2015 World Championships in Athletics – Men's 400 metres

Men's 400 metres at the 2015 World Championships
Wayde van Niekerk fourth fastest in history
Venue	Beijing National Stadium
Dates	23 August (heats) 24 August (semifinals) 26 August (final)
Competitors	44 from 27 nations
Winning time	43.48
Medalists
Wayde van Niekerk    South Africa   LaShawn Merritt    United States   Kirani James    Grenada
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The men's 400 metres at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Beijing National Stadium on 23, 24 and 26 August. ^{[1] [2]} The winning margin was 0.17 seconds.

Summary

Since 2008, all of the major gold medals had been won by either reigning Olympic champion Kirani James or defending champion LaShawn Merritt. In the final, both were out ahead, along with Wayde van Niekerk and Isaac Makwala, Africans with none of those credentials. Through the final turn, van Niekerk took sole possession of the lead, Makwala passed James to hit the home stretch with a slight advantage in second. Far off the pace was Luguelín Santos. Down the home stretch, Makwala was unable to hold his position and was passed by a burst from James. James was unable to hold that burst, Merritt cruised past James but was unable to make any headway on van Niekerk's lead. ^[3] Merritt made a desperate lean that actually cost him time but was well beaten, Santos followed Merritt down the home stretch to take fourth beating the National Record he set in the semi-final round. ^[4] van Niekerk's 43.48 improved upon his own African Record, putting him at number 4 on the all-time list. For the first time in history, three men broke 44 seconds. Merritt set the fastest non-winning time of all time at 43.65 seconds. In fact, places 2, 3 and 4 were all the fastest ever in that position. ^[5]

Records

Prior to the competition, the records were as follows: ^[6]

World record	Michael Johnson  (USA)	43.18	Sevilla, Spain	26 August 1999
Championship record
World Leading	Isaac Makwala  (BOT)	43.72	La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland	5 July 2015
African Record
Asian Record	Abdelalelah Haroun  (QAT)	44.27	La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland	5 July 2015
NACAC record	Michael Johnson  (USA)	43.18	Seville, Spain	26 August 1999
South American Record	Sanderlei Parrela  (BRA)	44.29	Seville, Spain	26 August 1999
European Record	Thomas Schönlebe  (GDR)	44.33	Rome, Italy	3 September 1987
Oceanian record	Darren Clark  (AUS)	44.38	Seoul, South Korea	26 September 1988
The following records were established during the competition:
Asian Record	Yousef Masrahi  (KSA)	43.93	Beijing, China	23 August 2015
World Leading	Wayde van Niekerk  (RSA)	43.48	Beijing, China	26 August 2015
African Record

Qualification standards

Entry standards [7]
45.50

Schedule

Date	Time	Round
23 August 2015	11:10	Heats
24 August 2015	20:05	Semifinals
26 August 2015	21:25	Final

All times are local times (UTC+8)

Results

KEY:

Q

Qualified

q

Fastest non-qualifiers

NR

National record

PB

Personal best

SB

Seasonal best

Heats

Qualification: Best 3 (Q) and next 6 fastest (q) qualify for the next round. ^[8]

Heat 2

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	2	Yousef Masrahi	Saudi Arabia	43.93	Q, AR
2	2	Rusheen McDonald	Jamaica	43.93	Q, NR
3	2	Isaac Makwala	Botswana	44.19	Q
4	6	Wayde van Niekerk	South Africa	44.42	Q
5	1	David Verburg	United States	44.43	Q
6	2	Martyn Rooney	Great Britain & N.I.	44.45	q, PB
7	3	LaShawn Merritt	United States	44.51	Q
8	1	Machel Cedenio	Trinidad and Tobago	44.54	Q
8	6	Renny Quow	Trinidad and Tobago	44.54	Q, SB
10	4	Kirani James	Grenada	44.56	Q
11	4	Luguelín Santos	Dominican Republic	44.62	Q
12	6	Bryshon Nellum	United States	44.65	Q, PB
13	1	Jonathan Borlée	Belgium	44.67	Q, SB
14	6	Chris Brown	Bahamas	44.68	q
15	1	Peter Matthews	Jamaica	44.69	q, PB
16	2	Liemarvin Bonevacia	Netherlands	44.72	q, NR
17	3	Javon Francis	Jamaica	44.83	Q
18	4	Lalonde Gordon	Trinidad and Tobago	44.97	Q
19	3	Kevin Borlée	Belgium	45.01	Q, SB
20	3	Michael Mathieu	Bahamas	45.07	q
21	3	Nery Brenes	Costa Rica	45.08	q
22	2	Pavel Maslák	Czech Republic	45.16
23	4	Onkabetse Nkobolo	Botswana	45.17	PB
24	5	Rabah Yousif	Great Britain & N.I.	45.24	Q
25	1	Pavel Ivashko	Russia	45.25	PB
25	6	Winston George	Guyana	45.25	NR
27	5	Steven Gardiner	Bahamas	45.26	Q
28	1	Luka Janežič	Slovenia	45.28	NR
28	1	Alberth Bravo	Venezuela	45.28
30	4	Hederson Estefani	Brazil	45.36	SB
31	6	Hugo de Sousa	Brazil	45.42	SB
32	4	Jarryd Dunn	Great Britain & N.I.	45.49
33	5	Vernon Norwood	United States	45.53	Q
34	5	Mame-Ibra Anne	France	45.55
35	6	Gustavo Cuesta	Dominican Republic	45.59
36	5	Abubakar Abbas	Bahrain	45.64
37	3	Yuzo Kanemaru	Japan	45.65
38	3	Aliaksandr Linnik	Belarus	45.79
39	4	Vitaliy Butrym	Ukraine	45.88
40	5	Alphas Kishoyian	Kenya	46.02
41	1	Bralon Taplin	Grenada	46.27
42	3	Guo Zhongze	China	46.42
43	5	Mohamed Khouaja	Libya	46.50	SB
44	5	Berend Koekemoer	South Africa	46.52
	2	Donald Sanford	Israel	DNS

Semifinals

Qualification: Best 2 (Q) and next 2 fastest (q) qualify for the next round. ^[9]

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	2	Isaac Makwala	Botswana	44.11	Q
2	1	Kirani James	Grenada	44.16	Q
3	1	Luguelín Santos	Dominican Republic	44.26	Q, NR
4	3	Wayde van Niekerk	South Africa	44.31	Q
5	3	LaShawn Merritt	United States	44.34	Q, SB
6	2	Yousef Masrahi	Saudi Arabia	44.40	Q
7	2	Rabah Yousif	Great Britain & N.I.	44.54	q, PB
8	3	Machel Cedenio	Trinidad and Tobago	44.64	q
9	2	Lalonde Gordon	Trinidad and Tobago	44.70
10	1	David Verburg	United States	44.71
11	1	Kevin Borlée	Belgium	44.74	SB
12	3	Javon Francis	Jamaica	44.77
12	2	Bryshon Nellum	United States	44.77
14	3	Jonathan Borlée	Belgium	44.85
15	2	Rusheen McDonald	Jamaica	44.86
16	1	Renny Quow	Trinidad and Tobago	44.98
16	2	Steven Gardiner	Bahamas	44.98
18	1	Vernon Norwood	United States	45.07
18	1	Chris Brown	Bahamas	45.07
20	3	Martyn Rooney	Great Britain & N.I.	45.29
21	2	Nery Brenes	Costa Rica	45.41
22	1	Peter Matthews	Jamaica	45.42
23	3	Michael Mathieu	Bahamas	45.43
24	3	Liemarvin Bonevacia	Netherlands	45.65

Final

The final was held at 21:25. ^[10]

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	6	Wayde van Niekerk	South Africa	43.48	WL, AR
	8	LaShawn Merritt	United States	43.65	PB
	5	Kirani James	Grenada	43.78	SB
4	7	Luguelín Santos	Dominican Republic	44.11	NR
5	4	Isaac Makwala	Botswana	44.63
6	3	Rabah Yousif	Great Britain & N.I.	44.68
7	2	Machel Cedenio	Trinidad and Tobago	45.06
8	9	Yousef Masrahi	Saudi Arabia	45.15

References

1. "Beijing 2015: Timetable". Beijing 2015. 10 August 2015. Archived from the original on 1 December 2014. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
2. "Start list" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2015. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
3. "World Championships 2015: Wayde van Niekerk wins 400m gold and is taken to hospital with exhaustion". Daily Telegraph. 26 August 2015. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
4. "World Championships: Wayde van Niekerk wins superb 400m". BBC Sport. 26 August 2015. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
5. "Wayde van Niekerk wins men's 400m final at world championships". Guardian. 26 August 2015. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
6. "Records & Lists – 400 meters". IAAF . Retrieved 17 August 2015.
7. IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015 – Standards (PDF), IAAF, 2014, retrieved 17 August 2015
8. "Heats results" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2015. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
9. "Semifinals results" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2015. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
10. Final results