Athletics at the 1992 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metres hurdles explained

Games:	1992 Summer
Event:	Men's 400 metres hurdles
Dates:	3 August 1992 (quarterfinals) 5 August 1992 (semifinals) 6 August 1992 (final)
Venue:	Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys
Competitors:	47
Nations:	35
Win Value:	46.78
Longnames:	yes
Gold:	Kevin Young
Goldnoc:	USA
Silver:	Winthrop Graham
Silvernoc:	JAM
Bronze:	Kriss Akabusi
Bronzenoc:	GBR
Prev:	1988
Next:	1996

The men's 400 metres hurdles was an event at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.^[1] It was held from 3 to 6 August at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys. There were 47 competitors from 35 nations. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Kevin Young of the United States, the nation's third consecutive and 15th overall victory in the event. Winthrop Graham earned Jamaica's first men's 400 metres hurdles medal with his silver. Kriss Akabusi earned bronze, putting Great Britain on the podium in the event for the first time since 1980. The three medalists had finished in the same order in 1988, just outside of the medals that year in fourth through sixth places.

Background

This was the 20th time the event was held. It had been introduced along with the men's 200 metres hurdles in 1900, with the 200 being dropped after 1904 and the 400 being held through 1908 before being left off the 1912 programme. However, when the Olympics returned in 1920 after World War I, the men's 400 metres hurdles was back and would continue to be contested at every Games thereafter.

Four of the eight finalists from the 1988 Games returned: silver medalist Amadou Dia Ba of Senegal, fourth-place finisher Kevin Young of the United States, fifth-place finisher Winthrop Graham of Jamaica, and sixth-place finisher Kriss Akabusi of Great Britain. Two of the great long hurdlers, American Edwin Moses and West German Harald Schmid, had retired. The reigning world champion, and favorite in Barcelona, was Samuel Matete of Zambia. Graham and Akabusi had finished behind Matete at the world championships and were also strong contenders.^[2]

The Central African Republic, Costa Rica, Guam, Guinea, Israel, Papua New Guina, Thailand, and Tonga each made their debut in the event; some former Soviet republics competed as the Unified Team. The United States made its 19th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Summary

Running in lane 4, Kevin Young appeared to have the slowest reaction to the gun of the field. To his inside, Graham was the first over the first hurdle. Using a left leg lead, 13 strides to the second hurdle, Young had pulled to just slightly behind Graham. Between the next two hurdles he ran 12 strides, alternating to the right leg lead over the fourth hurdle. Over the fifth hurdle he had made up the stagger on Kriss Akabusi to his outside. Relative to the hurdles, he had clearly passed Graham with the rest of the field clearly a full stride or more behind. Running 13 strides the rest of the way, he passed the rest of the competitors to his outside between the next two hurdles. A one stride lead over Graham at the eight hurdle became two by the ninth. Young was still powerful as Graham was struggling. In the battle for bronze, Stéphane Diagana had a slight lead over Akabusi over the eighth hurdle, but Akabusi clearly broke away between eight and nine, which Diagana struggled to clear. Young tried to maintain his power into the final hurdle though he came up a little short, catching the face of the hurdle with his lead leg heel, riding the hurdle to the ground. He maintained his powerful stride to the finish. Realizing he had the clear victory, Young raised his right arm in celebration 10 meters before the finish, slowing his last four strides. Still, Young crossed the finish line with a new world record, taking almost a quarter of a second out of Edwin Moses' nine-year-old record. Graham held on for second, as Akabusi was unable to make up the gap with Diagana unable to recover the distance he had lost to Akabusi.

Competition format

The competition used the three-round format used every Games since 1908 (except the four-round competition in 1952): quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. Ten sets of hurdles were set on the course. The hurdles were 3 feet (91.5 centimetres) tall and were placed 35 metres apart beginning 45 metres from the starting line, resulting in a 40 metres home stretch after the last hurdle. The 400 metres track was standard.

There were 7 quarterfinal heats with 7 athletes each (before two withdrawals left one heat with only 5). The top 2 men in each quarterfinal advanced to the semifinals along with the next fastest 2 overall. The 16 semifinalists were divided into 2 semifinals of 8 athletes each, with the top 4 in each semifinal advancing to the 8-man final.^[2]

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1992 Summer Olympics.

In the final, Kevin Young set a new world record with 46.78.

Schedule

All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)

Date	Time	Round
Monday, 3 August 1992	12:15	Quarterfinals
Wednesday, 5 August 1992	19:15	Semifinals
Thursday, 6 August 1992	19:00	Final

Results

Quarterfinals

Quarterfinal 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1			48.76
2			49.16
3			49.23
4			49.52
5			50.33
6			52.59
7			56.20

Quarterfinal 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1			49.89
2			49.97
3			50.19
4			50.30
5			51.21
6			53.30
7			54.26

Quarterfinal 3

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1			48.28
2			48.41
3			48.68
4			49.18
5			49.46
6			50.57
7			53.90

Quarterfinal 4

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1			49.13
2			49.37
3			49.47
4			49.75
data-sort-value=5	—			data-sort-value=60.00
—			data-sort-value=90.00
Fadhel Khayati		data-sort-value=90.00

Quarterfinal 5

Rank	Athlete	Time	Notes
1		49.49
2		49.56
3		50.28
4		51.54
5		56.99
data-sort-value=6	—		data-sort-value=60.00
data-sort-value=7	—		data-sort-value=70.00

Quarterfinal 6

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1			48.98
2			49.10
3			49.16
4			49.74
5			50.30
6			50.60
7			57.04

Quarterfinal 7

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1			48.51
2			48.71
3			48.90
4			49.01
5			50.21
6			52.63
7			52.93

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1			48.01
2			48.28
3			48.35
4			48.47
5			48.71
6			49.01
7			49.41
8			49.66

Semifinal 2

Rank	Athlete	Time	Notes
1		47.62
2		47.63
3		49.11
4		49.50
5		49.52
6		49.64
data-sort-value=7	—		data-sort-value=70.00
data-sort-value=8	—		data-sort-value=90.00

Final

The final was held on August 6, 1992.

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
			46.78
			47.66
			47.82
4			48.13
5			48.63
6			48.63
7			48.86
8			49.26

Results summary

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final !	Notes
			48.76	47.63	46.78
			48.51	47.62	47.66
			48.98	48.01	47.82
4			48.41	48.28	48.13
5			48.71	48.35	48.63
6			48.68	49.11	48.63
7			49.16	49.50	48.86
8			49.56	48.47	49.26
9			49.13	48.71	Did not advance
10			48.28	49.01
11			49.37	49.41
12			48.90	49.52
13			49.49	49.64
14			49.10	49.66
15			49.89	data-sort-value=70.00
16			49.97	data-sort-value=90.00
17			49.01	Did not advance
18			49.16
19			49.18
20			49.23
21			49.46
22			49.47
23			49.52
24			49.74
25			49.75
26			50.19
27			50.21
28			50.28
29			50.30
29			50.30
31			50.33
32			50.57
33			50.60
34			51.21
35			51.54
36			52.59
37			52.63
38			52.93
39			53.30
40			53.90
41			54.26
42			56.20
43			56.99
44			57.04
45			data-sort-value=60.00
45			data-sort-value=60.00
47			data-sort-value=70.00
—			data-sort-value=90.00
Fadhel Khayati		data-sort-value=90.00

External links

Notes and References

Web site: Athletics at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Games: Men's 400 metres Hurdles . https://web.archive.org/web/20200417175306/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1992/ATH/mens-400-metres-hurdles.html . dead . 17 April 2020 . 8 October 2017 . sports-reference.com.
Web site: 400 metres Hurdles, Men . Olympedia . 20 January 2021.