The men's 400 metres competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, was held at the Olympic Stadium on 4–6 August. Forty-nine athletes from 38 nations competed. The event was won by 0.52 seconds by Kirani James of Grenada, earning the country its first Olympic medal. Luguelín Santos's silver was the Dominican Republic's first medal in the men's 400 metres. Lalonde Gordon's bronze was Trinidad and Tobago's first medal in the event since 1964.

It was only the fourth time that no American was on the podium—following 1908 (where a rules dispute led to disqualification of one of the Americans in the final and the refusal of the other two Americans to run in protest), 1920 (where the top American came in fourth with the same time as the silver and bronze medalists) and 1980 (when the United States boycotted the Games entirely).

It was the first time in any Olympic event that three different Caribbean nations shared the podium.

Summary

The first round went largely to form, but defending champion LaShawn Merritt came to the meet injured and re-injured himself, unable to finish. Renny Quow also failed to start his heat. In the first race, Oscar Pistorius ran a season best to qualify. In the second heat, world champion Kirani James ran easily to win. The third heat featured three national records as Jonathan Borlée took his twin brother's mark for Belgium (Kevin also qualified in the seventh heat), Pavel Maslák set the mark for the Czech Republic and Donald Sanford set the mark for Israel. Most of the time qualifiers came from the hotly contested fourth heat, 45.61, the slowest time qualifier, though Conrad Williams got in with a 46.12 in the slow sixth heat.

It took under 45 seconds to make the final as Lalonde Gordon led the qualifiers from heat 1. Heat 2 featured James and Jonathan Borlée, and double-amputee Pistorius' attempt to make the final. But Pistorius' late charge was non-existent and he finished last in the heat. After the race, in a show of sportsmanship, James and Pistorius exchanged bib numbers, which James proudly showed as he celebrated. In the third heat, shotgun survivor Bryshon Nellum ran 45.02 for the fastest non-qualifier.

Aside from Chris Brown, the finals were filled by athletes under age 24, three of them still teenagers. Demetrius Pinder took the early lead down the back stretch, but reigning World Junior Champion Luguelín Santos (age 18) and reigning World Champion Kirani James (age 19) were in the lead coming off the turn. Down the stretch, James powered ahead for the gold medal. It was also the first Olympic medal for his country. Lalonde Gordon came from behind but could not overtake Santos; he received a bronze. Santos' silver medal was the third medal for the Dominican Republic, coming 45 minutes after Felix Sánchez won his second gold.

Background

This was the 27th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Five of the finalists from 2008 returned: gold medalist LaShawn Merritt of the United States, fourth-place finisher Chris Brown of the Bahamas, sixth-place finisher Martyn Rooney of Great Britain, seventh-place finisher Renny Quow of Trinidad and Tobago, and eight-place finisher Johan Wissman of Sweden. 2008 gold and 2012 silver medalist Jeremy Wariner failed to make the U.S. team. Despite the Americans' string of 7 straight victories, it was the young Kirani James of Grenada who was favored going into this event. Merritt was the strongest American, but James had beaten him at the 2011 world championships and Merritt came into the 2012 Games injured.

Brunei, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Macedonia, Myanmar, and Palestine appeared in this event for the first time. There was one Independent Olympic Athlete from the former Netherlands Antilles, which had previously competed in 1976. The United States made its 26th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Qualification

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the men's 100 metres event if all athletes met the A standard, or 1 athlete if they met the B standard. The qualifying time standards could be obtained in various meets during the qualifying period that had the approval of the IAAF. Indoor and outdoor meets were eligible. The A standard for the 2012 men's 400 metres was 45.30 seconds; the B standard was 45.90 seconds. The qualifying period for was from 1 May 2011 to 8 July 2012. NOCs could also have an athlete enter the 400 metres through a universality place. NOCs could enter one male athlete in an athletics event, regardless of time, if they had no male athletes meeting the qualifying A or B standards in any men's athletic event.

Competition format

The men's 400 metres competition consisted of 7 heats (Round 1), 3 semifinals and a final. The fastest competitors from each race in the heats qualified for the semifinals along with the fastest overall competitors not already qualified that were required to fill the 24 available spaces in the semifinals. A total of eight competitors qualified for the final from the semifinals.

Records , the existing world record, Olympic record, and world leading time were as follows:

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

The following new national records were set during the competition.

Nation Athlete Round Time Belgium Jonathan Borlée Heat 3 44.43 Czech Republic Pavel Maslák Heat 3 44.91 Israel Donald Sanford Heat 3 45.71 Grenada Kirani James Final 43.94

Schedule

All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1) Date Time Round Saturday, 4 August 2012 10:35 Round 1 Sunday, 5 August 2012 20:40 Semifinals Monday, 6 August 2012 21:30 Final

Results

Round 1

Qual. rule: first 3 of each heat (Q) plus the 3 fastest times qualified.

Heat 1 Rank Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes1 Luguelín Santos 0.187 45.04 2 Oscar Pistorius 0.236 45.44 , 3 Maksim Dyldin 0.190 45.52 , 4 Rusheen McDonald 0.243 46.67 5 Vitaliy Butrym 0.165 47.62 — Ahmed Mohamed Al-Merjabi[a] — Renny Quow —

[a] Ahmed Mohamed Al-Merjabi was forced to scratch from this race after he injured his foot in a training session three days earlier.

Heat 2 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes1 6 Kirani James 0.173 45.23 2 7 Ramon Miller 0.160 45.57 3 4 Liemarvin Bonevacia 0.232 45.60 , 4 8 Isaac Makwala 0.211 45.67 5 3 Deon Lendore 0.205 45.81 6 5 Daundre Barnaby 0.171 46.04 7 9 Bereket Desta 0.224 47.40 8 2 Bahaa Al Farra 0.212 49.93

Heat 3 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes1 6 Jonathan Borlée 0.179 44.43 , NR2 7 Pavel Maslák 0.186 44.91 , NR3 4 Pavel Trenikhin 0.194 45.00 , 4 9 Dane Hyatt 0.261 45.14 5 2 Donald Sanford 0.168 45.71 NR6 5 Nelson Stone 0.193 46.71 7 8 Sergej Zaikov 0.209 47.12 8 3 Ak Hafiy Tajuddin Rositi 0.188 48.67

Heat 4

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes1 2 Demetrius Pinder 0.151 44.92 2 7 Bryshon Nellum 0.191 45.29 3 6 Yousef Ahmed Masrahi 0.147 45.43 , 4 3 Tabarie Henry 0.176 45.43 5 5 Albert Bravo 0.197 45.61 , 6 4 Jermaine Gonzales 0.171 46.21 7 8 Kristijan Efremov 0.229 47.92 8 9 Zaw Win Thet 0.181 50.07

Heat 5

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes1 3 Chris Brown 0.171 45.40 2 6 Tony McQuay 0.155 45.48 3 2 Nigel Levine 0.148 45.58 4 7 Yuzo Kanemaru 0.156 46.01 5 5 Jānis Leitis 0.159 46.41 6 8 Augusto Stanley 0.190 47.21

Heat 6 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes1 7 Steven Solomon 0.145 45.18 , 2 5 Lalonde Gordon 0.178 45.43 3 2 Conrad Williams 0.164 46.12 4 8 Marcell Deák-Nagy 0.186 46.17 5 6 Winston George 0.245 46.86 6 4 Sajjad Hashemi 0.171 47.75 — 3 LaShawn Merritt 0.195

Heat 7 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes1 2 Kevin Borlée 0.166 45.14 2 5 Martyn Rooney 0.186 45.36 3 8 Rabah Yousif 0.203 45.46 4 7 Nery Brenes 0.237 45.65 5 4 Erison Hurtault 0.158 46.05 6 3 Marcin Marciniszyn 0.180 46.35 — 6 Mathieu Gnanligo 0.168

Semifinals

Qual. rule: first 2 of each heat (Q) plus the 2 fastest times (q) qualified.

Semifinal 1 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 7 Lalonde Gordon 0.168 44.58 , 2 5 Demetrius Pinder 0.161 44.94 3 6 Steven Solomon 0.188 44.97 , 4 9 Rabah Yousif 0.178 45.13 = 5 4 Pavel Maslák 0.166 45.15 6 2 Tabarie Henry 0.167 45.19 7 8 Pavel Trenikhin 0.198 45.35 8 3 Conrad Williams 0.153 45.53

Semifinal 2

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 7 Kirani James 0.170 44.59 , 2 6 Chris Brown 0.174 44.67 , 3 4 Jonathan Borlée 0.164 44.99 4 9 Tony McQuay 0.230 45.31 5 8 Maksim Dyldin 0.168 45.39 6 3 Nigel Levine 0.146 45.64 7 2 Albert Bravo 0.185 46.22 8 5 Oscar Pistorius 0.254 46.54

Semifinal 3

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 5 Luguelín Santos 0.155 44.78 2 4 Kevin Borlée 0.147 44.84 3 6 Bryshon Nellum 0.173 45.02 4 8 Ramon Miller 0.190 45.11 5 7 Martyn Rooney 0.186 45.31 6 2 Dane Hyatt 0.159 45.59 7 9 Yousef Ahmed Masrahi 0.146 45.91 8 3 Liemarvin Bonevacia 0.153 96.42

Final

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 5 Kirani James 0.163 43.94 NR 7 Luguelín Santos 0.185 44.46 4 Lalonde Gordon 0.159 44.52 4 6 Chris Brown 0.166 44.79 5 9 Kevin Borlée 0.151 44.81 6 2 Jonathan Borlée 0.173 44.83 7 8 Demetrius Pinder 0.153 44.98 8 3 Steven Solomon 0.143 45.14

References