Athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metres hurdles

Summary

There were several major absences from the competition: the 2012 Olympic champion Félix Sánchez did not return to defend his title as he had retired, Johnny Dutch (the world-leading athlete that season) had faltered at the American Olympic Trials, and the 2015 World Championships runner-up Denis Kudryavtsev was ineligible due to the Russian team ban for doping. The top contender was Kerron Clement – the 2008 Olympic medallist showing a return of form to place second on the world rankings. The 2012 Olympic minor medallists Javier Culson of Puerto Rico and American Michael Tinsley were other strong entrants, as was the 2016 European Champion Yasmani Copello of Turkey. Nicholas Bett (Kenya's reigning world champion) was present but ranked outside the world's top forty.

The final started with a false start. Javier Culson realized his mistake and walked off the track in tears before the disqualification card could be shown to him. On the restart, Yasmani Copello, the Cuban free agent running for Turkey in lane 2 was the first over the first hurdles. By the third barrier, Kerron Clement in 5, Annsert Whyte in 6 and Boniface Mucheru Tumuti in 7 had pulled even. Through the next two hurdles, Clement edged ahead with Whyte just marginally behind him. Through the final turn, Clement pushed his lead out to half a stride over Whyte, with Tumuti very close to Whyte on the outside. By the ninth barrier, Tumuti pulled even with Whyte. Clement was already on the ground after the hurdle before Copello began to rise. Another stride back in a battle to stay out of last place was Thomas Barr. But through what remained of the home straight, Clement began to come back to the field as Tumuti pulled ahead of Whyte, while Barr and Copello was making a final charge at all three. In the run in, Clement strained to successfully hold off Tumuti, to take the gold, while Copello closed strongly, barely holding off a late rush by Barr for bronze as Whyte faded.

Behind Clement, all the other athletes set national records for their countries except last place Haron Koech, who watched Tumuti take the Kenyan record in front of him and Whyte.

The medals were presented by Issa Hayatou, IOC member, Cameroon and Víctor López, Council Member of the IAAF.

Records

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

The following national records were established during the competition:

Schedule

All times are Brasilia Time (UTC-3)

Round 1

Qualification rules: first 3 of each heat (Q) plus the 6 fastest times (q) qualified.

Semifinals

Qualification rules: first 2 of each heat (Q) plus the 2 fastest times (q) qualified.