Marie-José Pérec is a retired French track and field sprinter who specialised in the 200 and 400 metres and is a three-time Olympic gold medalist. She was born in the French overseas department of Guadeloupe and moved to Paris when she was 16 years old.
Sprinting is running over a short distance at the top-most speed of the body in a limited period of time. It is used in many sports that incorporate running, typically as a way of quickly reaching a target or goal, or avoiding or catching an opponent. Human physiology dictates that a runner's near-top speed cannot be maintained for more than 30–35 seconds due to the depletion of phosphocreatine stores in muscles, and perhaps secondarily to excessive metabolic acidosis as a result of anaerobic glycolysis.
The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women.
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.
The 4 × 400 metres relay or long relay is an athletics track event in which teams consist of four runners who each complete 400 metres or one lap, totaling 1600 meters. It is traditionally the final event of a track meet. The first leg and the first bend of the second leg are run in lanes. Start lines are thus staggered over a greater distance than in an individual 400 metres race; the runners then typically move to the inside of the track. The slightly longer 4 × 440 yards relay, on an Imperial distance, was a formerly run British Commonwealth and American event, until metrication was completed in the 1970s.
The Soviet Union (USSR) competed at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. 317 competitors, 254 men and 63 women, took part in 154 events in 19 sports.
Yuliya Sergeyevna Pechonkina, née Nosova is a Russian former athlete who specialized in the 400 metres hurdles and 4 × 400 metres relay. She was previously married to former sprinter Evgeny Pechonkin.
Frida Svensson is a Swedish track and field athlete who competed in the 400 metres hurdles. She represented Sweden at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics on three occasions, qualifying for the semifinals in both Tokyo 1991 and Stuttgart 1993. She also reached the semifinals of the women's 400 metres hurdles at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Matteo Galvan is an Italian athlete who specializes in the 200 and 400 metres. His career highlight so far is the 2009 European Indoor Championships, where he placed sixth in the 400 metres and won a gold medal in the relay.
Mark David Hylton is a former British 400 metres sprinter. Hylton won a silver medal in the relay at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
Ayomide Temilade Oluwatoyosi Folorunso is an Italian athlete specialising in the 400 metres hurdles. She competed in the 4 × 400 metres relay at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing.
Julien Watrin is a Belgian sprinter specialising in the 400 metres. In 2023, he won his first individual major senior medal, with silver at the European Indoor Championships. Watrin earned several major medals with national men's 4 × 400 m relays, including bronzes at the 2019 and 2022 World Athletics Championships.
Jonathan Sacoor is a Belgian sprinter specialising in the 400 metres.
Namibia competed at the 2019 African Games held from 19 to 31 August 2019 in Rabat, Morocco. Early on 56 athletes were scheduled to represent Namibia in 10 sports. This later grew to 68 athletes in 13 sports. In total two gold medals, two silver medals and four bronze medals were won and the country finished in 16th place in the medal table, shared with Angola. Most medals were won in cycling.
Lieke Klaver is a Dutch track and field athlete who competes in sprinting. She specializes in the 200 metres and in the 400 metres. In the 4 × 400 metres relay, she is the 2023 World Champion and the 2024 World Indoor Champion with the Dutch women's team. She won a gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics in the mixed 4 x 400 metres relay.
The West African Athletics Championships is an international athletics competition between West African nations, organised by the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA).
Jona Efoloko is a British sprinter. A former European youth (U18) and World Junior (U20) champion in 200 metres, In 2022, he was part of the Great Britain relay team that won European and Commonwealth gold, and World Championship bronze, in the men's 4 x 100 metres relay.
Guðbjörg Jóna Bjarnadóttir is an Icelandic sprinter competing in the 60 metres, 100 m and 200 m. She won the gold medal in the 200m at the 2018 Youth Olympics Games. She claimed gold in the 100 m and bronze in the 200 m at the 2018 European Under-18 Championships.
Jonas Raess is a Swiss long-distance runner. He competed in the 5000 metres at the 2020 Olympics. Additionally, he earned a gold medal at the 2019 Universiade. Currently, he holds the national title for the 5000 metres and national records for the indoor and outdoor 3000 metres as well as the indoor 5000 metres.
Charlie Dobson is a British sprinter, specialising in the 400 metres and the 4 x 400 metres relay. An Olympic bronze medalist and European champion in the relay, Dobson made his senior indivudual breakthrough in 2024; he won a silver medal in the 400 metres at the 2024 European Athletics Championships, and won the 400 metres event at the 2024 British Athletics Championships. In September 2024 he won his first individual and global title, when he was the surprise winner in the 400 metres final of the 2024 Diamond League in Brussels.
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