2 6 Innocent Egbunike 45.02 3 7 Thomas Schönlebe 45.09 4 8 Bert Cameron 45.16 5 3 Simeon Kipkemboi 45.44 6 2 Todd Bennett 45.96 7 1 Ousmane Diarra 46.23 8 4 Troy Douglas 46.28

Quarterfinal 3

Rank Time Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 5 Steve Lewis 44.41 2 3 Darren Clark 44.96 3 8 Mohamed Amer Al-Malki 45.01 4 6 Devon Morris 45.30 5 4 Gaietà Cornet 45.39 6 2 Anton Skerritt 46.08 7 1 Elkana Nyangau 46.09 8 7 Takale Tuna 47.48

Quarterfinal 4

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 1 Butch Reynolds 44.46 2 3 Susumu Takano 45.00 3 5 Gérson de Souza 45.35 4 6 Howard Davis 45.40 5 7 Gabriel Tiacoh 45.49 6 8 Lucas Sang 45.72 7 4 Patrick Delice 45.75 8 2 Rob Stone 46.04

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 3 Steve Lewis 44.35 2 5 Danny Everett 44.36 3 6 Darren Clark 44.38 4 8 Bertland Cameron 44.50 5 4 Susumu Takano 44.90 6 2 Jens Carlowitz 45.08 7 7 Gerson Souza 45.27 8 1 Tomasz Jędrusik 46.17

Semifinal 2

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 6 Butch Reynolds 44.33 2 3 Ian Morris 44.60 3 5 Mohamed Amer Al-Malki 44.69 4 4 Innocent Egbunike 44.74 5 2 Thomas Schönlebe 44.90 6 1 Howard Davis 45.48 7 8 Devon Morris 45.68 8 7 Brian Whittle 46.07

Final

Lewis' winning margin of 0.06 seconds remained the smallest winning margin in the history of the event, until Quincy Hall won the 2024 Olympic Games by 0.04 seconds.

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time 6 Steve Lewis 43.87 3 Butch Reynolds 43.93 4 Danny Everett 44.09 4 5 Darren Clark 44.55 5 7 Innocent Egbunike 44.72 6 2 Bertland Cameron 44.94 7 8 Ian Morris 44.95 8 1 Mohamed Amer Al-Malki 45.03

See also 1987 Men's World Championships 400 metres (Rome) 1990 Men's European Championships 400 metres (Split) 1991 Men's World Championships 400 metres (Tokyo) 1992 Men's Olympic 400 metres (Barcelona)

References

External links Official Report