Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metres
The men's 400 metres competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, was held at the Olympic Stadium on 4–6 August.
The first round went largely to form, but defending champion Lashawn Merritt came to the meet injured and re-injured himself, unable to finish. Renny Quow also failed to start his heat. In the first race, Oscar Pistorius ran a season best to qualify. In the second heat, world champion Kirani James ran easily to win. The third heat featured three national records as Jonathan Borlée took his twin brother's mark for Belgium, Pavel Maslák set the mark for the Czech Republic and Donald Sanford set the mark for Israel. Most of the time qualifiers came from the hotly contested fourth heat, 45.61, the slowest time qualifier, though Conrad Williams got in with a 46.12 in the slow sixth heat.
It took under 45 seconds to make the final as Lalonde Gordon led the qualifiers from heat 1. Heat 2 featured James and Jonathan Borlée, and double-amputee Pistorius' attempt to make the final. But Pistorius' late charge was non-existent and he finished last in the heat. After the race, in a show of sportsmanship, James and Pistorius exchanged bib numbers, which James proudly showed as he celebrated. In the third heat, shotgun survivor Bryshon Nellum ran 45.02 for the fastest non-qualifier.
Aside from Chris Brown, the finals were filled by athletes under age 24, three of them still teenagers. Demetrius Pinder took the early lead down the back stretch, but reigning World Junior Champion Luguelin Santos and reigning World Champion Kirani James were in the lead coming off the turn. Down the stretch, James powered ahead for the gold medal. It was also the first Olympic medal for his country. Lalonde Gordon came from behind but could not overtake Santos; he received a bronze. Santos' silver medal was the third medal for the Dominican Republic, coming 45 minutes after Felix Sánchez won his second gold.
Competition format
The men's 400m competition consisted of 7 heats, 3 semifinals and a final. The fastest competitors from each race in the heats qualified for the Semifinals along with the fastest overall competitors not already qualified that were required to fill the 24 available spaces in the semifinals. A total of eight competitors qualified for the final from the semifinals.Records
, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.The following new National records were set during the competition.
| Belgium National Record | 44.43 s | |
| Czech Republic National Record | 44.91 s | |
| Israel National Record | 45.71 s | |
| Grenada National Record | 43.94 s |
Schedule
All times are British Summer Time| Date | Time | Round |
| Saturday, 4 August 2012 | 10:35 | Round 1 |
| Sunday, 5 August 2012 | 20:40 | Semifinals |
| Monday, 6 August 2012 | 21:30 | Finals |
Results
Round 1
Qual. rule: first 3 of each heat plus the 3 fastest times qualified.Heat 1
Ahmed Mohamed Al-Merjabi was forced to scratch from this race after he injured his foot in a training session three days earlier.Heat 2
Heat 3
Heat 4
Heat 5
Heat 6
Heat 7
Semi-Finals
Qual. rule: first 2 of each heat plus the 2 fastest times qualified.Semi-Final 1
Semi-Final 2
Semi-Final 3
Final
| Rank | Lane | Athlete | Nation | Reaction Time | Time | Notes |
| 5 | Kirani James | 0.163 | 43.94 | WL, NR | ||
| 7 | Luguelín Santos | 0.185 | 44.46 | |||
| 4 | Lalonde Gordon | 0.159 | 44.52 | PB | ||
| 4 | 6 | Chris Brown | 0.166 | 44.79 | ||
| 5 | 9 | Kevin Borlée | 0.151 | 44.81 | ||
| 6 | 2 | Jonathan Borlée | 0.173 | 44.83 | ||
| 7 | 8 | Demetrius Pinder | 0.153 | 44.98 | ||
| 8 | 3 | Steven Solomon | 0.143 | 45.14 |