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
1st, gold medalist(s) Felix Sanchez  Dominican Republic
2nd, silver medalist(s) Michael Tinsley  United States
3rd, bronze medalist(s) Javier Culson  Puerto Rico
Official Video

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 201211:15Round 1
Saturday, 4 August 201219:00Semifinals
Monday, 6 August 201220:45Finals

Records

Prior to the competition, 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

Official Video of First Round

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

Heat 1

RankAthleteNationalityTimeNotes[4]
1Amaurys Valle Cuba49.19Q, PB
2Brendan Cole Australia49.24Q, PB
3Amaechi Morton Nigeria49.34Q
4Kenneth Medwood Belize49.78q
5Roxroy Cato Jamaica50.22
6Chen Chieh Chinese Taipei50.27
7Li Zhilong China50.36
N/ATakayuki Kishimoto JapanN/ADQ

Heat 2

RankAthleteNationalityTimeNotes
1Michael Tinsley United States49.13Q
2Leford Green Jamaica49.30Q
3Kurt Couto Mozambique49.31Q
4Eric Alejandro Puerto Rico49.39q
5Rasmus Mägi Estonia50.05
6Winder Cuevas Dominican Republic50.15SB
N/AAkihiko Nakamura JapanN/ADQ
N/AKariem Hussein SwitzerlandN/ADNS

Heat 3

RankAthleteNationalityTimeNotes
1Dai Greene Great Britain48.98Q
2Emir Bekrić Serbia49.21Q, NR
3José Reynaldo Bencosme de Leon Italy49.35Q
4Brent Larue Slovenia49.38q, PB
5Jamele Mason Puerto Rico49.89
6Cheng Wen China50.38
7Vincent Kiplangat Koskei Kenya50.80
8Cornel Fredericks South Africa52.29
N/ALankantien Lamboni TogoN/ADQ

Heat 4

RankAthleteNationalityTimeNotes
1Javier Culson Puerto Rico48.33Q
2Kerron Clement United States48.48Q, SB
3Omar Cisneros Cuba48.63Q, SB
4Tristan Thomas Australia49.13q, SB
5Rhys Williams Great Britain49.17q, SB
6Michael Bultheel Belgium49.18q, PB
7Viacheslav Sakaev Russia50.36
8Jorge Paula Portugal51.40
9Maoulida Daroueche Comoros53.49

Heat 5

RankAthleteNationalityTimeNotes
1Angelo Taylor United States49.29Q
2Jehue Gordon Trinidad and Tobago49.37Q
3Stanislav Melnykov Ukraine50.13Q
4Silvio Schirrmeister Germany50.21
5Periklis Iakovakis Greece50.27
6L. J. van Zyl South Africa50.31
7Josef Prorok Czech Republic50.33
8Viktor Leptikov Kazakhstan51.67

Heat 6

RankAthleteNationalityTimeNotes
1Félix Sánchez Dominican Republic49.24Q
2Jack Green Great Britain49.49Q
3Mamadou Kasse Hanne Senegal49.63Q
4Tetsuya Tateno Japan49.95
5Josef Robertson Jamaica49.98
6Boniface Mucheru Kenya50.33
7Artem Dyatlov Uzbekistan51.55
8Andrés Silva Uruguay53.38

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

Official Video of Semifinal Round

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

Heat 1

RankAthleteNationalityTimeNotes[4]
1Félix Sánchez Dominican Republic47.76Q, SB
2Jehue Gordon Trinidad and Tobago47.96Q, NR
3Kerron Clement United States48.12q, SB
4Dai Greene Great Britain48.19q
5Mamadou Kasse Hanne Senegal48.80PB
6Michael Bultheel Belgium49.10PB
7Eric Alejandro Puerto Rico49.15
8Kurt Couto Mozambique51.55

Heat 2

RankAthleteNationalityTimeNotes
1Javier Culson Puerto Rico47.93Q
2Angelo Taylor United States47.95Q, SB
3Omar Cisneros Cuba48.23SB
4Emir Bekrić Serbia49.62
5Kenneth Medwood Belize49.87
6Stanislav Melnykov Ukraine50.19
7Tristan Thomas Australia50.55
N/AJack Green Great BritainN/A

Heat 3

RankAthleteNationalityTimeNotes
1Michael Tinsley United States48.18Q, SB
2Leford Green Jamaica48.61Q, SB
3Brent Larue Slovenia49.45
4Rhys Williams Great Britain49.63
5Brendan Cole Australia49.65
6José Reynaldo Bencosme de Leon Italy50.07
7Amaurys Valle Cuba50.48
N/AAmaechi Morton NigeriaN/A

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

RankAthleteNationalityTimeNotes[5]
1st, gold medalist(s)Félix Sánchez Dominican Republic47.63WL, SB
2nd, silver medalist(s)Michael Tinsley United States47.91PB
3rd, bronze medalist(s)Javier Culson Puerto Rico48.10
4Dai Greene Great Britain48.24
5Angelo Taylor United States48.25
6Jehue Gordon Trinidad and Tobago48.86
7Leford Green Jamaica49.12
8Kerron Clement United States49.15

References

  1. ↑ Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics
  2. ↑ "Men's 400m Hurdles". London 2012 Organising Committee. Retrieved 12 June 2012.
  3. ↑ "Men's 400m competition format". London 2012 Organising Committee. Retrieved 12 June 2012.
  4. 1 2 "400 Metres Hurdles - M. Heats". london2012.com. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
  5. ↑ "400 Metres Hurdles - M. Final". london2012.com. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
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