The men's 400 metres hurdles at the 2023 World Athletics Championships was held at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest, Hungary from 20 to 23 August 2023.

Summary

World record holder #1 Karsten Warholm was back. With three time silver medalist #2 Rai Benjamin and defending champion #3 Alison dos Santos, the top three of all time were there. And don't forget #8 Kyron McMaster. During the semi-finals, 18 year old Roshawn Clarke got inspired trying to chase Warholm, and the result was a new World Junior Record, now called a U20 Record, and #13 of all time. Trevor Bassitt moved to #18 all time with his performance in the semis just to be a time qualifier behind Warholm and Clarke.

Warholm was assigned his favorite lane 7. Outside of him was McMaster in 8 and dos Santos in 9. With Benjamin in 6 and Clarke in 5, all the major players were on the outside of the track. As expected, Warholm took it out hard. Unexpectedly, Benjamin also took it out hard, marginally ahead of Warholm, and McMaster was right there with them. The three were virtually even at the halfway point, and then Warholm started to edge ahead. Down the home stretch, unlike previous meetings, Benjamin was not coming from behind, but instead was watching Warholm pulling away from him. And it was McMaster coming from behind to catch Benjamin before the line for silver. Warholm's winning time of 46.89 was the eighth time he has run under 47 seconds, a time that had only been achieved once before 2018. It was Warholm's third World Championship gold medal in this event.

Records Before the competition, records were as follows:

RecordAthlete & LocationDate World record45.94Tokyo, Japan3 August 2021Championship record46.29Eugene, United States19 July 2022World Leading46.51Monte Carlo, Monaco21 July 2023African Record47.10Zürich, Switzerland7 August 1991Asian Record46.98Paris, France30 June 2018North, Central American and Caribbean record46.17Tokyo, Japan3 August 2021South American Record46.29Eugene, United States19 July 2022European Record45.94Tokyo, Japan3 August 2021Oceanian record48.28Atlanta, United States31 July 1996

Qualification standard The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 48.70.

Schedule The event schedule, in local time (UTC+2), was as follows:

Date Time Round20 August 11:25 Heats21 August 19:33 Semi-finals23 August 21:50 Final

Results Heats The first four athletes in each heat (Q) and the next four fastest (q) qualified to the semi-finals.

Rank Heat Name Nationality Time Notes 1 1 Alison dos Santos 48.12 Q 2 1 Ludvy Vaillant 48.27 Q 3 4 Joshua Abuaku 48.32 Q, 4 5 Rai Benjamin 48.35 Q 5 4 CJ Allen 48.36 Q 6 4 Roshawn Clarke 48.39 Q 7 2 Kyron McMaster 48.47 Q 8 4 Ezekiel Nathaniel 48.47 Q, 9 2 Rasmus Mägi 48.58 Q 10 5 Jaheel Hyde 48.63 Q 11 3 Wilfried Happio 48.63 Q 12 5 Kazuki Kurokawa 48.71 Q, 13 4 Julien Watrin 48.72 q, 14 2 Trevor Bassitt 48.73 Q 15 5 Gerald Drummond 48.73 Q 16 3 Karsten Warholm 48.76 Q 17 5 Yasmani Copello 48.92 q 18 5 Emil Agyekum 49.00 q 19 4 Mario Lambrughi 49.05 q, 20 2 Wiseman Were Mukhobe 49.10 Q 21 1 Julien Bonvin 49.19 Q, 22 1 Xie Zhiyu 49.25 Q 23 2 Sergio Fernández 49.26 24 4 Vít Müller 49.37 25 1 Matic Ian Gucek 49.40 26 1 Constantin Preis 49.45 27 3 Bassem Hemeida 49.50 Q 28 3 Alessandro Sibilio 49.50 Q 29 5 Shakeem Hall-Smith 49.61 30 3 Dany Brand 49.69 31 2 Ismail Nezir 49.92 32 3 Pablo Andrés Ibáñez 50.01 33 4 Yusaku Kodama 50.18 34 2 Eric Cray 50.27 35 5 Árpád Bánóczy 50.31 36 3 Santhosh Kumar Tamilarasan 50.46 37 5 Jun Jie Calvin Quek 50.53 38 3 50.62 39 3 50.86 40 2 Takayuki Kishimoto 50.90 41 2 Andrea Ercolani Volta 52.69 1Abdelmalik Lahoulou1Assinie Wilson

Semi-finals The first 2 athletes in each heat (Q) and the next 2 fastest (q) qualified to the final.

Rank Heat Name Nationality Time Notes 1 3 Karsten Warholm 47.09 Q 2 2 Rai Benjamin 47.24 Q 3 3 Roshawn Clarke 47.34 Q, , 4 3 Trevor Bassitt 47.38 q, 5 2 Alison dos Santos 47.38 Q, 6 1 Kyron McMaster 47.72 Q 7 1 Rasmus Mägi 48.30 Q 8 3 Joshua Abuaku 48.39 q 9 3 Alessandro Sibilio 48.43 10 1 CJ Allen 48.44 11 2 Ludvy Vaillant 48.48 12 1 Jaheel Hyde 48.49 13 2 Kazuki Kurokawa 48.58 14 3 Yasmani Copello 48.66 15 2 Emil Agyekum 48.71 16 3 Wilfried Happio 48.83 17 1 Julien Watrin 48.94 18 1 Ezekiel Nathaniel 49.22 19 3 Gerald Drummond 49.31 20 2 Wiseman Were Mukhobe 49.40 21 1 Bassem Hemeida 49.50 22 2 Xie Zhiyu 49.57 23 2 Julien Bonvin 49.75 24 1 Mario Lambrughi

Final The final was started on 23 August at 21:50.

Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 7 Karsten Warholm 46.89 8 Kyron McMaster 47.34 6 Rai Benjamin 47.56 4 5 Roshawn Clarke 48.07 5 9 Alison dos Santos 48.10 6 3 Trevor Bassitt 48.22 7 4 Rasmus Mägi 48.33 8 2 Joshua Abuaku 48.53

References