Athletics at the 1908 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metres hurdles

First round

First round, heat 1

There was no competition for Koops in the first heat.

Place	Name	Nation	Time
1	Evert Koops	Netherlands	walkover

First round, heat 2

A tight race from start to finish, Coe won by about a metre.

Place	Name	Nation	Time
1	Harry Coe	United States	58.8 seconds
2	John Densham	Great Britain	(59.0 seconds)

First round, heat 3

Bacon won easily, breaking Godfrey Shaw's 440 yards world record.

Place	Name	Nation	Time
1	Charles Bacon	United States	57.0 seconds OR
2	Henry St Aubyn Murray	Australasia	(59.8 seconds)

First round, heat 4

There was no competition for Harmer in the fourth heat.

Place	Name	Nation	Time
1	Frederick Harmer	Great Britain	walkover

First round, heat 5

There was no competition for Burton in the fifth heat.

Place	Name	Nation	Time
1	Geoffrey Burton	Great Britain	walkover

First round, heat 6

Dubois pulled up lame three-quarters of the way through the race, leaving Hillman with the win.

Place	Name	Nation	Time
1	Harry Hillman	United States	59.2 seconds
—	Georges Dubois	France	DNF

First round, heat 7

There was no competition for Groenings in the seventh heat.

Place	Name	Nation	Time
1	Oswald Groenings	Great Britain	walkover

First round, heat 8

There was no competition for Gould in the eighth heat.

Place	Name	Nation	Time
1	Wyatt Gould	Great Britain	walkover

First round, heat 9

There was no competition for Kovacs in the ninth heat.

Place	Name	Nation	Time
1	Nándor Kovács	Hungary	walkover

First round, heat 10

There was no competition for Tremeer in the tenth heat.

Place	Name	Nation	Time
1	Jimmy Tremeer	Great Britain	walkover

First round, heat 11

The eleventh heat was cancelled as there were no starters.

First round, heat 12

In only the fourth actual race of the first round, and the third in which both runners finished, Burton won in the straight.

Place	Name	Nation	Time
1	Leslie Burton	Great Britain	1:00.4
2	Henri Meslot	France	(1:01.0)

Second round

Second round, heat 1

Koops fell; Hillman won easily, breaking Bacon's record that was set in the first round.

Place	Name	Nation	Time
1	Harry Hillman	United States	56.4 seconds OR
2	Harry Coe	United States	(57.0 seconds)
—	Evert Koops	Netherlands	DNF

Second round, heat 2

Bacon started off fast, and the other two runners dropped out at 200m.

Place	Name	Nation	Time
1	Charles Bacon	United States	58.8 seconds
—	Oswald Groenings	Great Britain	DNF
—	Nándor Kovács	Hungary	DNF

Second round, heat 3

Burton led after the hurdles, and won despite losing ground in the straight.

Place	Name	Nation	Time
1	Leslie Burton	Great Britain	59.8 seconds
2	Frederick Harmer	Great Britain	1:00.3
3	Wyatt Gould	Great Britain	unknown

Second round, heat 4

Burton retired, allowing Tremeer to win with a jog.

Place	Name	Nation	Time
1	Jimmy Tremeer	Great Britain	1:00.6
—	G. Burton	Great Britain	DNF

Final

The final was held on Wednesday, July 22, 1908.

Charles Bacon and Harry Hillman in the final.

Halfway into the race, it was clear that the only question was which American would win. Bacon and Hillman were even all the way until the straight, with Bacon just barely pulling ahead to win by two yards, as both of the Americans came in under the world record set by Hillman in the second round.

Place	Name	Nation	Time
1	Charles Bacon	United States	55.0 seconds WR
2	Harry Hillman	United States	55.3 seconds
3	Jimmy Tremeer	Great Britain	57.0 seconds
4	Leslie Burton	Great Britain	58.0 seconds