2019 World Athletics Championships – Men's 400 metres

Men's 400 metres at the 2019 World Championships
The home straight.
Venue	Khalifa International Stadium
Dates	1 October (heats) 2 October (semi-finals) 4 October (final)
Competitors	42 from 31 nations
Winning time	43.48
Medalists
Steven Gardiner    Bahamas   Anthony Zambrano    Colombia   Fred Kerley    United States
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The men's 400 metres at the 2019 World Athletics Championships was held at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha on 1, 2 and 4 October 2019. ^[1] The winning margin was 0.67 seconds which as of 2024 is the greatest winning margin in the men's 400 metres at these championships since the retirement of Michael Johnson.

Summary

Kirani James had the pedigree -- a World Championship and an Olympic gold medal -- but those were back in 2011 and 2012. He finished second behind Wayde van Niekerk's world record at the last Olympics. Van Niekerk couldn't compete because he injured his knee in a celebrity rugby game and James was battling Graves' disease, the same ailment that affected Gail Devers. With a faster personal best, American champion Fred Kerley had been anticipated as USA's next golden boy until Michael Norman came on the scene with a relaxed, early season personal best that only equalled the #4 time in history. But Norman took himself out of the final, jogging home the second half of his semi-final. The other sub-44 qualifiers were Steven Gardiner, who had run his on this track in May and Akeem Bloomfield, who was the last time qualifier to get in. Gardiner led the qualifying, while Anthony Zambrano had to set a Colombian national record to get in.

In the final, James went out hard, passing Zambrano to his outside as they entered the backstretch. Inside of James, Machel Cedenio, James, Gardiner and Demish Gaye were running true to the stagger. James held that lead until midway through the final turn when he began to fade back as Gardiner was emerging slightly ahead. Coming onto the home straight, Gardiner held a 2 metre lead over James and Kerley, with Cedenio just slightly behind them. A further 2 metres back was Zambrano and Gaye. Down the stretch, Gardiner widened his lead, with Kerley the next best to chase. From far back, Zambrano was in another gear, speeding past Cedenio, James and a metre before the line, Kerley. ^[2]

Gardiner's win in 43.48 is the sixth fastest time in history. Zambrano's 44.15 set the South American record, beating Sanderlei Parrela's record from the World Championships 20 years earlier.

Records

Before the competition records were as follows: ^[3]

Record	Athlete	Perf.	Location	Date
World Record	Wayde van Niekerk  (RSA)	43.03	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	14 August 2016
Championship Record	Michael Johnson  (USA)	43.18	Sevilla, Spain	26 August 1999
World Leading	Michael Norman  (USA)	43.45	Torrance, United States	20 April 2019
African Record	Wayde van Niekerk  (RSA)	43.03	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	14 August 2016
Asian Record	Youssef Ahmad Masrahi  (KSA)	43.93	Beijing, China	23 August 2015
North, Central American and Caribbean Record	Michael Johnson  (USA)	43.18	Seville, Spain	26 August 1999
South American Record	Sanderlei Claro Parrela  (BRA)	44.29
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 set at the competition:

Record	Perf.	Athlete	Nat.	Date
Malagasy	46.80	Todiasoa Rabearison	MAD	1 Oct 2019
Gibraltarian	47.41	Jessy Franco	GIB
Colombian	44.55	Anthony Zambrano	COL	2 Oct 2019
Bahamian	43.48	Steven Gardiner	BAH	4 Oct 2019
South American	44.15	Anthony Zambrano	COL
Colombian

Qualification standard

The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 45.30. ^[4]

Schedule

The event schedule, in local time (UTC+3), was as follows: ^[5]

Date	Time	Round
1 October	16:35	Heats
2 October	20:35	Semi-finals
4 October	22:20	Final

Results

Heats

The first three in each heat (Q) and the next six fastest (q) qualified for the semifinal. ^[6]

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	2	2	Kirani James	Grenada  (GRN)	44.94	Q
2	4	7	Michael Norman	United States  (USA)	45.00	Q
3	4	5	Demish Gaye	Jamaica  (JAM)	45.02	Q
4	6	7	Emmanuel Korir	Kenya  (KEN)	45.08	Q
5	3	4	Davide Re	Italy  (ITA)	45.08	Q
6	4	3	Leungo Scotch	Botswana  (BOT)	45.10	Q, PB
7	2	8	Julian Walsh	Japan  (JPN)	45.14	Q, PB
8	3	3	Fred Kerley	United States  (USA)	45.19	Q
9	1	3	Machel Cedenio	Trinidad and Tobago  (TTO)	45.26	Q
10	6	6	Jonathan Sacoor	Belgium  (BEL)	45.32	Q
11	1	4	Akeem Bloomfield	Jamaica  (JAM)	45.34	Q
12	6	5	Rabah Yousif	Great Britain & N.I.  (GBR)	45.40	Q
13	1	8	Thapelo Phora	South Africa  (RSA)	45.45	Q
14	3	7	Abbas Abubakar Abbas	Bahrain  (BHR)	45.47	Q
15	2	3	Vernon Norwood	United States  (USA)	45.59	Q
16	6	8	Jhon Perlaza	Colombia  (COL)	45.62	q
17	1	5	Alphas Kishoyian	Kenya  (KEN)	45.65	q
18	5	3	Steven Gardiner	Bahamas  (BAH)	45.68	Q
19	3	8	Mazen Al-Yassin	Saudi Arabia  (KSA)	45.70	q
20	6	3	Nathan Strother	United States  (USA)	45.71	q
21	4	4	Yousef Karam	Kuwait  (KUW)	45.74	q
22	2	7	Steven Solomon	Australia  (AUS)	45.82	q
23	2	6	Derrick Mokaleng	South Africa  (RSA)	45.87
24	5	5	Philip Osei	Canada  (CAN)	45.87	Q
25	4	2	Alonzo Russell	Bahamas  (BAH)	45.91
26	5	6	Anthony Zambrano	Colombia  (COL)	45.93	Q
27	1	6	Lucas Carvalho	Brazil  (BRA)	46.01
28	5	7	Ditiro Nzamani	Botswana  (BOT)	46.19
29	5	2	Rusheen McDonald	Jamaica  (JAM)	46.21
30	3	2	Mikhail Litvin	Kazakhstan  (KAZ)	46.28
31	6	4	Taha Hussein Yaseen	Iraq  (IRQ)	46.58
32	4	6	Todiasoa Rabearison	Madagascar  (MAD)	46.80	NR
33	2	4	Luka Janežič	Slovenia  (SLO)	46.84
34	5	4	Brandon Parris	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines  (VIN)	47.39
35	6	2	Jessy Franco	Gibraltar  (GIB)	47.41	NR
36	3	5	Bachir Mahamat	Chad  (CHA)	47.65
37	1	2	Abdalelah Haroun	Qatar  (QAT)	47.76	SB
38	3	6	Jovan Stojoski	North Macedonia  (MKD)	47.92
39	4	8	Moussa Zaroumeye	Niger  (NIG)	48.13
40	5	8	Mohammad Jahir Rayhan	Bangladesh  (BAN)	48.48
41	2	5	Tikie Terry Mael	Vanuatu  (VAN)	48.52	PB
	1	7	Matthew Hudson-Smith	Great Britain & N.I.  (GBR)	DNF

Semi-finals

The first two in each heat (Q) and the next two fastest (q) qualified for the final. ^[7]

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	2	6	Steven Gardiner	Bahamas  (BAH)	44.13	Q, SB
2	2	5	Kirani James	Grenada  (GRN)	44.23	Q, SB
3	1	4	Fred Kerley	United States  (USA)	44.25	Q
4	1	5	Emmanuel Korir	Kenya  (KEN)	44.37	Q, SB
5	3	7	Machel Cedenio	Trinidad and Tobago  (TTO)	44.41	Q, SB
6	3	8	Anthony Zambrano	Colombia  (COL)	44.55	Q, NR
7	2	7	Demish Gaye	Jamaica  (JAM)	44.66	q, SB
8	3	6	Akeem Bloomfield	Jamaica  (JAM)	44.77	q
9	1	7	Davide Re	Italy  (ITA)	44.85
10	2	9	Vernon Norwood	United States  (USA)	45.00
11	2	8	Leungo Scotch	Botswana  (BOT)	45.00	PB
12	1	6	Jonathan Sacoor	Belgium  (BEL)	45.03	=PB
13	3	5	Julian Walsh	Japan  (JPN)	45.13	PB
14	3	9	Rabah Yousif	Great Britain & N.I.  (GBR)	45.15	PB
15	2	3	Jhon Perlaza	Colombia  (COL)	45.17
16	1	9	Thapelo Phora	South Africa  (RSA)	45.24
17	1	8	Abbas Abubakar Abbas	Bahrain  (BHR)	45.26
18	1	2	Nathan Strother	United States  (USA)	45.34
19	2	4	Philip Osei	Canada  (CAN)	45.44
20	2	2	Steven Solomon	Australia  (AUS)	45.54	SB
21	3	2	Alphas Kishoyian	Kenya  (KEN)	45.55
22	3	4	Michael Norman	United States  (USA)	45.94
23	1	3	Mazen Al-Yassin	Saudi Arabia  (KSA)	46.11
	3	3	Yousef Karam	Kuwait  (KUW)	DNF

Final

The final was started on 4 October at 22:20. ^[8]

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	4	Steven Gardiner	Bahamas  (BAH)	43.48	NR
	8	Anthony Zambrano	Colombia  (COL)	44.15	AR
	5	Fred Kerley	United States  (USA)	44.17
4	3	Demish Gaye	Jamaica  (JAM)	44.46	PB
5	7	Kirani James	Grenada  (GRN)	44.54
6	9	Emmanuel Korir	Kenya  (KEN)	44.94
7	6	Machel Cedenio	Trinidad and Tobago  (TTO)	45.30
8	2	Akeem Bloomfield	Jamaica  (JAM)	45.36

References

1. "400 Metres Men − Round 1 − Start List" (PDF). IAAF. 30 September 2019. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
2. "Gardiner powers away to win dramatic 400 meters". Reuters. 4 October 2019. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
3. "100 Metres Men − Records". IAAF . Retrieved 21 September 2019.
4. "Competitions Entry Standards 2019 – IAAF World Championships – PDF title, Qualification Standards for the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019". iaaf.org. 2 August 2019.
5. "400 Metres Men − Timetable". IAAF . Retrieved 21 September 2019.
6. "Heats results" (PDF).
7. "Semi-finals results" (PDF).
8. "Final results" (PDF).