The men's 400 metres hurdles at the 2000 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics programme were held at Stadium Australia on Sunday 24 September, Monday 25 September and Wednesday 27 September 2000. There were 62 competitors from 45 nations. The event was won by 0.03 seconds by Angelo Taylor of the United States, the nation's fifth consecutive and 17th overall victory in the event. Saudi Arabia and South Africa each earned their first medals in the men's 400 metres hurdles, as Hadi Souan Somayli took silver and Llewellyn Herbert received bronze.

Background

This was the 22nd time the event was held. It had been introduced along with the men's 200 metres hurdles in 1900, with the 200 being dropped after 1904 and the 400 being held through 1908 before being left off the 1912 programme. However, when the Olympics returned in 1920 after World War I, the men's 400 metres hurdles was back and would continue to be contested at every Games thereafter.

Four of the eight finalists from the 1996 Games returned: silver medalist Samuel Matete of Zambia, fifth-place finisher Rohan Robinson of Australia, sixth-place finisher Fabrizio Mori of Italy, and eighth-place finisher Eronilde de Araujo of Brazil. Mori had won the 1999 World Championship, but Angelo Taylor of the United States and Llewellyn Herbert of South Africa were the favorites.

Belarus, Chinese Taipei, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Namibia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan each made their debut in the event. The United States made its 21st appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Qualification

Each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had run 49.90 seconds or faster during the qualification period. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. If an NOC had no athletes that qualified under that standard, one athlete that had run 50.20 seconds or faster could be entered.http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/images/stories/tfn_pdfs/ogqualifying_standards.pdf

Competition format

The competition used the three-round format used every Games since 1908 (except the four-round competition in 1952): quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. The number of semifinals was expanded from 2 to 3. Ten sets of hurdles were set on the course. The hurdles were 3 feet (91.5 centimetres) tall and were placed 35 metres apart beginning 45 metres from the starting line, resulting in a 40 metres home stretch after the last hurdle. The 400 metres track was standard.

There were 8 quarterfinal heats with 7 or 8 athletes each. The top 2 men in each quarterfinal advanced to the semifinals along with the next fastest 8 overall. The 24 semifinalists were divided into 3 semifinals of 8 athletes each, with the top 2 in each semifinal and the next 2 fastest overall advancing to the 8-man final.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1996 Summer Olympics.

No new world or Olympic records were set during the competition.

Schedule

All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10)

Date Time Round Sunday, 24 September 2000 18:15 Quarterfinals Monday, 25 September 2000 19:45 Semifinals Wednesday, 27 September 2000 20:35 Final

Results

All times shown are in seconds.

Quarterfinals

Quarterfinal 1

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 8 Llewellyn Herbert 0.171 49.25 2 7 Thomas Goller 0.154 49.32 3 3 Ruslan Mashchenko 0.255 50.01 4 4 Rohan Robinson 0.173 50.80 5 5 Willie Smith 0.156 50.89 6 6 Carlos Zbinden 0.180 51.36 7 2 Victor Houston 0.179 51.51

Quarterfinal 2

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 5 Fabrizio Mori 0.162 49.35 2 8 Boris Gorban 0.195 49.44 3 4 Félix Sánchez 0.142 49.70 4 6 Blair Young 0.193 49.75 5 2 Tien-Wen Chen 0.180 49.93 , 6 3 Erick Keter 0.269 50.06 , 7 1 Kazuhiko Yamazaki 0.177 50.15 8 7 Yvon Rakotoarimiandry 0.185 50.15

Quarterfinal 3

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 8 Angelo Taylor 0.185 49.48 2 6 Dinsdale Morgan 0.171 49.64 3 4 Ibou Faye 0.188 50.09 4 7 Arijan Raja Ratnayake 0.346 50.43 5 5 Erkinjon Isakov 0.182 50.71 6 3 Hillary Kiprotich Maritim 0.180 51.04 7 2 Sylvester Omodiale 0.189 51.06

Quarterfinal 4

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 8 Jiri Muzik 0.216 50.11 2 6 Eric Thomas 0.170 50.16 3 1 Periklis Iakovakis 0.165 50.20 4 4 Hideaki Kawamura 0.172 50.68 5 7 Vadim Zadoinov 0.173 51.08 6 2 Mustapha Sdad 0.216 51.39 7 3 Tom McGuirk 0.183 51.73 8 5 Lee Du-yeon 0.192 52.61

Quarterfinal 5

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 3 Christopher Rawlinson 0.184 51.30 2 2 Paweł Januszewski 0.163 51.40 3 7 Tibor Bedi 0.169 51.54 4 5 Kenneth Harnden 0.435 51.83 5 4 Leonid Vershinin 0.151 51.84 6 1 Darko Juricic 0.167 52.39 7 6 Zahr-el-Din El-Najem 0.160 52.70 8 8 Iliya Dzhivondov 0.279 54.36

Quarterfinal 6

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 1 Hadi Souan Somayli 0.174 49.28 2 7 James Carter 0.174 49.41 3 6 Alwyn Myburgh 0.184 49.57 4 5 Pedro Rodrigues 0.162 49.90 5 4 Anthony Borsumato 0.155 50.73 6 3 Costas Pochanis 0.244 51.20 7 8 Matthew Beckenham 0.176 51.27 8 2 Ian Weakley 0.179 52.18

Quarterfinal 7

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 1 Samuel Matete 0.184 48.98 2 5 Gennadiy Gorbenko 0.406 49.12 , 3 8 Matt Douglas 0.163 49.62 4 7 Kemel Thompson 0.241 50.40 5 3 Zid Abou Hamed 0.117 50.74 6 6 Paul Tucker 0.354 50.92 7 2 Radoslav Holubek 0.127 51.18 8 4 Mowen Boino 0.406 51.28

Quarterfinal 8

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 8 Eronilde de Araújo 0.179 50.06 2 6 Giorgio Frinolli Puzzilli 0.179 50.27 3 4 Vladislav Shiryayev 0.179 50.39 4 5 Inigo Monreal 0.502 51.32 5 7 Sinisa Pesa 0.165 52.14 6 2 Curt Young 0.164 52.46 7 3 Iain Harnden 0.287 54.01 8 1 Dai Tamesue 0.256 1:01.81

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 6 Hadi Souan Somayli 0.316 48.14 , 2 4 Fabrizio Mori 48.40 , 3 5 Gennadiy Gorbenko 0.478 48.40 , 4 7 Paweł Januszewski 0.244 48.42 , 5 2 Eric Thomas 0.188 49.25 6 3 Thomas Goller 0.152 49.28 7 1 Pedro Rodrigues 0.163 49.48 8 8 Tien-Wen Chen 0.182 50.52

Semifinal 2

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 4 Llewellyn Herbert 0.153 48.38 2 3 Angelo Taylor 0.250 48.49 3 7 Ruslan Mashchenko 0.177 48.49 4 8 Blair Young 0.255 49.20 5 5 Jiri Muzik 0.277 49.23 6 6 Chris Rawlinson 0.177 49.25 7 1 Félix Sánchez 0.178 49.69 8 2 Giorgio Frinolli Puzzilli 0.242 50.10

Semifinal 3

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 3 James Carter 0.202 48.48 2 4 Eronilde de Araújo 0.181 48.76 3 6 Samuel Matete 0.228 48.98 4 1 Alwyn Myburgh 0.202 49.25 5 5 Boris Gorban 0.454 49.29 6 8 Matt Douglas 0.177 49.53 7 2 Dinsdale Morgan 0.166 50.23 8 7 Erick Keter 0.202 51.25

Final

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 Angelo Taylor 0.179 47.50 4 Hadi Souan Somayli 0.437 47.53 6 Llewellyn Herbert 0.169 47.81 4 5 James Carter 0.421 48.04 5 8 Eronilde de Araújo 0.190 48.34 6 2 Paweł Januszewski 0.149 48.44 7 3 Fabrizio Mori 0.198 48.78 8 7 Gennadiy Gorbenko 0.395 49.01

Results summary

Rank Athlete Nation Quarterfinals Semifinals Final Notes Angelo Taylor 49.48 48.49 47.50 Hadi Souan Somayli 49.28 48.14 47.53 Llewellyn Herbert 49.25 48.38 47.81 4 James Carter 49.41 48.48 48.04 5 Eronilde de Araújo 50.06 48.76 48.34 6 Paweł Januszewski 51.40 48.42 48.44 7 Fabrizio Mori 49.35 48.40 48.78 8 Gennadiy Gorbenko 49.12 48.80 49.01 9 Ruslan Mashchenko 50.01 48.94 Did not advance 10 Samuel Matete 49.98 48.98 11 Blair Young 49.75 49.20 12 Jiri Muzik 50.11 49.23 13 Alwyn Myburgh 49.57 49.25 Chris Rawlinson 51.30 49.25 Eric Thomas 50.16 49.25 16 Thomas Goller 49.32 49.28 17 Boris Gorban 49.44 49.29 18 Pedro Rodrigues 49.90 49.48 19 Matt Douglas 49.62 49.53 20 Félix Sánchez 49.70 49.69 21 Giorgio Frinolli Puzzilli 50.27 50.10 22 Dinsdale Morgan 49.64 50.23 23 Tien-Wen Chen 49.93 50.52 24 Erick Keter 50.06 51.25 25 Ibou Faye 50.09 Did not advance 26 Yvon Rakotoarimiandry 50.15 Kazuhiko Yamazaki 50.15 28 Periklis Iakovakis 50.20 29 Vladislav Shiryayev 50.39 30 Kemel Thompson 50.40 31 Arijan Raja Ratnayake 50.43 32 Hideaki Kawamura 50.68 33 Erkinjon Isakov 50.71 34 Anthony Borsumato 50.73 35 Zid Abou Hamed 50.74 36 Rohan Robinson 50.80 37 Willie Smith 50.89 38 Paul Tucker 50.92 39 Hillary Kiprotich Maritim 51.04 40 Sylvester Omodiale 51.06 41 Vadim Zadoinov 51.08 42 Radoslav Holubek 51.18 43 Costas Pochanis 51.20 44 Matthew Beckenham 51.27 45 Inigo Monreal 51.32 46 Carlos Zbinden 51.36 47 Mowen Boino 51.28 48 Mustapha Sdad 51.39 49 Victor Houston 51.51 50 Tibor Bedi 51.54 51 Tom McGuirk 51.73 52 Kenneth Harnden 51.83 53 Leonid Vershinin 51.84 54 Sinisa Pesa 52.14 55 Ian Weakley 52.18 56 Darko Juricic 52.39 57 Curt Young 52.46 58 Du-Yeon Lee 52.61 59 Zahr-Edin Al Najem 52.70 60 Iain Harnden 54.01 61 Iliya Dzhivondov 54.36 62 Dai Tamesue 1:01.81

References

External links Official Report of the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics