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

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.[2][3]

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.[4]

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.[5]

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

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

World record	Kevin Young (USA)	46.78	Barcelona, Spain	6 August 1992
Olympic record
2016 World leading	Johnny Dutch (USA)	48.10	Kingston, Jamaica	11 June 2016

Area	Time	Athlete	Nation
Africa (records)	47.10	Samuel Matete	Zambia
Asia (records)	47.53	Hadi Soua'an Al-Somaily	Saudi Arabia
Europe (records)	47.37	Stephane Diagana	France
North, Central America and Caribbean (records)	46.78 WR	Kevin Young	United States
Oceania (records)	48.28	Rohan Robinson	Australia
South America (records)	47.84	Bayano Kamani	Panama

The following national records were established during the competition:

Country	Athlete	Round	Time	Notes
Algeria	Abdelmalik Lahoulou (ALG)	Heats	48.62 s
Norway	Karsten Warholm (NOR)	Heats	48.49 s
Finland	Oskari Mörö (FIN)	Heats	49.04 s
Seychelles	Ned Justeen Azemia (SEY)	Heats	50.74 s
Ireland	Thomas Barr (IRL)	Semifinals	48.39 s
Kenya	Boniface Mucheru Tumuti (KEN)	Final	47.78 s
Turkey	Yasmani Copello (TUR)	Final	47.92 s
Ireland	Thomas Barr (IRL)	Final	47.97 s
Estonia	Rasmus Mägi (EST)	Final	48.40 s

All times are Brasilia Time (UTC-3)

• 400 metres hurdles