The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor running track, it is one lap around the track. Runners start in staggered positions and race in separate lanes for the entire course. In many countries, athletes previously competed in the 440-yard dash (402.336 m)—which is a quarter of a mile and was referred to as the "quarter-mile"—instead of the 400 m (437.445 yards), though this distance is now obsolete.
Maryam Yusuf Jamal is an Ethiopian-born Bahraini middle-distance runner. She is the first Bahraini athlete to win an Olympic medal, a gold in the 1,500m women's race, in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. This was also the first Olympic medal won by a woman representing a Gulf state. Born in Ethiopia, 2005 was her first full season. She gained the national record and ran the fastest 3000 m of the year, with a time of 8:28.87 at a race in Oslo. Jamal is a two-time world champion in the 1,500 m, having won at the 2007 and 2009 World Championships in Athletics.
Christine Ijeoma Ohuruogu, MBE is a British former track and field athlete who specialised in the 400 metres, the event for which she is an Olympic, World and Commonwealth champion. The Olympic champion in 2008, and silver medalist in 2012, she is a double World Champion, having won the 400 m at the 2007 and 2013 World Championships. She has also won six World championship medals in the women's 4 × 400 m relay as part of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team and bronze Olympic medals with the women's 4 × 400 m relay at the 2008 Beijing Games and the 2016 Rio Games, her final Olympics. Ohuruogu shares with Merlene Ottey and Usain Bolt the record for medalling in most successive global championships – 9 – between the 2005 World Championships in Athletics and the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Catherine Ann Murphy is a Welsh former athlete who competed mainly in the 200 metres and 400 metres. She finished fourth in the 4 × 400 metres relay at the 2004 Athens Olympics, fourth in the 400 metres at the 2003 World Indoor Championships, and won a bronze medal in the 4 × 400 metres relay at the 2005 European Indoor Championships.
Oludamola Bolanle ("Damola") Osayomi is a Nigerian sprinter who specializes in the 100 metres and 200 metres. She is a four-time gold medallist at the African Championships in Athletics and won an Olympic silver medal with Nigeria in the 4×100 metres relay at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She also won the 100 and 200 m sprints at the 2007 All-Africa Games.
Blessing Oghnewresem Okagbare-Otegheri is a former Nigerian track and field athlete who specialized in long jump and sprints. She is an Olympic and World Championships medallist in the long jump and a world medalist in the 200 metres. Okagbare also holds the women's 100 metres Commonwealth Games record at 10.85 seconds. She is currently serving a 10-year ban for breaching multiple World Athletics anti-doping rules. Her ban expires on 30 July 2032.
Femi Seun Ogunode is a Nigerian-born sprint athlete who competes internationally for Qatar since 2010. His personal best of 9.91 at the 100 m in 2015 made him the former holder of the Asian 100 m record, which was tied by China's Su Bingtian in 2018 and surpassed in 2021 at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Regina George Grause is an American-born Nigerian sprinter who specializes in the 400 metres. She represented Nigeria at the 2012 Summer Olympics and was the silver medallist at the African Championships in 2012.
The 2013 African Youth Athletics Championships were the first edition of the biennial athletics competition for African athletes aged fifteen to seventeen. It was held in Warri, Nigeria, on 28–31 March. A total of 40 events were originally scheduled but only 36 went ahead, 17 for boys and 19 for girls.
Oluwakemi "Kemi" Adekoya is a Nigerian-born track and field athlete who competes for Bahrain. She specialises in the 400 metres hurdles and has a personal best of 53.39 seconds – a Bahraini and Asian record. In January 2019, it was reported that Adekoya tested positive for an illegal steroid stanozolol in an out-of-competition test in November 2018 and was provisionally suspended. All of her results achieved after 24 August 2018 were also stripped.
Wayde van Niekerk is a South African track and field sprinter who competes in the 200 and 400 metres. In the 400 metres, he is the current world and Olympic record holder, having set the record in the Olympic finals.
Ese Brume MON is a Nigerian athlete who specializes in the long jump. She is the current commonwealth champion and a three-time African senior champion in the long Jump and holds a personal best of 7.17 m She currently holds the commonwealth games record, African junior record and African record in the event. She's a two-time medalist at the world athletics championship, an Olympic bronze medalist and also a five-time African junior champion in athletics.
Abbas Abubakar Abbas is a Nigerian-born Bahraini athlete sprinter who competes internationally for Bahrain. He was the silver medallist in the 400 metres at the 2014 Asian Games. He has a personal best of 44.90 seconds for the event.
Ali Khamis Abbas Ali Khamis is a Bahraini track and field athlete who competes mainly in the 400 metres sprint and 400 metres hurdles. His personal best for the flat event is 44.36 seconds, set in 2013, while his hurdles best is 49.55 seconds, set in 2014. He was the 2014 Asian Games champion in the hurdles and the runner-up in the sprint at the 2013 Asian Athletics Championships
Cynthia Nonyelum Sember is an American-born British track and field athlete, specialising in sprint hurdles. She finished fourth in the 100 metres hurdles final at the 2016 Olympic Games as a 22 year old. but suffered significant injury set backs thereafter which interrupted most of the next Olympic cycle. Her first major international medal, a silver at the 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships sparked a return to form and fitness that saw her finish fifth at the 2022 World Athletics Championships, and secure bronze for England at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, her first senior outdoor medal. She made the final of the same event at the 2022 European Athletics Championships but a stumble left her in 8th position in her third major final of the year.
Sage Walker is a Canadian athlete specializing in the 400 metres hurdles. Competing internationally for Canada, she is the reigning Pan American champion in the 400 m hurdles, having also won Pan American medals in 2015 and 2019 as part of Canada's relay team.
Salwa Eid Naser is a Nigerian-born Bahraini sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres. She was the 2019 World champion with the third fastest time in history of 48.14 seconds, becoming the youngest-ever champion in the event and also the first woman representing an Asian nation to win that event at a World Championships. The mark places her only behind contested results of Marita Koch and Jarmila Kratochvílová. Over the distance, at only 19, Naser was the 2017 World silver medallist. She has also won, as a member of Bahraini mixed-gender 4x400 m relay team, the 2019 World Championships bronze medal.
Iman Essa Jasim is a Bahraini sprinter. She competed in the women's 100 metres event at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She was born Endurance Essien Udoh in Nigeria on 9 July 1997.
Fredrick Lee Kerley is an American professional track and field sprinter who started his career competing in the 400 meters until 2020, when he transitioned to the 100 meters and 200 meters. He has earned several medals at the World Championships in the 400 m and 4 × 400 m relay including an individual bronze and a relay gold at the 2019 edition. Kerley claimed 100 m gold in the 2022 edition.
Eunice Chebichii Chumba is a Kenyan-born Bahraini female long-distance runner. She won silver medals in the 10,000 metres at the 2018 Asian Games and 2015 Asian Athletics Championships.
