2015 World Championships in Athletics – Men's 400 metres


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.

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.
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.
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.

Records

Prior to the competition, the records were as follows:

Qualification standards

Schedule

Results

Heats

Qualification: Best 3 and next 6 fastest qualify for the next round.
RankHeatNameNationalityTimeNotes
12Yousef Masrahi43.93,
22Rusheen McDonald43.93,
32Isaac Makwala44.19
46Wayde van Niekerk44.42
51David Verburg44.43
62Martyn Rooney44.45,
73LaShawn Merritt44.51
81Machel Cedenio44.54
86Renny Quow44.54,
104Kirani James44.56
114Luguelín Santos44.62
126Bryshon Nellum44.65,
131Jonathan Borlée44.67,
146Chris Brown44.68
151Peter Matthews44.69,
162Liemarvin Bonevacia44.72,
173Javon Francis44.83
184Lalonde Gordon44.97
193Kevin Borlée45.01,
203Michael Mathieu45.07
213Nery Brenes45.08
222Pavel Maslák45.16
234Onkabetse Nkobolo45.17
245Rabah Yousif45.24
251Pavel Ivashko45.25
256Winston George45.25
275Steven Gardiner45.26
281Luka Janežič45.28
281Alberth Bravo45.28
304Hederson Estefani45.36
316Hugo de Sousa45.42
324Jarryd Dunn45.49
335Vernon Norwood45.53
345Mame-Ibra Anne45.55
356Gustavo Cuesta45.59
365Abubakar Abbas45.64
373Yuzo Kanemaru45.65
383Aliaksandr Linnik45.79
394Vitaliy Butrym45.88
405Alphas Kishoyian46.02
411Bralon Taplin46.27
423Guo Zhongze46.42
435Mohamed Khouaja46.50
445Berend Koekemoer46.52
2Donald Sanford

Semifinals

Qualification: Best 2 and next 2 fastest qualify for the next round.
RankHeatNameNationalityTimeNotes
12Isaac Makwala44.11
21Kirani James44.16
31Luguelín Santos44.26,
43Wayde van Niekerk44.31
53LaShawn Merritt44.34,
62Yousef Masrahi44.40
72Rabah Yousif44.54,
83Machel Cedenio44.64
92Lalonde Gordon44.70
101David Verburg44.71
111Kevin Borlée44.74
123Javon Francis44.77
122Bryshon Nellum44.77
143Jonathan Borlée44.85
152Rusheen McDonald44.86
161Renny Quow44.98
162Steven Gardiner44.98
181Vernon Norwood45.07
181Chris Brown45.07
203Martyn Rooney45.29
212Nery Brenes45.41
221Peter Matthews45.42
233Michael Mathieu45.43
243Liemarvin Bonevacia45.65

Final

The final was held at 21:25.
RankLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
6Wayde van Niekerk43.48,
8LaShawn Merritt43.65
5Kirani James43.78
47Luguelín Santos44.11
54Isaac Makwala44.63
63Rabah Yousif44.68
72Machel Cedenio45.06
89Yousef Masrahi45.15