1999 IAAF World Indoor Championships – Women's 400 metres

First 2 of each heat (Q) and next 4 fastest (q) qualified for the semifinals.

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	1	Grit Breuer	Germany	51.13	Q
2	1	Natalya Nazarova	Russia	51.51	Q
3	2	Jearl Miles-Clark	United States	51.79	Q, SB
4	1	Ester Goossens	Netherlands	52.05	q, SB
5	4	Olga Kotlyarova	Russia	52.06	Q
6	2	Deon Hemmings	Jamaica	52.10	Q
7	2	Charity Opara	Nigeria	52.11	q, SB
8	3	Sandie Richards	Jamaica	52.40	Q
9	4	Ana Guevara	Mexico	52.43	Q
10	1	Virna de Angeli	Italy	52.50	q, SB
11	1	Alina Ripanu	Romania	52.64	q, PB
11	3	Falilat Ogunkoya	Nigeria	52.64	Q
13	3	Susan Andrews	Australia	52.65
14	3	Shanelle Porter	United States	52.65
15	4	Sinead Dudgeon	Great Britain	52.84	PB
16	2	Sakie Nobuoka	Japan	54.11
17	2	Kaltouma Nadjina	Chad	54.30	NR
18	4	Tonique Williams	Bahamas	54.65
19	4	Chen Yuxiang	China	55.14
	2	Helena Dziurova-Fuchsová	Czech Republic	DNS
	3	Amy Mbacke Thiam	Senegal	DNS
	4	Ameerah Bello	United States Virgin Islands	DNS

First 2 of each semifinal (Q) and the next 2 fastest (q) qualified for the final.

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	2	Jearl Miles Clark	United States	50.83	Q, WL
2	1	Grit Breuer	Germany	50.88	Q, WL
3	2	Ana Guevara	Mexico	50.93	Q, NR
4	1	Falilat Ogunkoya	Nigeria	51.44	Q, PB
5	2	Deon Hemmings	Jamaica	51.47	q, PB
6	1	Sandie Richards	Jamaica	51.54	q, SB
7	2	Olga Kotlyarova	Russia	51.69
8	1	Ester Goossens	Netherlands	52.09
9	2	Charity Opara	Nigeria	52.31
10	2	Virna de Angeli	Italy	52.95
11	1	Alina Ripanu	Romania	53.29
	1	Natalya Nazarova	Russia	DNF