The men's 400 metres at the 2023 World Athletics Championships was held at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest, Hungary from 20 to 24 August 2023. The winning margin was 0.09 seconds.
Summary The defending champion, Michael Norman, was unable to return due to injury, opening up the field. In the semi-finals, Antonio Watson ran his personal best of 44.13 to lead the field and pulling veteran Vernon Norwood to his personal best of 44.26 in the first semi. This relegated World Record holder, making a heroic return from what should have been a career-ending injury, Wayde van Niekerk to have to wait in the holding room to await his fate. In the second semi, Matthew Hudson-Smith led 2011 champion Kirani James In the third semi-final both 2022 Olympic champion Steven Gardiner and Olympic medalist Bayapo Ndori pulled up mid-race with hamstring injuries, opening the door for Quincy Hall.World Athletics Championships 2023: Wayde van Niekerk moves through to 400m final after semi-final scare . Olympics (22 August 2023). Retrieved 2023-08-22. van Niekerk's time qualified him for the final, but he was relegated to the inside lane 2.
From the gun in the final, Hudson-Smith was out fastest, making up the stagger on Hall to his outside at the end of the first turn. Inside of him, James was also gaining relative to the staggers. Van Niekerk pushed down the backstretch to try to regain contact with James. As they went into the final turn, Norwood began to move forward. Later in the turn, Watson started to move. As they hit the home stretch, Hudson-Smith had a metre and a half on James with Norwood and Watson about even on the outside another metre back, with van Niekerk about the same distance back on the inside. Still further back, Hall started to accelerate. Watson began to separate from Norwood and van Niekerk with Hall overstriding to try to catch them. 40 metres out, Watson caught James who could offer no more resistance. Norwood got past James and looked like he was closing on a slowing Hudson-Smith. Watson passed Hudson-Smith about 25 metres out and was on to victory. Norwood couldn't quite catch Hudson-Smith but a speeding Hall caught Norwood on the last step for bronze.
Records Before the competition records were as follows:
RecordAthlete & LocationDate World record43.03Rio de Janeiro, Brazil14 August 2016Championship record43.18Seville, Spain26 August 1999World Leading43.74Székesfehérvár, Hungary18 July 2023African Record43.03Rio de Janeiro, Brazil14 August 2016Asian Record43.93Beijing, China23 August 2015European Record44.33Rome, Italy3 September 1987North, Central American and Caribbean record43.18Seville, Spain26 August 1999Oceanian record44.38Seoul, South Korea26 September 1988South American Record43.93Tokyo, Japan2 August 2021
Qualification standard The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 45.00.
Schedule The event schedule, in local time (UTC+2), was as follows:
Date Time Round20 August 10:25 Heats22 August 21:00 Semi-finals24 August 21:35 Final
Results
Heats The first 3 athletes in each heat (Q) and the next 6 fastest (q) qualify for the semi-finals.
Rank Heat Name Nationality Time Notes 1 3Håvard Bentdal Ingvaldsen 44.39Q, 2 2Wayde van Niekerk 44.57Q 3 1Steven Gardiner 44.65Q 4 2Matthew Hudson-Smith 44.69Q, 5 6Bayapo Ndori 44.72Q 6 5Antonio Watson 44.77Q 7 1Kentaro Sato 44.77Q, 8 2Liemarvin Bonevacia 44.78Q, 9 2Busang Kebinatshipi 44.80q, 10 1Attila Molnár 44.84Q, 11 5Quincy Hall 44.86Q 12 3Vernon Norwood 44.87Q 13 1Zakithi Nene 44.88q 14 4Kirani James 44.91Q 15 6Alexander Doom 44.92Q, 16 4Fuga Sato 44.97Q, 17 4Sean Bailey 44.98Q 18 1Michael Joseph 45.04q 19 6Zandrion Barnes 45.05Q 20 4Davide Re 45.07q, 21 5Yuki Joseph Nakajima 45.15Q 22 3Jereem Richards 45.15Q 23 4Leungo Scotch 45.20q 24 3Dylan Borlée 45.24q 25 6Lucas Carvalho 45.34 25 6Manuel Sanders 45.34 27 3Oleksandr Pohorilko 45.37 28 3João Coelho 45.38 29 2Elián Larregina 45.42 30 5Lythe Pillay 45.58 31 4Dubem Nwachukwu 45.60 32 4 45.66 33 5Lionel Spitz 45.69 34 1Aruna Dharshana 45.70 35 1Bonface Mweresa 45.91 36 6Matěj Krsek 45.99 37 3Jonathan Jones 46.03 38 6Bryce Deadmon 46.20 39 5Karol Zalewski 46.53 40 5Christopher O'Donnell 46.76 41 2Alonzo Russell 46.95 5Desean Boyce 2Anthony Zambrano 4Carl Bengtström3Ricky Petrucciani
Semi-finals The first 2 athletes in each heat (Q) and the next 2 fastest (q) qualify for the final.
Rank Heat Name Nationality Time Notes 1 1Antonio Watson 44.13 Q, 2 1Vernon Norwood 44.26 Q, 3 2Matthew Hudson-Smith 44.26 Q, 4 3Quincy Hall 44.43 Q 5 2Kirani James 44.58 Q 6 1Wayde van Niekerk 44.65 q 7 2Håvard Bentdal Ingvaldsen 44.70 q 8 1Jereem Richards 44.76 9 2Fuga Sato 44.88 10 3Sean Bailey 44.94 Q 11 1Kentaro Sato 44.99 12 1Attila Molnár 45.02 13 3 Yuki Joseph Nakajima 45.04 14 2Liemarvin Bonevacia 45.23 15 3Davide Re 45.29 16 2Zandrion Barnes 45.38 17 1Michael Joseph 45.50 18 3Alexander Doom 45.57 19 2Dylan Borlée 45.59 20 3Zakithi Nene 45.64 21 1Leungo Scotch 45.96 22 2Busang Kebinatshipi 46.39 3 Steven Gardiner 3 Bayapo Ndori
Final The final started at 21:35 on 24 August. The results were as follows:
Rank Name Nationality Time Notes Antonio Watson 44.22 Matthew Hudson-Smith 44.31 Quincy Hall 44.37 4 Vernon Norwood 44.39 5 Sean Bailey 44.96 6 Håvard Bentdal Ingvaldsen 45.08 7 Wayde van Niekerk 45.11 Kirani James TR17.3.1: Lane infraction
References
Notes