2015 World Championships in Athletics – Men's 400 metres hurdles


The men's 400 metres hurdles at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Beijing National Stadium on 22, 23 and 25 August.

Summary

While Kenya has dominated the longest hurdle race, the 3000 metres steeplechase since the 1968 Olympics, and John Akii-Bua from neighboring Uganda hinted at what might be the capability of East African athletes in this event, Kenya has never had a medalist at 400 hurdles, until this year. Nicholas Bett was the fastest qualifier in the heats. His teammate Boniface Tumuti was the second fastest in the semi-finals, while Bett struggled into the slowest qualifier into the finals. That put Bett almost unnoticed in the far outside lane. Michael Tinsley was the only returning medalist from recent history and the rest of the world leaders were already eliminated, making for a very open race. The fastest 5 finalists all ran their personal best just to make the [|final] race.
Tinsley was the early leader out of the blocks, but was quickly overtaken by Denis Kudryavtsev down the backstretch. Through the turn Tinsley began to hit hurdles, Kudryavtsev the clear leader coming to the straightaway. A couple of meters behind was a wall of Tinsley, Jeffery Gibson and Kerron Clement, with Bett slightly behind them. Kudryavtsev stretched for the ninth hurdle, Tinsley hit it and Bett stormed past. Reminiscent of Kenyan steeplechase finishes, he took the final barrier somewhat awkwardly but continued with so much power that the rest of the field was left behind him. Kudryavtsev held on for silver with a Russian national record. Gibson won the race to the line for bronze, setting his second Bahamian national record of the competition. The once dominant American team, shut out, while Kenya wins its first medal in the event and it was gold.

Records

Prior to the competition, the records were as follows:
World record46.78Barcelona, Spain6 August 1992
Championship record47.18Stuttgart, Germany19 August 1993
World Leading 48.09Doha, Qatar15 May 2015
African Record47.10Zürich, Switzerland7 August 1991
Asian Record47.53Sydney, Australia27 September 2000
North, Central American and Caribbean record46.78Barcelona, Spain6 August 1992
South American Record47.84Helsinki, Finland7 August 2005
European Record47.37Lausanne, Switzerland5 July 1995
Oceanian record48.28Atlanta, GA, United States31 July 1996

Qualification standards

Schedule

Results

Heats

Qualification: Best 4 and next 4 fastest qualify for the next round.
RankHeatNameNationalityTimeNotes
11Nicholas Bett48.37
25Denis Kudryavtsev48.51,
33Kerron Clement48.75
42Boniface Tumuti48.79,
54Yasmani Copello48.89,
63Niall Flannery48.90,
72Michael Tinsley48.91
85Patryk Dobek48.94
95Johnny Dutch48.97
102Javier Culson49.02
111Timofey Chalyy49.05,
123Kariem Hussein49.08
131Jeffery Gibson49.09
143Annsert Whyte49.10
152L. J. van Zyl49.12
161Kurt Couto49.15,
174Rasmus Mägi49.18
184Thomas Barr49.20
191Abdelmalik Lahoulou49.33
192Leford Green49.33
215Yuki Matsushita49.34
225Haron Koech49.38,
225Michaël Bultheel49.38
223Miles Ukaoma49.38
251Roxroy Cato49.47
264Cheng Wen49.56,
264Ivan Shablyuyev49.56
281Michael Cochrane49.58
282Yuta Konishi49.58
301Takayuki Kishimoto49.78
312Jehue Gordon49.91
321Eric Alejandro49.94
334Eric Cray50.04
344Bershawn Jackson50.14
355Miloud Rahmani50.21
365Jaak-Heinrich Jagor50.29
374Johannes Maritz51.10
383Saber Boukemouche51.54
395Amadou Ndiaye52.40
402Maoulida Darouèche53.06
3Mohamed SghaierR163.3
2Andrés Silva
3Cornel Fredericks
4Jack Green

Semifinals

Qualification: First 2 in each heat and the next 2 fastest advanced to the final.
RankHeatNameNationalityTimeNotes
12Denis Kudryavtsev48.23,
21Boniface Tumuti48.29,
32Jeffery Gibson48.37,
42Patryk Dobek48.40,
52Yasmani Copello48.46,
63Michael Tinsley48.47
71Kerron Clement48.50
83Nicholas Bett48.54
93Kariem Hussein48.59
101Timofey Chalyy48.69
111Thomas Barr48.71
122Johnny Dutch48.74
131Rasmus Mägi48.76
141Abdelmalik Lahoulou48.87
152L. J. van Zyl48.89
161Annsert Whyte48.90
173Niall Flannery49.17
183Javier Culson49.36
192Haron Koech49.54
203Leford Green49.59
212Cheng Wen49.62
221Michaël Bultheel49.66
233Kurt Couto50.58
243Yuki Matsushita51.10

Final

The final was started at 21:15.
RankLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
9Nicholas Bett47.79,
6Denis Kudryavtsev48.05
7Jeffery Gibson48.17
48Kerron Clement48.18
54Boniface Tumuti48.33
62Yasmani Copello48.96
73Patryk Dobek49.14
85Michael Tinsley50.02