# 2023 World Athletics Championships – Men's 400 metres hurdles

The men's 400 metres hurdles at the 2023 World Athletics Championships was held at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest, Hungary from 20 to 23 August 2023.

## Summary

World record holder #1 Karsten Warholm was back. With three time silver medalist #2 Rai Benjamin and defending champion #3 Alison dos Santos, the top three of all time were there. And don't forget #8 Kyron McMaster. During the semi-finals, 18 year old Roshawn Clarke got inspired trying to chase Warholm, and the result was a new World Junior Record, now called a U20 Record, and #13 of all time. Trevor Bassitt moved to #18 all time with his performance in the semis just to be a time qualifier behind Warholm and Clarke.
Warholm was assigned his favorite lane 7. Outside of him was McMaster in 8 and dos Santos in 9. With Benjamin in 6 and Clarke in 5, all the major players were on the outside of the track. As expected, Warholm took it out hard. Unexpectedly, Benjamin also took it out hard, marginally ahead of Warholm, and McMaster was right there with them. The three were virtually even at the halfway point, and then Warholm started to edge ahead. Down the home stretch, unlike previous meetings, Benjamin was not coming from behind, but instead was watching Warholm pulling away from him. And it was McMaster coming from behind to catch Benjamin before the line for silver. Warholm's winning time of 46.89 was the eighth time he has run under 47 seconds, a time that had only been achieved once before 2018. It was Warholm's third World Championship gold medal in this event.

## Records

Before the competition, records were as follows:
| Record | Athlete & Nat. | Perf. | Location | Date |
| World record | Karsten Warholm (NOR) | 45.94 | Tokyo, Japan | 3 August 2021 |
| Championship record | Alison dos Santos (BRA) | 46.29 | Eugene, United States | 19 July 2022 |
| World Leading | Karsten Warholm (NOR) | 46.51 | Monte Carlo, Monaco | 21 July 2023 |
| African Record | Samuel Matete (ZAM) | 47.10 | Zürich, Switzerland | 7 August 1991 |
| Asian Record | Abderrahman Samba (QAT) | 46.98 | Paris, France | 30 June 2018 |
| North, Central American and Caribbean record | Rai Benjamin (USA) | 46.17 | Tokyo, Japan | 3 August 2021 |
| South American Record | Alison dos Santos (BRA) | 46.29 | Eugene, United States | 19 July 2022 |
| European Record | Karsten Warholm (NOR) | 45.94 | Tokyo, Japan | 3 August 2021 |
| Oceanian record | Rohan Robinson (AUS) | 48.28 | Atlanta, United States | 31 July 1996 |

## Qualification standard

The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 48.70.

## Schedule

The event schedule, in local time (UTC+2), was as follows:
| Date | Time | Round |
| 20 August | 11:25 | Heats |
| 21 August | 19:33 | Semi-finals |
| 23 August | 21:50 | Final |

## Results
### Heats

The first four athletes in each heat (Q) and the next four fastest (q) qualified to the semi-finals.
| Rank | Heat | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 1 | Alison dos Santos | Brazil (BRA) | 48.12 | Q |
| 2 | 1 | Ludvy Vaillant | France (FRA) | 48.27 | Q |
| 3 | 4 | Joshua Abuaku | Germany (GER) | 48.32 | Q, PB |
| 4 | 5 | Rai Benjamin | United States (USA) | 48.35 | Q |
| 5 | 4 | CJ Allen | United States (USA) | 48.36 | Q |
| 6 | 4 | Roshawn Clarke | Jamaica (JAM) | 48.39 | Q |
| 7 | 2 | Kyron McMaster | British Virgin Islands (IVB) | 48.47 | Q |
| 8 | 4 | Ezekiel Nathaniel | Nigeria (NGR) | 48.47 | Q, SB |
| 9 | 2 | Rasmus Mägi | Estonia (EST) | 48.58 | Q |
| 10 | 5 | Jaheel Hyde | Jamaica (JAM) | 48.63 | Q |
| 11 | 3 | Wilfried Happio | France (FRA) | 48.63 | Q |
| 12 | 5 | Kazuki Kurokawa | Japan (JPN) | 48.71 | Q, SB |
| 13 | 4 | Julien Watrin | Belgium (BEL) | 48.72 | q, SB |
| 14 | 2 | Trevor Bassitt | United States (USA) | 48.73 | Q |
| 15 | 5 | Gerald Drummond | Costa Rica (CRC) | 48.73 | Q |
| 16 | 3 | Karsten Warholm | Norway (NOR) | 48.76 | Q |
| 17 | 5 | Yasmani Copello | Turkey (TUR) | 48.92 | q |
| 18 | 5 | Emil Agyekum | Germany (GER) | 49.00 | q |
| 19 | 4 | Mario Lambrughi | Italy (ITA) | 49.05 | q, SB |
| 20 | 2 | Wiseman Were Mukhobe | Kenya (KEN) | 49.10 | Q |
| 21 | 1 | Julien Bonvin | Switzerland (SUI) | 49.19 | Q, SB |
| 22 | 1 | Xie Zhiyu | China (CHN) | 49.25 | Q |
| 23 | 2 | Sergio Fernández | Spain (ESP) | 49.26 | |
| 24 | 4 | Vít Müller | Czech Republic (CZE) | 49.37 | |
| 25 | 1 | Matic Ian Gucek | Slovenia (SLO) | 49.40 | SB |
| 26 | 1 | Constantin Preis | Germany (GER) | 49.45 | |
| 27 | 3 | Bassem Hemeida | Qatar (QAT) | 49.50 | Q |
| 28 | 3 | Alessandro Sibilio | Italy (ITA) | 49.50 | Q |
| 29 | 5 | Shakeem Hall-Smith | Bahamas (BAH) | 49.61 | |
| 30 | 3 | Dany Brand | Switzerland (SUI) | 49.69 | |
| 31 | 2 | Ismail Nezir | Turkey (TUR) | 49.92 | |
| 32 | 3 | Pablo Andrés Ibáñez | El Salvador (ESA) | 50.01 | |
| 33 | 4 | Yusaku Kodama | Japan (JPN) | 50.18 | |
| 34 | 2 | Eric Cray | Philippines (PHI) | 50.27 | |
| 35 | 5 | Árpád Bánóczy | Hungary (HUN) | 50.31 | PB |
| 36 | 3 | Santhosh Kumar Tamilarasan | India (IND) | 50.46 | |
| 37 | 5 | Jun Jie Calvin Quek | Singapore (SIN) | 50.53 | |
| 38 | 3 | Marc Anthony Ibrahim [de] | Lebanon (LIB) | 50.62 | |
| 39 | 3 | Malique Smith [no] | U.S. Virgin Islands (ISV) | 50.86 | |
| 40 | 2 | Takayuki Kishimoto | Japan (JPN) | 50.90 | |
| 41 | 2 | Andrea Ercolani Volta | San Marino (SMR) | 52.69 | |
| | 1 | Abdelmalik Lahoulou | Algeria (ALG) | DNF | |
| | 1 | Assinie Wilson | Jamaica (JAM) | DNF | |

### Semi-finals

The first 2 athletes in each heat (Q) and the next 2 fastest (q) qualified to the final.
| Rank | Heat | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 3 | Karsten Warholm | Norway (NOR) | 47.09 | Q |
| 2 | 2 | Rai Benjamin | United States (USA) | 47.24 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Roshawn Clarke | Jamaica (JAM) | 47.34 | Q, WU20R, NR |
| 4 | 3 | Trevor Bassitt | United States (USA) | 47.38 | q, PB |
| 5 | 2 | Alison dos Santos | Brazil (BRA) | 47.38 | Q, SB |
| 6 | 1 | Kyron McMaster | British Virgin Islands (IVB) | 47.72 | Q |
| 7 | 1 | Rasmus Mägi | Estonia (EST) | 48.30 | Q |
| 8 | 3 | Joshua Abuaku | Germany (GER) | 48.39 | q |
| 9 | 3 | Alessandro Sibilio | Italy (ITA) | 48.43 | |
| 10 | 1 | CJ Allen | United States (USA) | 48.44 | |
| 11 | 2 | Ludvy Vaillant | France (FRA) | 48.48 | |
| 12 | 1 | Jaheel Hyde | Jamaica (JAM) | 48.49 | |
| 13 | 2 | Kazuki Kurokawa | Japan (JPN) | 48.58 | PB |
| 14 | 3 | Yasmani Copello | Turkey (TUR) | 48.66 | SB |
| 15 | 2 | Emil Agyekum | Germany (GER) | 48.71 | PB |
| 16 | 3 | Wilfried Happio | France (FRA) | 48.83 | |
| 17 | 1 | Julien Watrin | Belgium (BEL) | 48.94 | |
| 18 | 1 | Ezekiel Nathaniel | Nigeria (NGR) | 49.22 | |
| 19 | 3 | Gerald Drummond | Costa Rica (CRC) | 49.31 | |
| 20 | 2 | Wiseman Were Mukhobe | Kenya (KEN) | 49.40 | |
| 21 | 1 | Bassem Hemeida | Qatar (QAT) | 49.50 | |
| 22 | 2 | Xie Zhiyu | China (CHN) | 49.57 | |
| 23 | 2 | Julien Bonvin | Switzerland (SUI) | 49.75 | |
| 24 | 1 | Mario Lambrughi | Italy (ITA) | DQ | TR16.8 |

### Final

The final was started on 23 August at 21:50.
| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time |
| | 7 | Karsten Warholm | Norway (NOR) | 46.89 |
| | 8 | Kyron McMaster | British Virgin Islands (IVB) | 47.34 |
| | 6 | Rai Benjamin | United States (USA) | 47.56 |
| 4 | 5 | Roshawn Clarke | Jamaica (JAM) | 48.07 |
| 5 | 9 | Alison dos Santos | Brazil (BRA) | 48.10 |
| 6 | 3 | Trevor Bassitt | United States (USA) | 48.22 |
| 7 | 4 | Rasmus Mägi | Estonia (EST) | 48.33 |
| 8 | 2 | Joshua Abuaku | Germany (GER) | 48.53 |