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

The men's 400 metres hurdles was an event at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. 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.

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' 9-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.

## Records

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

| World record | Edwin Moses (USA) | 47.02 | Koblenz, West Germany | 31 August 1983 |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| Olympic record | Andre Phillips (USA) | 47.19 | Seoul, South Korea | 25 September 1988 |

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 | Kevin Young | United States | 48.76 | Q |
| 2 | Stéphane Caristan | France | 49.16 | Q |
| 3 | Gideon Yego | Kenya | 49.23 | |
| 4 | Athanassios Kalogiannis | Greece | 49.52 | |
| 5 | Aleksey Bazarov | Israel | 50.33 | |
| 6 | Jacques-Henri Brunet | Central African Republic | 52.59 | |
| 7 | Abdullah Sabt Ghulam | United Arab Emirates | 56.20 | |

**Quarterfinal 2**

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Samuel Matete | Zambia | 49.89 | Q |
| 2 | Olaf Hense | Germany | 49.97 | Q |
| 3 | Domingo Cordero | Puerto Rico | 50.19 | |
| 4 | Kazuhiko Yamazaki | Japan | 50.30 | |
| 5 | Vadim Zadoynov | Unified Team | 51.21 | |
| 6 | Baobo Neuendorf | Papua New Guinea | 53.30 | |
| 7 | Amadou Sy Savane | Guinea | 54.26 | |

**Quarterfinal 3**

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Erick Keter | Kenya | 48.28 | Q |
| 2 | Stéphane Diagana | France | 48.41 | Q |
| 3 | Oleg Tverdokhleb | Unified Team | 48.68 | q |
| 4 | Mark Jackson | Canada | 49.18 | |
| 5 | Pedro Rodrigues | Portugal | 49.46 | |
| 6 | Ghulam Abbas | Pakistan | 50.57 | |
| 7 | Autiko Daunakamakama | Fiji | 53.90 | |

**Quarterfinal 4**

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | McClinton Neal | United States | 49.13 | Q |
| 2 | Carsten Köhrbrück | Germany | 49.37 | Q |
| 3 | Amadou Dia Ba | Senegal | 49.47 | |
| 4 | Andries Vorster | South Africa | 49.75 | |
| — | Pedro Chiamulera | Brazil | DNF | |
| — | Zeid Abou Hamed | Syria | DNS | |
| — | Fadhel Khayati | Tunisia | DNS | |

**Quarterfinal 5**

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Sven Nylander | Sweden | 49.49 | Q |
| 2 | David Patrick | United States | 49.56 | Q |
| 3 | Jozef Kucej | Czechoslovakia | 50.28 | |
| 4 | Hubert Rakotombelontsoa | Madagascar | 51.54 | |
| 5 | Paeaki Kokohu | Tonga | 56.99 | |
| — | Max Robertson | Great Britain | DNF | |
| — | Mark Thompson | Jamaica | DSQ | |

**Quarterfinal 6**

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Kriss Akabusi | Great Britain | 48.98 | Q |
| 2 | Eronilde de Araújo | Brazil | 49.10 | Q |
| 3 | Fabrizio Mori | Italy | 49.16 | |
| 4 | Simon Hollingsworth | Australia | 49.74 | |
| 5 | Paweł Woźniak | Poland | 50.30 | |
| 6 | Chanon Keanchan | Thailand | 50.60 | |
| 7 | Richard Bentley | Guam | 57.04 | |

**Quarterfinal 7**

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Winthrop Graham | Jamaica | 48.51 | Q |
| 2 | Niklas Wallenlind | Sweden | 48.71 | Q |
| 3 | Barnabas Kinyor | Kenya | 48.90 | q |
| 4 | Yoshihiko Saito | Japan | 49.01 | |
| 5 | Asen Markov | Bulgaria | 50.21 | |
| 6 | Giovanny Fanny | Seychelles | 52.63 | |
| 7 | Alex Foster | Costa Rica | 52.93 | |

### Semifinals

**Semifinal 1**

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Kriss Akabusi | Great Britain | 48.01 | Q |
| 2 | Stéphane Diagana | France | 48.28 | Q |
| 3 | Niklas Wallenlind | Sweden | 48.35 | Q |
| 4 | David Patrick | United States | 48.47 | Q |
| 5 | McClinton Neal | United States | 48.71 | |
| 6 | Erick Keter | Kenya | 49.01 | |
| 7 | Carsten Köhrbrück | Germany | 49.41 | |
| 8 | Eronilde de Araújo | Brazil | 49.66 | |

**Semifinal 2**

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Winthrop Graham | Jamaica | 47.62 | Q |
| 2 | Kevin Young | United States | 47.63 | Q |
| 3 | Oleh Tverdokhlib | Unified Team | 49.11 | Q |
| 4 | Stéphane Caristan | France | 49.50 | Q |
| 5 | Barnabas Kinyor | Kenya | 49.52 | |
| 6 | Sven Nylander | Sweden | 49.64 | |
| — | Samuel Matete | Zambia | DSQ | |
| — | Olaf Hense | Germany | DNS | |

### Final

The final was held on August 6, 1992.

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| | Kevin Young | United States | 46.78 | WR |
| | Winthrop Graham | Jamaica | 47.66 | |
| | Kriss Akabusi | Great Britain | 47.82 | |
| 4 | Stéphane Diagana | France | 48.13 | |
| 5 | Niklas Wallenlind | Sweden | 48.63 | |
| 6 | Oleh Tverdokhlib | Unified Team | 48.63 | |
| 7 | Stéphane Caristan | France | 48.86 | |
| 8 | David Patrick | United States | 49.26 | |

## Results summary

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Final | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| | Kevin Young | United States | 48.76 | 47.63 | 46.78 | WR |
| | Winthrop Graham | Jamaica | 48.51 | 47.62 | 47.66 | |
| | Kriss Akabusi | Great Britain | 48.98 | 48.01 | 47.82 | |
| 4 | Stéphane Diagana | France | 48.41 | 48.28 | 48.13 | |
| 5 | Niklas Wallenlind | Sweden | 48.71 | 48.35 | 48.63 | |
| 6 | Oleh Tverdokhlib | Unified Team | 48.68 | 49.11 | 48.63 | |
| 7 | Stéphane Caristan | France | 49.16 | 49.50 | 48.86 | |
| 8 | David Patrick | United States | 49.56 | 48.47 | 49.26 | |
| 9 | McClinton Neal | United States | 49.13 | 48.71 | Did not advance | |
| 10 | Erick Keter | Kenya | 48.28 | 49.01 | Did not advance | |
| 11 | Carsten Köhrbrück | Germany | 49.37 | 49.41 | Did not advance | |
| 12 | Barnabas Kinyor | Kenya | 48.90 | 49.52 | Did not advance | |
| 13 | Sven Nylander | Sweden | 49.49 | 49.64 | Did not advance | |
| 14 | Eronilde de Araújo | Brazil | 49.10 | 49.66 | Did not advance | |
| 15 | Samuel Matete | Zambia | 49.89 | DSQ | Did not advance | |
| 16 | Olaf Hense | Germany | 49.97 | DNS | Did not advance | |
| 17 | Yoshihiko Saito | Japan | 49.01 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 18 | Fabrizio Mori | Italy | 49.16 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 19 | Mark Jackson | Canada | 49.18 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 20 | Gideon Yego | Kenya | 49.23 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 21 | Pedro Rodrigues | Portugal | 49.46 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 22 | Amadou Dia Ba | Senegal | 49.47 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 23 | Athanassios Kalogiannis | Greece | 49.52 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 24 | Simon Hollingsworth | Australia | 49.74 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 25 | Andries Vorster | South Africa | 49.75 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 26 | Domingo Cordero | Puerto Rico | 50.19 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 27 | Asen Markov | Bulgaria | 50.21 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 28 | Jozef Kucej | Czechoslovakia | 50.28 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 29 | Paweł Woźniak | Poland | 50.30 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 29 | Kazuhiko Yamazaki | Japan | 50.30 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 31 | Aleksey Bazarov | Israel | 50.33 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 32 | Ghulam Abbas | Pakistan | 50.57 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 33 | Chanon Keanchan | Thailand | 50.60 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 34 | Vadim Zadoynov | Unified Team | 51.21 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 35 | Hubert Rakotombelontsoa | Madagascar | 51.54 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 36 | Jacques-Henri Brunet | Central African Republic | 52.59 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 37 | Giovanny Fanny | Seychelles | 52.63 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 38 | Alex Foster | Costa Rica | 52.93 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 39 | Baobo Neuendorf | Papua New Guinea | 53.30 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 40 | Autiko Daunakamakama | Fiji | 53.90 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 41 | Amadou Sy Savane | Guinea | 54.26 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 42 | Abdullah Sabt Ghulam | United Arab Emirates | 56.20 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 43 | Paeaki Kokohu | Tonga | 56.99 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 44 | Richard Bentley | Guam | 57.04 | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 45 | Pedro Chiamulera | Brazil | DNF | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 45 | Max Robertson | Great Britain | DNF | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| 47 | Mark Thompson | Jamaica | DSQ | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| — | Zeid Abou Hamed | Syria | DNS | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
| — | Fadhel Khayati | Tunisia | DNS | Did not advance | Did not advance | |
