Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metres hurdles
| Men's 400 metres hurdles at the Games of the XXX Olympiad | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||||||||
| Venue | Olympic Stadium | ||||||||||||
| Date | 3–6 August | ||||||||||||
| Competitors | 50 from 34 nations | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 47.63 | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
The Men's 400 metres hurdles competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom took place on 3–6 August at the Olympic Stadium.[1]
In the qualifying round, local favorite Dai Greene ran the fastest ever opening round race in the third heat, only to see that mark passed by three athletes in the following heat, led by an eased up Javier Culson. The slowest time qualifier was Kenneth Medwood in 49.78, though Stanislav Melnykov managed to get into the semis automatically with a 50.13 in the slow fifth heat.
With only two automatic qualifiers going to the final from each heat, the first semi-final stacked three former World Champions into one race. Less than a month before his 35th birthday, Félix Sánchez, the 2001 and 2003 World Champion showed he was still in the game, running a season best 47.76. Jehue Gordon upset the form setting the Trinidad and Tobago national record 47.96 in second, leaving 2007 and 2009 World Champion Kerron Clement in 3rd and 2011 World Champion Dai Greene in 4th to hope to qualify on time. The second semi was dominated by world leader Javier Culson and defending champion Angelo Taylor. In the third semi, American trials champion Michael Tinsley and Leford Green separated from the rest of the field. After a nervous wait Clement and Greene made the final on time.
In the final, Taylor, Culson and Sanchez led the way, arriving at the 8th hurdle about even. Taylor took the hurdle awkwardly and started losing ground. While Culson looked to struggle, Sanchez powered away down the stretch for the win, in exactly the same time as his 2004 victory. Tinsley came back from a couple steps back to pass Culson over the last hurdle for the silver, with Greene also trying to make a stretch run to finish fourth.
This was the second ever Olympic medal in Athletics, and the third gold medal overall for the Dominican Republic, the first being Sanchez' in 2004.
In repeating as Olympic champion non-consecutively, Sánchez joined a rare club including Paavo Nurmi, Volodymyr Holubnychy, Heike Drechsler, Nina Romashkova, Edwin Moses (caused by the boycott) and Angelo Taylor. Both Moses and Taylor were in this same event. Ulrike Meyfarth did it remarkably 12 years apart. Ezekiel Kemboi completed such a double the day before and Meseret Defar would complete one four days later.
Competition format
The Men's 400m Hurdles competition consisted of heats (Round 1), Semi-finals and a Final.[2] The fastest competitors from each race in the heats qualified for the Semi-finals along with the fastest overall competitors not already qualified that were required to fill the available spaces in the Semi-finals.[3] 24 competitors qualified from the heats for the Semi-finals.
Schedule
All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1)
| Date | Time | Round |
|---|---|---|
| Friday, 3 August 2012 | 11:15 | Round 1 |
| Saturday, 4 August 2012 | 19:00 | Semifinals |
| Monday, 6 August 2012 | 20:45 | Finals |
Records
Prior to the competition[update], the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record |  Kevin Young (USA)
|
46.78 | Barcelona, Spain | 6 August 1992 |
| Olympic record | ||||
| 2012 World leading |  Javier Culson (PUR)
|
47.78 | Paris, France | 6 July 2012 |
| Broken records during the 2012 Summer Olympics | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 World leading |  Félix Sánchez (DOM)
|
47.63 | London, United Kingdom | 6 August 2012 |
The following National records were set during this competition.
| Serbia National Record |  Emir Bekrić (SRB)
|
49.21 s |
| Trinidad and Tobago National Record |  Jehue Gordon (TRI)
|
47.96 s |
Results
Round 1
Qual. rule: first 3 of each heat (Q) plus the 6 fastest times (q) qualified.
Heat 1
| Rank | Athlete | Nationality | Time | Notes[4] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amaurys Valle |  Cuba |
49.19 | Q, PB |
| 2 | Brendan Cole |  Australia |
49.24 | Q, PB |
| 3 | Amaechi Morton |  Nigeria |
49.34 | Q |
| 4 | Kenneth Medwood |  Belize |
49.78 | q |
| 5 | Roxroy Cato |  Jamaica |
50.22 | |
| 6 | Chen Chieh |  Chinese Taipei |
50.27 | |
| 7 | Li Zhilong |  China |
50.36 | |
| — | Takayuki Kishimoto |  Japan |
— | DQ |
Heat 2
| Rank | Athlete | Nationality | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Tinsley |  United States |
49.13 | Q |
| 2 | Leford Green | Jamaica |
49.30 | Q |
| 3 | Kurt Couto |  Mozambique |
49.31 | Q |
| 4 | Eric Alejandro |  Puerto Rico |
49.39 | q |
| 5 | Rasmus Mägi |  Estonia |
50.05 | |
| 6 | Winder Cuevas |  Dominican Republic |
50.15 | SB |
| — | Akihiko Nakamura | Japan |
— | DQ |
| — | Kariem Hussein |  Switzerland |
— | DNS |
Heat 3
| Rank | Athlete | Nationality | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dai Greene |  Great Britain |
48.98 | Q |
| 2 | Emir Bekrić |  Serbia |
49.21 | Q, NR |
| 3 | José Reynaldo Bencosme de Leon |  Italy |
49.35 | Q |
| 4 | Brent Larue |  Slovenia |
49.38 | q, PB |
| 5 | Jamele Mason | Puerto Rico |
49.89 | |
| 6 | Cheng Wen | China |
50.38 | |
| 7 | Vincent Kiplangat Koskei |  Kenya |
50.80 | |
| 8 | Cornel Fredericks |  South Africa |
52.29 | |
| — | Lankantien Lamboni |  Togo |
— | DQ |
Heat 4
| Rank | Athlete | Nationality | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Javier Culson | Puerto Rico |
48.33 | Q |
| 2 | Kerron Clement | United States |
48.48 | Q, SB |
| 3 | Omar Cisneros | Cuba |
48.63 | Q, SB |
| 4 | Tristan Thomas | Australia |
49.13 | q, SB |
| 5 | Rhys Williams | Great Britain |
49.17 | q, SB |
| 6 | Michael Bultheel |  Belgium |
49.18 | q, PB |
| 7 | Viacheslav Sakaev |  Russia |
50.36 | |
| 8 | Jorge Paula |  Portugal |
51.40 | |
| 9 | Maoulida Daroueche |  Comoros |
53.49 |
Heat 5
| Rank | Athlete | Nationality | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Angelo Taylor | United States |
49.29 | Q |
| 2 | Jehue Gordon |  Trinidad and Tobago |
49.37 | Q |
| 3 | Stanislav Melnykov |  Ukraine |
50.13 | Q |
| 4 | Silvio Schirrmeister |  Germany |
50.21 | |
| 5 | Periklis Iakovakis |  Greece |
50.27 | |
| 6 | L. J. van Zyl | South Africa |
50.31 | |
| 7 | Josef Prorok |  Czech Republic |
50.33 | |
| 8 | Viktor Leptikov |  Kazakhstan |
51.67 |
Heat 6
| Rank | Athlete | Nationality | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Félix Sánchez | Dominican Republic |
49.24 | Q |
| 2 | Jack Green | Great Britain |
49.49 | Q |
| 3 | Mamadou Kasse Hanne |  Senegal |
49.63 | Q |
| 4 | Tetsuya Tateno | Japan |
49.95 | |
| 5 | Josef Robertson | Jamaica |
49.98 | |
| 6 | Boniface Mucheru | Kenya |
50.33 | |
| 7 | Artem Dyatlov |  Uzbekistan |
51.55 | |
| 8 | Andrés Silva |  Uruguay |
53.38 |
Notes: Q- Qualified by place
q - Qualified by performance (time)
PB - Personal Best
NR - National Record
SB - Seasonal Best
DQ - DisQualified
DNS - Did Not Start
Semifinals
Qual. rule: first 2 of each heat (Q) plus the 2 fastest times (q) qualified.
Heat 1
| Rank | Athlete | Nationality | Time | Notes[4] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Félix Sánchez | Dominican Republic |
47.76 | Q, SB |
| 2 | Jehue Gordon | Trinidad and Tobago |
47.96 | Q, NR |
| 3 | Kerron Clement | United States |
48.12 | q, SB |
| 4 | Dai Greene | Great Britain |
48.19 | q |
| 5 | Mamadou Kasse Hanne | Senegal |
48.80 | PB |
| 6 | Michael Bultheel | Belgium |
49.10 | PB |
| 7 | Eric Alejandro | Puerto Rico |
49.15 | |
| 8 | Kurt Couto | Mozambique |
51.55 |
Heat 2
| Rank | Athlete | Nationality | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Javier Culson | Puerto Rico |
47.93 | Q |
| 2 | Angelo Taylor | United States |
47.95 | Q, SB |
| 3 | Omar Cisneros | Cuba |
48.23 | SB |
| 4 | Emir Bekrić | Serbia |
49.62 | |
| 5 | Kenneth Medwood | Belize |
49.87 | |
| 6 | Stanislav Melnykov | Ukraine |
50.19 | |
| 7 | Tristan Thomas | Australia |
50.55 | |
| — | Jack Green | Great Britain |
— |
Heat 3
| Rank | Athlete | Nationality | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Tinsley | United States |
48.18 | Q, SB |
| 2 | Leford Green | Jamaica |
48.61 | Q, SB |
| 3 | Brent Larue | Slovenia |
49.45 | |
| 4 | Rhys Williams | Great Britain |
49.63 | |
| 5 | Brendan Cole | Australia |
49.65 | |
| 6 | José Reynaldo Bencosme de Leon | Italy |
50.07 | |
| 7 | Amaurys Valle | Cuba |
50.48 | |
| — | Amaechi Morton | Nigeria |
— |
Notes: Q- Qualified by place
q - Qualified by performance (time)
PB - Personal Best
NR - National Record
SB - Seasonal Best
DQ - DisQualified
DNS - Did Not Start
Final
| Rank | Athlete | Nationality | Time | Notes[5] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Félix Sánchez | Dominican Republic |
47.63 | WL, SB |
 |
Michael Tinsley | United States |
47.91 | PB |
 |
Javier Culson | Puerto Rico |
48.10 | |
| 4 | Dai Greene | Great Britain |
48.24 | |
| 5 | Angelo Taylor | United States |
48.25 | |
| 6 | Jehue Gordon | Trinidad and Tobago |
48.86 | |
| 7 | Leford Green | Jamaica |
49.12 | |
| 8 | Kerron Clement | United States |
49.15 |
References
- ^ Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics
- ^ "Men's 400m Hurdles". London 2012 Organising Committee. Retrieved 12 June 2012.
- ^ "Men's 400m competition format". London 2012 Organising Committee. Retrieved 12 June 2012.
- ^ a b "400 Metres Hurdles - M. Heats". london2012.com. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
- ^ "400 Metres Hurdles - M. Final". london2012.com. Retrieved 6 August 2012.