The men's 400 metres hurdles at the 2025 World Athletics Championships was held at the National Stadium in Tokyo on 15, 17 and 19 September 2025.
Summary Starting in 1976, Edwin Moses became legend in this event. He could consistently run under 48 seconds which allowed him to run undefeated for over a decade. His 1983 world record 47.02 made 47 seconds seem like a pretty substantial barrier. Just under a decade later Kevin Young did break 47 winning the 1992 Olympics in 46.78 to set a new world record. That was it, nobody was able to get under 47 for more than a quarter of a century, until Abderrahman Samba dipped his toe over the line running 46.98 in 2018. Then the floodgates opened in 2019. Karsten Warholm and Rai Benjamin both broke 47 in the same race. The two did battle many times after that. Warholm finally broke Young's record in 2021, just before the record had stood for 29 years.https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/norways-warholm-breaks-400-metres-hurdles-world-record-2021-07-01/ That season culminated with the 2020 Olympics where Warholm took the world record under 46 seconds to 45.94, which still stands as the current world record. In that race, on this track, Benjamin ran the second fastest time in history 46.17 and they were chased there by Alison dos Santos also under 47 seconds. Between the three of them, they had broken 47 seconds 38 times.
Warholm returns as defending champion also having won in 2017 and 2019. dos Santos won in 2022, Benjamin won the 2024 Olympics. Warholm also enters this championships with the world lead, his 46.28 less than a month before this race was the third fastest time in history.
Samba had the fastest time in the heats with a 48.03. Young NCAA Champion Ezekiel Nathaniel led the semis-final round with a 47.47. Only dos Santos was able to sneak into the finals with a time over 48 seconds. Unlike his customary lane 7, Warholm drew lane 4, Benjamin got lane 7, with Samba and Nathaniel in 5 and 6, while slow qualifier dos Santos was relegated to lane 9 where he couldn't see his competition. Qatar got a second athlete into the finals with Ismail Abakar. USA also got Caleb Dean.
In the final, Warholm was out aggressively, as is his style, making the athletes to his outside look like they were falling behind. By the end of the first turn, Warholm had made up the stagger on Samba who in turn had almost caught Nathaniel. Uncharacteristically, Benjamin was out just as aggressively making up the stagger on Abakar. When Warholm dragged his trail leg on the third hurdle, that little bobble put Benjamin virtually even. It was clearly a two man race with dos Santos the next to rise a stride behind by the fourth barrier. Down the backstretch, Warholm ran even with Samba and Nathaniel. Both Warholm and Benjamin hit the 200 split in 21.4. By the seventh hurdle, Benjamin had edged into a slight lead. By hurdle eight as the stagger tightened Benjamin had a full stride over Warholm, with dos Santos and Samba only another stride behind Warholm. Onto the home stretch, Benjamin had a clear lead with dos Santos and Samba gaining on Warholm. A few strides out from the final hurdle, a tiring Benjamin took an extra wide swing of his arm to try to lengthen his stride. The corrective action didn't work, he came up short, his left heel hitting the top left of the hurdle. He rode the hurdle until it tipped out of his way, the hurdle knocking Nathaniel's last hurdle out of place. Benjamin had lost his momentum, he struggled home as dos Santos closed rapidly. With just 40 metres to the finish, dos Santos didn't have enough real estate to catch up before Benjamin got over the line. Samba caught the slowing Warholm just after the tenth hurdle. Nathaniel had to go extra high to get over his out of place hurdle, then closed rapidly to almost catch Samba for the bronze.
After the race, Benjamin was disqualified. By hitting the hurdle with the bottom of his foot, it could be interpreted that Benjamin intentionally did not jump the full height of the final hurdle. Also, a hurdler is responsible for any interference a hurdle moved by his action might cause. After a long wait in the elimination area, Benjamin was reinstated as the gold medalist.
Records Before the competition records were as follows:
RecordAthlete & LocationDate World record45.94Tokyo, Japan3 August 2021Championship record46.29Eugene, United States19 July 2022 2025 World Leading 46.28 Chorzów, Poland 16 August 2025 African Record 47.10 Zürich, Switzerland 7 August 1991 Asian Record 46.98 Paris, France 30 June 2018 European Record 45.94 Tokyo, Japan 3 August 2021 North, Central American and Caribbean record 46.17 Oceanian record 48.28 Atlanta, United States 31 July 1996 South American Record 46.29 Eugene, United States 19 July 2022
Qualification standard The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 48.50.
Schedule The event schedule, in local time (UTC+9), was as follows:
Date Time Round 15 September 19:35 Heats17 September 21:30 Semi-finals19 September 21:15 Final
Results Heats The heats took place on 15 September. The first four athletes in each heat ( Q ) and the next four fastest ( q ) qualified for the semi-finals.
Heat 1 Place Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 7 Abderrahman Samba 48.03 2 6 Tyri Donovan 48.26 , 3 3 Chris Robinson 48.27 4 8 Malik James-King 48.27 , 5 2 Wiseman Were Mukhobe 48.27 , 6 4 Oskar Edlund 48.52 , 7 1 Jesús David Delgado 48.98 8 5 Shunta Inoue 49.73 9 9 Chi Chong Cheong 52.76
Heat 2 Place Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 9 Bassem Hemeida 48.43 2 4 Alison dos Santos 48.48 3 6 Owe Fischer-Breiholz 48.81 4 1 Matic Ian Guček 48.92 5 3 Kyron McMaster 49.89 6 2 Daiki Ogawa 50.08 7 5 50.20 8 8 Akanye Francis 53.26 — 7 Alessandro Sibilio
Heat 3 Place Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 2 Matheus Lima 48.15 2 6 Ismail Abakar 48.34 3 9 Karsten Warholm 48.56 4 4 Berke Akçam 48.68 , 5 7 Kemorena Tisang 48.72 6 8 Joshua Abuaku 49.41 7 1 Carl Bengtström 49.74 8 3 Assinie Wilson 49.91 9 5 Jun Jie Calvin Quek 50.17
Heat 4 Place Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 9 Rai Benjamin 48.15 2 3 Emil Agyekum 48.33 3 1 Victor Ntweng 48.54 , 4 8 Gerald Drummond 48.81 , 5 7 Roshawn Clarke 48.83 6 2 Vít Müller 49.02 7 4 Seamus Derbyshire 49.20 8 5 Dennick Luke 49.32 9 6 Julien Bonvin 49.53
Heat 5 Place Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 7 Ezekiel Nathaniel 48.37 2 5 Caleb Dean 48.67 3 3 Francisco Guilherme dos Reis Viana 48.69 , 4 4 Alastair Chalmers 48.86 5 8 Sabelo Dhlamini 49.50 6 1 İsmail Nezir 49.66 7 9 Patrik Dömötör 49.91 8 6 Ken Toyoda 51.80 9 2 Najimul Hossain Roni 52.47
Semi-finals The semi-finals took place on 17 September. The first two athletes in each heat ( Q ) and the next two fastest ( q ) qualified for the final.
Heat 1 Place Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 8 Abderrahman Samba 47.63 2 4 Karsten Warholm 47.72 3 5 Emil Agyekum 47.83 , 4 7 Tyri Donovan 48.21 5 2 Matic Ian Guček 48.51 6 9 Francisco Guilherme dos Reis Viana 49.01 — 6 Chris Robinson 3 Kemorena Tisang
Heat 2 Place Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 8 Ezekiel Nathaniel 47.47 2 6 Ismail Abakar 47.61 , 3 5 Caleb Dean 47.85 4 4 Malik James-King 48.01 5 7 Matheus Lima 48.16 6 3 Wiseman Were Mukhobe 48.65 7 2 Oskar Edlund 48.81 8 9 Jesús David Delgado 49.41
Heat 3 Place Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 5 Rai Benjamin 47.95 2 6 Alison dos Santos 48.16 3 7 Bassem Hemeida 48.29 4 2 Roshawn Clarke 48.37 5 9 Berke Akçam 49.10 6 3 Alastair Chalmers 49.49 7 4 Gerald Drummond 49.58 8 8 Victor Ntweng 49.61
Final Rai Benjamin was temporarily disqualified minutes after winning the gold medal, before the decision was reversed and he was reinstated as champion. Place Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes 7 Rai Benjamin 46.52 9 Alison dos Santos 46.84 5 Abderrahman Samba 47.06 4 6 Ezekiel Nathaniel 47.11 5 4 Karsten Warholm 47.58 6 3 Emil Agyekum 47.98 7 2 Caleb Dean 48.20 8 8 Ismail Abakar 49.82
References