The men's 400 metres hurdles at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Beijing National Stadium on 22, 23 and 25 August.

Summary While Kenya has dominated the longest hurdle race, the 3000 metres steeplechase since the 1968 Olympics, and John Akii-Bua from neighboring Uganda hinted at what might be the capability of East African athletes in this event, Kenya has never had a medalist at 400 hurdles, until this year. Nicholas Bett was the fastest qualifier in the heats. His teammate Boniface Tumuti was the second fastest in the semi-finals, while Bett struggled into the slowest qualifier into the finals. That put Bett almost unnoticed in the far outside lane. Michael Tinsley was the only returning medalist from recent history and the rest of the world leaders were already eliminated, making for a very open race. The fastest 5 finalists all ran their personal best just to make the final race.

Tinsley was the early leader out of the blocks, but was quickly overtaken by Denis Kudryavtsev down the backstretch. Through the turn Tinsley began to hit hurdles, Kudryavtsev the clear leader coming to the straightaway. A couple of meters behind was a wall of Tinsley, Jeffery Gibson and Kerron Clement, with Bett slightly behind them. Kudryavtsev stretched for the ninth hurdle, Tinsley hit it and Bett stormed past. Reminiscent of Kenyan steeplechase finishes, he took the final barrier somewhat awkwardly but continued with so much power that the rest of the field was left behind him. Kudryavtsev held on for silver with a Russian national record. Gibson won the race to the line for bronze, setting his second Bahamian national record of the competition. The once dominant American team, shut out, while Kenya wins its first medal in the event and it was gold.

Records Prior to the competition, the records were as follows:

World record46.78Barcelona, Spain6 August 1992Championship record47.18Stuttgart, Germany19 August 1993World Leading 48.09Doha, Qatar15 May 2015African Record47.10Zurich, Switzerland7 August 1991Asian Record47.53Sydney, Australia27 September 2000North, Central American and Caribbean record46.78 Barcelona, Spain6 August 1992South American Record47.84 Helsinki, Finland7 August 2005European Record47.37 Lausanne, Switzerland5 July 1995Oceanian record48.28 Atlanta, GA, United States31 July 1996

Qualification standards Entry standards 49.50

Schedule Date Time Round22 August 2015 18:35 Heats23 August 2015 18:40 Semifinals25 August 2015 20:25 Final

Results KEY:qFastest non-qualifiersQQualifiedNRNational recordPBPersonal bestSBSeasonal best

Heats Qualification: Best 4 (Q) and next 4 fastest (q) qualify for the next round.

Rank Heat Name Nationality Time Notes 1 1 Nicholas Bett 48.37 2 5 Denis Kudryavtsev 48.51 , 3 3 Kerron Clement 48.75 4 2 Boniface Tumuti 48.79 , 5 4 Yasmani Copello 48.89 , 6 3 Niall Flannery 48.90 , 7 2 Michael Tinsley 48.91 8 5 Patryk Dobek 48.94 9 5 Johnny Dutch 48.97 10 2 Javier Culson 49.02 11 1 Timofey Chalyy 49.05 , 12 3 Kariem Hussein 49.08 13 1 Jeffery Gibson 49.09 14 3 Annsert Whyte 49.10 15 2 L. J. van Zyl 49.12 16 1 Kurt Couto 49.15 , 17 4 Rasmus Mägi 49.18 18 4 Thomas Barr 49.20 19 1 Abdelmalik Lahoulou 49.33 19 2 Leford Green 49.33 21 5 Yuki Matsushita 49.34 22 5 Haron Koech 49.38 , 22 5 Michaël Bultheel 49.38 22 3 Miles Ukaoma 49.38 25 1 Roxroy Cato 49.47 26 4 Cheng Wen 49.56 , 26 4 Ivan Shablyuyev 49.56 28 1 Michael Cochrane 49.58 28 2 Yuta Konishi 49.58 30 1 Takayuki Kishimoto 49.78 31 2 Jehue Gordon 49.91 32 1 Eric Alejandro 49.94 33 4 Eric Cray 50.04 34 4 Bershawn Jackson 50.14 35 5 Miloud Rahmani 50.21 36 5 Jaak-Heinrich Jagor 50.29 37 4 Johannes Maritz 51.10 38 3 Saber Boukemouche 51.54 39 5 Amadou Ndiaye 52.40 40 2 Maoulida Darouèche 53.06 3 Mohamed Sghaier R163.3(a) 2 Andrés Silva 3 Cornel Fredericks 4 Jack Green

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

Rank Heat Name Nationality Time Notes 1 2 Denis Kudryavtsev 48.23 , 2 1 Boniface Tumuti 48.29 , 3 2 Jeffery Gibson 48.37 , 4 2 Patryk Dobek 48.40 , 5 2 Yasmani Copello 48.46 , 6 3 Michael Tinsley 48.47 7 1 Kerron Clement 48.50 8 3 Nicholas Bett 48.54 9 3 Kariem Hussein 48.59 10 1 Timofey Chalyy 48.69 11 1 Thomas Barr 48.71 12 2 Johnny Dutch 48.74 13 1 Rasmus Mägi 48.76 14 1 Abdelmalik Lahoulou 48.87 15 2 L. J. van Zyl 48.89 16 1 Annsert Whyte 48.90 17 3 Niall Flannery 49.17 18 3 Javier Culson 49.36 19 2 Haron Koech 49.54 20 3 Leford Green 49.59 21 2 Cheng Wen 49.62 22 1 Michaël Bultheel 49.66 23 3 Kurt Couto 50.58 24 3 Yuki Matsushita 51.10

Final The final was started at 21:15.Final results

Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 9 Nicholas Bett 47.79 , 6 Denis Kudryavtsev 48.05 7 Jeffery Gibson 48.17 4 8 Kerron Clement 48.18 5 4 Boniface Tumuti 48.33 6 2 Yasmani Copello 48.96 7 3 Patryk Dobek 49.14 8 5 Michael Tinsley 50.02

References