Athletics at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metres hurdles

Men's 400 metres hurdles; at the Games of the Olympiad
Venue	Stade de France, Paris, France
Dates	5 August 2024 (round 1); 6 August 2024 (repechage round); 7 August 2024 (semi-finals); 9 August 2024 (final);
Competitors	39
Winning time	46.46
Medalists
	← 2020 2028 →

The men's 400 metres hurdles at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held in four rounds at the Stade de France in Paris, France, from 5 to 9 August 2024. This was 28th time that the men's 400 metres hurdles was contested at the Summer Olympics. A total of 40 athletes were able to qualify for the event by entry standard or ranking.

Summary

This was the most anticipated event at these Olympics because the top three in history were all scheduled to be here. Karsten Warholm set the world record winning in Tokyo, .23 ahead of the second best in history Rai Benjamin. Another half second behind in that race, Alison dos Santos #3 won the 2022 World Championships just .12 slower than Benjamin's Olympic time and beating Benjamin straight up in the race. Warholm was slowed by injury that year but returned to take his third the 2023 World Championship in 2023, while Kyron McMaster #8 of all time, edged out Benjamin. Also in the field is #5 of all time, Abderrahman Samba, #17 Roshawn Clarke, =#19 Trevor Bassitt, #21 Wilfried Happio, #22 Malik James-King and #25 Alessandro Sibilio. After the US Trials, #11 Caleb Dean was already left at home. There wasn't enough room for all of them in the final.

Rain on the day of the final may have precluded the possibility of a world record. In the final, Warholm typically went out to a fast start. Immediately to his outside, Benjamin was running relaxed. On the far outside, Clark was pacing with Benjamin. On the inside dos Santos was chasing Ducos, edging ahead of him by the fourth hurdle. Clark began to fade as Benjamin started to accelerate after the halfway point. Warholm began to strain as Benjamin cruised by, clearly ahead by hurdle 8. Under pressure, Warholm took hurdle 9 awkwardly. Benjamin was free, gliding over the final hurdle and in for gold. Warholm strained to get over the finish line ahead of dos Santos to retain silver.^[2]

Background

The men's 400 m hurdles has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900, with a sole gap at the 1912 Summer Olympics.

Global records before the 2024 Summer Olympics
Record	Athlete (Nation)	Time (s)	Location	Date
World record	Karsten Warholm (NOR)	45.94^[3]	Tokyo, Japan	3 August 2021
Olympic record	Karsten Warholm (NOR)	45.94^[3]	Tokyo, Japan	3 August 2021
World leading	Rai Benjamin (USA)	46.46^[4]	Eugene, United States	30 June 2024

Area records before the 2024 Summer Olympics^[5]
Area Record	Athlete (Nation)	Time (s)
*Africa (records)*	Samuel Matete (ZAM)	47.10
*Asia (records)*	Abderrahman Samba (QAT)	46.98
*Europe (records)*	Karsten Warholm (NOR)	45.94 WR
North, Central America and Caribbean (records)	Rai Benjamin (USA)	46.17
*Oceania (records)*	Rohan Robinson (AUS)	48.28
*South America (records)*	Alison dos Santos (BRA)	46.29

Qualification

For the men's 400 metres hurdles event, the qualification period was between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024.^[6] Forty athletes were able to qualify for the event, with a maximum of three athletes per nation, by running the entry standard of 48.70 seconds or faster or by their World Athletics Ranking for this event.^[6]

Results

Round 1

Round 1 was held on 5 August, starting at 10:05 (UTC+2) in the morning.^[1]

Qualification Rules: First 3 in each heat (Q) and the next 3 fastest (q) advance to the semifinals. All others advance to Repechage round (except DNS, DNF, DQ).^[7]

Heat 1

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	7	Rai Benjamin	United States	0.190	48.82	Q
2	6	Jaheel Hyde	Jamaica	0.175	49.08	Q
3	2	Kyron McMaster	British Virgin Islands	0.166	49.24	Q
4	4	Carl Bengtström	Sweden	0.172	49.34
5	5	Bassem Hemeida	Qatar	0.141	49.82	SB
6	8	Daiki Ogawa	Japan	0.174	50.21
7	3	Matic Ian Guček	Slovenia	0.147	50.30

^[8]

Heat 2

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	5	Karsten Warholm	Norway	0.148	47.57	Q
2	9	Clément Ducos	France	0.157	47.69	Q, PB
3	7	Abderrahman Samba	Qatar	0.182	48.35	Q
4	8	Yeral Nuñez	Dominican Republic	0.187	48.67
5	4	Trevor Bassitt	United States	0.185	49.38
6	2	Vít Müller	Czech Republic	0.150	49.44
7	6	Oskar Edlund	Sweden	0.188	49.74
8	3	Xie Zhiyu	China	0.191	49.90

^[9]

Heat 3

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	5	Rasmus Mägi	Estonia	0.196	48.62	Q
2	6	CJ Allen	United States	0.144	48.64	Q
3	2	Alison dos Santos	Brazil	0.165	48.75	Q
4	9	Emil Agyekum	Germany	0.207	49.38
5	3	Victor Ntweng	Botswana	0.138	49.59
6	8	Julien Bonvin	Switzerland	0.167	49.82
7	7	Kaito Tsutsue	Japan	0.149	50.50
8	4	Yasmani Copello	Turkey	0.224	50.72

^[10]

Heat 4

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	8	Roshawn Clarke	Jamaica	0.191	48.17	Q
2	3	Ezekiel Nathaniel	Nigeria	0.181	48.38	Q
3	7	Wilfried Happio	France	0.152	48.42	Q
4	4	Alessandro Sibilio	Italy	0.157	48.43	q
5	5	Wiseman Were Mukhobe	Kenya	0.198	48.58	q
6	9	Nick Smidt	Netherlands	0.168	48.64	q, SB
7	6	Gerald Drummond	Costa Rica	0.213	48.80
8	2	Constantin Preis	Germany	0.221	49.99

^[11]

Heat 5

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	2	Malik James-King	Jamaica	0.150	48.21	Q
2	6	Matheus Lima	Brazil	0.180	48.90	Q, SB
3	9	Alastair Chalmers	Great Britain	0.179	48.98	Q
4	7	Joshua Abuaku	Germany	0.151	49.00
5	3	Berke Akçam	Turkey	0.143	49.48
6	4	Ken Toyoda	Japan	0.136	53.62
	8	Ismail Doudai Abakar	Qatar	0.177	DNF
	5	Peng Ming-yang	Chinese Taipei	0.209	DNF

^[12]