The men's 400 metres at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Daegu Stadium on August 28, 29 and 30. The winning margin was 0.03 seconds.

Going into the Championships, defending champion LaShawn Merritt was serving a two-year ban. The ban was still in effect during the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, so Merritt was unable to compete. Ordinarily, since 1997, the defending champion is automatically invited to the championships, but the United States stipulates that the champion must compete in the national championships. It took a special decision by USATF to allow Merritt to enter. Merritt had minimal racing opportunities before the championships.

In qualifying, ordinarily athletes try to use the minimum effort to advance to the next round, but Merritt ran the year's world leading time of 44.35 in heat 3. The media focused on double amputee Oscar Pistorius, who ran 45.39 to qualify into the semi-finals.

In the semi-finals, Merritt ran a more controlled and relaxed 44.76 in semi 1, while Jermaine Gonzales controlled semi 3 in 44.99 and 18-year-old Kirani James ran an easy 45.20 to take semi 2. Rondell Bartholomew also qualified, placing two athletes from tiny Grenada in the final. Also twins Kévin and Jonathan Borlée placed two athletes from Belgium in the final. While his time from the trials would have made the final, Pistorius ran 46.19 in his semi and did not advance. Kirani James won the final beating LaShawn Merritt on the line with a time of 44.60. At 18 years, 363 days old, James became the youngest ever world medallist for the men's 400 m.

Medalists GoldSilverBronzeKirani JamesLaShawn MerrittKévin Borlée

Records Prior to the competition, the established records were as follows. World record43.18Seville, Spain26 August 1999Championship recordWorld Leading44.61London, Great Britain5 August 2011African record44.10Stuttgart, Germany9 September 2006Asian record44.56Budapest, Hungary12 August 1988North, Central American and Caribbean record43.18Seville, Spain26 August 1999South American record44.29Seville, Spain26 August 1999European record44.33Rome, Italy3 September 1987Oceanian record44.38Seoul, South Korea26 September 1988

Qualification standards A timeB time 45.25 45.70

Schedule Date Time RoundAugust 28, 2011 11:15 HeatsAugust 29, 2011 20:00 SemifinalsAugust 30, 2011 21:45 Final

Results KEY:qFastest non-qualifiersQQualifiedNRNational recordPBPersonal bestSBSeasonal best

Heats Qualification: First 4 in each heat (Q) and the next 4 fastest (q) advance to the semifinals.

Rank Heat Name Nationality Time Notes 1 3 LaShawn Merritt 44.35 Q, WL 2 3 Kévin Borlée 44.77 Q 3 1 Rondell Bartholomew 44.82 Q 4 1 Renny Quow 44.84 Q, SB 5 2 Jermaine Gonzales 45.12 Q 5 4 Kirani James 45.12 Q 7 1 Greg Nixon 45.16 Q 7 4 Jonathan Borlée 45.16 Q 9 3 Rabah Yousif 45.20 Q 10 1 Tabarie Henry 45.22 Q 11 5 Chris Brown 45.29 Q 12 5 Martyn Rooney 45.30 Q, SB 13 4 Ramon Miller 45.31 Q, SB 14 5 Oscar Pistorius 45.39 Q 15 5 Femi Seun Ogunode 45.42 Q, SB 16 2 Jamaal Torrance 45.44 Q 17 5 Nery Brenes 45.47 q 18 2 Marcin Marciniszyn 45.51 Q 19 3 Yuzo Kanemaru 45.51 Q 20 2 Demetrius Pinder 45.53 Q 21 1 Riker Hylton 45.54 q 22 3 Pavel Trenikhin 45.55 q, PB 23 4 William Collazo 45.89 Q 24 2 Erison Hurtault 46.10 q 25 4 Park Bong-Go 46.42 SB 26 5 Tony McQuay 46.76 27 4 Pako Seribe 46.97 28 1 Mathieu Gnanligo 47.01 29 4 Augusto Stanley 47.31 30 1 Nelson Stone 47.86 31 5 Ahmed Mohamed Al-Merjabi 47.99 32 3 Arnold Sorina 48.76 SB 33 4 Bahaa Al Farra 49.04 PB 34 2 Nicolau Palanca 49.37 SB 35 1 Kerfalla Camara 49.74 PB 36 2 Ak Hafiy Tajuddin Rositi 50.12 5 Abdou Razack Rabo Samma 3 Arismendy Peguero 3 Gary Kikaya

Semifinals Qualification: First 2 in each heat (Q) and the next 2 fastest (q) advance to the final.

Rank Heat Name Nationality Time Notes 1 1 LaShawn Merritt 44.76 Q 2 3 Jermaine Gonzales 44.99 Q 3 1 Kévin Borlée 45.02 Q 4 3 Jonathan Borlée 45.14 Q 5 3 Rondell Bartholomew 45.17 q 6 2 Kirani James 45.20 Q 7 3 Femi Seun Ogunode 45.41 q, SB 8 1 Rabah Yousif 45.43 9 3 Greg Nixon 45.51 10 2 Tabarie Henry 45.53 Q 11 2 Chris Brown 45.54 12 3 Pavel Trenikhin 45.68 13 1 Renny Quow 45.72 14 2 Jamaal Torrance 45.73 15 3 Demetrius Pinder 45.87 16 1 Ramon Miller 45.88 17 2 Nery Brenes 45.93 18 2 Marcin Marciniszyn 45.94 19 2 Martyn Rooney 46.09 20 1 Yuzo Kanemaru 46.11 21 1 William Collazo 46.13 22 3 Oscar Pistorius 46.19 23 1 Erison Hurtault 46.41 24 2 Riker Hylton 46.99

Final

Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 5 Kirani James 44.60 4 LaShawn Merritt 44.63 6 Kévin Borlée 44.90 4 3 Jermaine Gonzales 44.99 5 8 Jonathan Borlée 45.07 6 2 Rondell Bartholomew 45.45 7 7 Tabarie Henry 45.55 8 1 Femi Seun Ogunode 45.55

References

External links 400 metres results at IAAF website