Athletics at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metres hurdles

This was the 22nd time the event was held. It had been introduced along with the men's 200 metres hurdles in 1900, with the 200 being dropped after 1904 and the 400 being held through 1908 before being left off the 1912 programme. However, when the Olympics returned in 1920 after World War I, the men's 400 metres hurdles was back and would continue to be contested at every Games thereafter.

Four of the eight finalists from the 1996 Games returned: silver medalist Samuel Matete of Zambia, fifth-place finisher Rohan Robinson of Australia, sixth-place finisher Fabrizio Mori of Italy, and eighth-place finisher Eronilde de Araujo of Brazil. Mori had won the 1999 World Championship, but Angelo Taylor of the United States and Llewellyn Herbert were the favorites.[2]

Belarus, Chinese Taipei, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Namibia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan each made their debut in the event. The United States made its 21st appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had run 49.90 seconds or faster during the qualification period. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. If an NOC had no athletes that qualified under that standard, one athlete that had run 50.20 seconds or faster could be entered.[3]

The competition used the three-round format used every Games since 1908 (except the four-round competition in 1952): quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. The number of semifinals was expanded from 2 to 3. Ten sets of hurdles were set on the course. The hurdles were 3 feet (91.5 centimetres) tall and were placed 35 metres apart beginning 45 metres from the starting line, resulting in a 40 metres home stretch after the last hurdle. The 400 metres track was standard.

There were 8 quarterfinal heats with 7 or 8 athletes each. The top 2 men in each quarterfinal advanced to the semifinals along with the next fastest 8 overall. The 24 semifinalists were divided into 3 semifinals of 8 athletes each, with the top 2 in each semifinal and the next 2 fastest overall advancing to the 8-man final.[2]

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1996 Summer Olympics.

World record	Kevin Young (USA)	46.78	Barcelona, Spain	6 August 1992
Olympic record	Kevin Young (USA)	46.78	Barcelona, Spain	6 August 1992

No new world or Olympic records were set during the competition.

All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10)

All times shown are in seconds.

Quarterfinal 1

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	8	Llewellyn Herbert	South Africa	0.171	49.25	Q
2	7	Thomas Goller	Germany	0.154	49.32	Q
3	3	Ruslan Mashchenko	Russia	0.255	50.01	q
4	4	Rohan Robinson	Australia	0.173	50.80
5	5	Willie Smith	Namibia	0.156	50.89
6	6	Carlos Zbinden	Chile	0.180	51.36
7	2	Victor Houston	Barbados	0.179	51.51

Quarterfinal 2

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	5	Fabrizio Mori	Italy	0.162	49.35	Q
2	8	Boris Gorban	Russia	0.195	49.44	Q
3	4	Félix Sánchez	Dominican Republic	0.142	49.70	q
4	6	Blair Young	Australia	0.193	49.75	q
5	2	Tien-Wen Chen	Chinese Taipei	0.180	49.93	q, NR
6	3	Erick Keter	Kenya	0.269	50.06	q, SB
7	1	Kazuhiko Yamazaki	Japan	0.177	50.15
8	7	Yvon Rakotoarimiandry	Madagascar	0.185	50.15

Quarterfinal 3

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	8	Angelo Taylor	United States	0.185	49.48	Q
2	6	Dinsdale Morgan	Jamaica	0.171	49.64	Q
3	4	Ibou Faye	Senegal	0.188	50.09
4	7	Arijan Raja Ratnayake	Sri Lanka	0.346	50.43
5	5	Erkinjon Isakov	Uzbekistan	0.182	50.71
6	3	Hillary Kiprotich Maritim	Kenya	0.180	51.04
7	2	Sylvester Omodiale	Nigeria	0.189	51.06

Quarterfinal 4

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	8	Jiri Muzik	Czech Republic	0.216	50.11	Q
2	6	Eric Thomas	United States	0.170	50.16	Q
3	1	Periklis Iakovakis	Greece	0.165	50.20
4	4	Hideaki Kawamura	Japan	0.172	50.68
5	7	Vadim Zadoinov	Moldova	0.173	51.08
6	2	Mustapha Sdad	Morocco	0.216	51.39
7	3	Tom McGuirk	Ireland	0.183	51.73
8	5	Lee Du-yeon	South Korea	0.192	52.61

Quarterfinal 5

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	3	Christopher Rawlinson	Great Britain	0.184	51.30	Q
2	2	Paweł Januszewski	Poland	0.163	51.40	Q
3	7	Tibor Bedi	Hungary	0.169	51.54
4	5	Kenneth Harnden	Zimbabwe	0.435	51.83
5	4	Leonid Vershinin	Belarus	0.151	51.84
6	1	Darko Juricic	Croatia	0.167	52.39
7	6	Zahr-el-Din El-Najem	Syria	0.160	52.70
8	8	Iliya Dzhivondov	Bulgaria	0.279	54.36

Quarterfinal 6

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	1	Hadi Souan Somayli	Saudi Arabia	0.174	49.28	Q
2	7	James Carter	United States	0.174	49.41	Q
3	6	Alwyn Myburgh	South Africa	0.184	49.57	q
4	5	Pedro Rodrigues	Portugal	0.162	49.90	q
5	4	Anthony Borsumato	Great Britain	0.155	50.73
6	3	Costas Pochanis	Cyprus	0.244	51.20
7	8	Matthew Beckenham	Australia	0.176	51.27
8	2	Ian Weakley	Jamaica	0.179	52.18

Quarterfinal 7

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	1	Samuel Matete	Zambia	0.184	48.98	Q
2	5	Gennadiy Gorbenko	Ukraine	0.406	49.12	Q, PB
3	8	Matt Douglas	Great Britain	0.163	49.62	q
4	7	Kemel Thompson	Jamaica	0.241	50.40
5	3	Zid Abou Hamed	Syria	0.117	50.74
6	6	Paul Tucker	Guyana	0.354	50.92
7	2	Radoslav Holubek	Slovakia	0.127	51.18
8	4	Mowen Boino	Papua New Guinea	0.406	51.28	NR

Quarterfinal 8

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	8	Eronilde de Araújo	Brazil	0.179	50.06	Q
2	6	Giorgio Frinolli Puzzilli	Italy	0.179	50.27	Q
3	4	Vladislav Shiryayev	Russia	0.179	50.39
4	5	Inigo Monreal	Spain	0.502	51.32
5	7	Sinisa Pesa	Yugoslavia	0.165	52.14
6	2	Curt Young	Panama	0.164	52.46
7	3	Iain Harnden	Zimbabwe	0.287	54.01
8	1	Dai Tamesue	Japan	0.256	1:01.81

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	6	Hadi Souan Somayli	Saudi Arabia	0.316	48.14	Q, AR
2	4	Fabrizio Mori	Italy		48.40	Q, SB
3	5	Gennadiy Gorbenko	Ukraine	0.478	48.40	q, PB
4	7	Paweł Januszewski	Poland	0.244	48.42	q, SB
5	2	Eric Thomas	United States	0.188	49.25
6	3	Thomas Goller	Germany	0.152	49.28
7	1	Pedro Rodrigues	Portugal	0.163	49.48	SB
8	8	Tien-Wen Chen	Chinese Taipei	0.182	50.52

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	4	Llewellyn Herbert	South Africa	0.153	48.38	Q
2	3	Angelo Taylor	United States	0.250	48.49	Q
3	7	Ruslan Mashchenko	Russia	0.177	48.49
4	8	Blair Young	Australia	0.255	49.20
5	5	Jiri Muzik	Czech Republic	0.277	49.23
6	6	Chris Rawlinson	Great Britain	0.177	49.25
7	1	Félix Sánchez	Dominican Republic	0.178	49.69
8	2	Giorgio Frinolli Puzzilli	Italy	0.242	50.10

Semifinal 3

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	3	James Carter	United States	0.202	48.48	Q
2	4	Eronilde de Araújo	Brazil	0.181	48.76	Q
3	6	Samuel Matete	Zambia	0.228	48.98
4	1	Alwyn Myburgh	South Africa	0.202	49.25
5	5	Boris Gorban	Russia	0.454	49.29
6	8	Matt Douglas	Great Britain	0.177	49.53
7	2	Dinsdale Morgan	Jamaica	0.166	50.23
8	7	Erick Keter	Kenya	0.202	51.25

Final

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
	1	Angelo Taylor	United States	0.179	47.50	PB
	4	Hadi Souan Somayli	Saudi Arabia	0.437	47.53	AR
	6	Llewellyn Herbert	South Africa	0.169	47.81	NR
4	5	James Carter	United States	0.421	48.04	PB
5	8	Eronilde de Araújo	Brazil	0.190	48.34
6	2	Paweł Januszewski	Poland	0.149	48.44
7	3	Fabrizio Mori	Italy	0.198	48.78
8	7	Gennadiy Gorbenko	Ukraine	0.395	49.01

• Official Report of the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics