Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metres

Men's 400 metres at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
Venue	Athens Olympic Stadium
Dates	20–23 August
Competitors	63 from 53 nations
Winning time	44.00
Medalists
Jeremy Wariner  United States Otis Harris  United States Derrick Brew  United States

Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
800 m		men		women
1500 m		men		women
5000 m		men		women
10,000 m		men		women
100 m hurdles				women
110 m hurdles		men
400 m hurdles		men		women
3000 m steeplechase		men
4×100 m relay		men		women
4×400 m relay		men		women
Road events
Marathon		men		women
20 km walk		men		women
50 km walk		men
Field events
Long jump		men		women
Triple jump		men		women
High jump		men		women
Pole vault		men		women
Shot put		men		women
Discus throw		men		women
Javelin throw		men		women
Hammer throw		men		women
Combined events
Heptathlon				women
Decathlon		men
Wheelchair races

The men's 400 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program were held at the Athens Olympic Stadium from August 20 to 23.

The first round had split a full roster of runners into eight heats with the first two gaining a direct qualification and then the next eight fastest across all heats advancing to the semifinals. The top two runners in each of the three semifinal heats moved on directly to the final, and they were immediately joined by the next two fastest from any of the semifinals.

The final witnessed the three American favorites challenging each other for the Olympic medals, with Otis Harris, Jeremy Wariner, and Derrick Brew occupying the middle lanes of the track. At the start, the Americans stormed out from the blocks to take a powerful lead over the rest of the lead. Harris commanded the top position for the Americans throughout the race, but in the final turn he was chased down by Wariner. Slightly behind coming off the turn, Wariner stormed ahead over the last hundred metres to win the race at 44.00 seconds, the fastest time ever recorded in this event since American legend Michael Johnson won the gold in Sydney 2000. Harris held on to take the silver with Brew separating from the pack over the final straight to give the United States a sweep of the medal podium for the third time in the event's Olympic history, having previously managed at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

At the end of the final, seven sprinters managed to finish the race under 45 seconds, and five personal bests were recorded.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Michael Johnson (USA)	43.18 s	Seville, Spain	26 August 1999
Olympic record	Michael Johnson (USA)	43.49 s	Atlanta, United States	29 July 1996

No new records were set during the competition.

Qualification

The qualification period for athletics was 1 January 2003 to 9 August 2004. For the men's 400 metres, each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had run the race in 45.55 seconds or faster during the qualification period. If an NOC had no athletes that qualified under that standard, one athlete that had run the race in 45.95 seconds or faster could be entered.

Schedule

All times are Greece Standard Time (UTC+2)

Date	Time	Round
Friday, 20 August 2004	21:10	Round 1
Saturday, 21 August 2004	21:15	Semifinals
Monday, 23 August 2004	21:05	Final

Results

Round 1

Qualification rule: The first four finishers in each heat (Q) plus the next eight fastest overall runners (q) advanced to the semifinals.

Heat 1

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes
1	2	Alleyne Francique	Grenada	45.32	Q
2	5	Davian Clarke	Jamaica	45.54	Q
3	4	Marcus La Grange	South Africa	45.95
4	3	Piotr Klimczak	Poland	46.23
5	6	Jun Osakada	Japan	46.39
6	7	Lloyd Zvasiya	Zimbabwe	47.19
7	1	David Canal	Spain	47.23
8	8	Danilson Ricciuli	Guinea-Bissau	49.27

Heat 2

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes
1	1	Chris Brown	Bahamas	45.09	Q, SB
2	6	Otis Harris	United States	45.11	Q
3	5	Eric Milazar	Mauritius	45.34	q
4	8	Casey Vincent	Australia	46.09
5	2	Vincent Mumo Kiilu	Kenya	46.31
6	7	Andrés Silva	Uruguay	46.48
7	4	Stilianos Dimotsios	Greece	46.51	SB
8	3	Abdulla Mohamed Hussein	Somalia	51.52

Heat 3

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes
1	4	Anton Galkin	Russia	45.43	Q
2	2	Yeimer López	Cuba	45.44	Q
3	1	Alejandro Cárdenas	Mexico	45.46	q
4	5	Gary Kikaya	Democratic Republic of the Congo	45.57	q
5	3	Ato Modibo	Trinidad and Tobago	46.29
6	7	Mitsuhiro Sato	Japan	46.70
7	8	Takeshi Fujiwara	El Salvador	48.46
8	6	Youba Hmeida	Mauritania	49.18

Heat 4

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes
1	6	Derrick Brew	United States	45.41	Q
2	2	Brandon Simpson	Jamaica	45.61	Q
3	7	Sofiane Labidi	Tunisia	46.04
4	5	Daniel Caines	Great Britain	46.15
5	4	Rohan Pradeep Kumara	Sri Lanka	46.20
6	3	Evans Marie	Seychelles	48.23	PB
	8	Lezin Ngoyikonda	Republic of the Congo	DNS

Heat 5

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes
1	8	Carlos Santa	Dominican Republic	45.31	Q
2	5	Lewis Banda	Zimbabwe	45.37	Q
3	3	K. Mathews Binu	India	45.48	q, NR
4	6	Cédric van Branteghem	Belgium	45.70	q
5	1	California Molefe	Botswana	45.88
6	2	Chris Lloyd	Dominica	47.98
7	4	Fawzi Al-Shammari	Kuwait	48.25
8	7	Saeed Al-Adhreai	Yemen	49.39

Heat 6

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes
1	8	Jeremy Wariner	United States	45.56	Q
2	5	Ingo Schultz	Germany	45.88	Q
3	1	Young Talkmore Nyongani	Zimbabwe	46.03
4	4	Zsolt Szeglet	Hungary	46.16
5	6	Malachi Davis	Great Britain	46.28
6	7	Oleg Mishukov	Russia	46.41
7	3	Dadi Denis	Haiti	47.57
	2	Victor Kibet	Kenya	DNF

Heat 7

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes
1	8	Michael Blackwood	Jamaica	45.23	Q
2	7	Hamdan Al-Bishi	Saudi Arabia	45.31	Q
3	6	Saul Weigopwa	Nigeria	45.59	q
4	5	Matija Šestak	Slovenia	45.88	q
5	3	Yuki Yamaguchi	Japan	46.16
6	1	Nagmeldin Ali Abubakr	Sudan	46.32
7	2	Sajid Muhammad	Pakistan	47.45	SB
8	4	Moses Kamut	Vanuatu	48.14	SB

Heat 8

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes
1	4	Leslie Djhone	France	45.40	Q
2	2	Ezra Sambu	Kenya	45.59	Q
3	3	Timothy Benjamin	Great Britain	45.69	q
4	5	Clinton Hill	Australia	45.89
5	6	Adem Hecini	Algeria	46.50
6	7	Luis Luna	23x15px Venezuela	47.92
7	1	Jonnie Lowe	23x15px Honduras	48.06
8	8	Anderson Jorge dos Santos	Brazil	48.77

Semifinals

Qualification rule: The top two finishers in each heat (Q) plus the next two fastest overall runners (q) advanced to the final.

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes
1	3	Jeremy Wariner	United States	44.87	Q
2	5	Michael Blackwood	Jamaica	45.00	Q
3	6	Leslie Djhone	France	45.01	q
4	4	Lewis Banda	Zimbabwe	45.23
5	2	Eric Milazar	Mauritius	45.23
6	8	Gary Kikaya	Democratic Republic of the Congo	45.58
7	1	Ezra Sambu	Kenya	45.84
8	7	Cédric van Branteghem	Belgium	46.03

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes
1	4	Derrick Brew	United States	45.05	Q
2	8	Davian Clarke	Jamaica	45.27	Q
3	5	Chris Brown	Bahamas	45.31
4	6	Yeimer López	Cuba	45.52
5	7	Alejandro Cárdenas	Mexico	45.64
6	2	K. Mathews Binu	India	45.97
7	1	Matija Šestak	Slovenia	46.54
	3	Anton Galkin	Russia	45.34	DSQ

Semifinal 3

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes
1	8	Brandon Simpson	Jamaica	44.97	Q
2	5	Otis Harris	United States	44.99	Q
3	6	Alleyne Francique	Grenada	45.08	q
4	4	Carlos Santa	Dominican Republic	45.58
5	3	Hamdan Al-Bishi	Saudi Arabia	45.59
6	2	Saul Weigopwa	Nigeria	45.67
7	1	Ingo Schultz	Germany	46.23
8	7	Timothy Benjamin	Great Britain	46.28

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes
	4	Jeremy Wariner	United States	44.00	PB
	5	Otis Harris	United States	44.16	PB
	3	Derrick Brew	United States	44.42	SB
4	8	Alleyne Francique	Grenada	44.66
5	6	Brandon Simpson	Jamaica	44.76	PB
6	7	Davian Clarke	Jamaica	44.83	PB
7	2	Leslie Djhone	France	44.94
8	1	Michael Blackwood	Jamaica	45.55

External links

• IAAF Athens 2004 Olympic Coverage