# Swimming at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships – Men's 400 metre freestyle

The heats for the men's 400 metre freestyle race at the 2009 World Championships took place on Sunday, 26 July at the Foro Italico in Rome, Italy.

## Records

| World record | Ian Thorpe (AUS) | 3:40.08 | Manchester, United Kingdom | 30 July 2002 |
| Championship record | Ian Thorpe (AUS) | 3:40.17 | Fukuoka, Japan | 22 July 2001 |
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Round | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| 26 July | Final | Paul Biedermann | Germany | 3:40.07 | WR |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Heat | Lane | Notes |
| 1 | Paul Biedermann | Germany | 3:43.01 | 9 | 2 | ER |
| 2 | Zhang Lin | China | 3:43.58 | 9 | 4 | |
| 3 | Oussama Mellouli | Tunisia | 3:43.78 | 8 | 4 | |
| 4 | Mads Glæsner | Denmark | 3:44.59 | 8 | 3 | NR |
| 5 | Peter Vanderkaay | United States | 3:45.40 | 10 | 5 | |
| 6 | David Davies | Great Britain | 3:45.43 | 9 | 3 | |
| 7 | Ryan Cochrane | Canada | 3:45.52 | 8 | 5 | |
| 8 | Gergő Kis | Hungary | 3:45.68 | 8 | 6 | NR |
| 9 | Daniel Madwed | United States | 3:45.95 | 9 | 7 | |
| 10 | Nikita Lobintsev | Russia | 3:45.97 | 9 | 5 | |
| 11 | Robert Hurley | Australia | 3:46.01 | 10 | 2 | |
| 12 | Park Tae-Hwan | South Korea | 3:46.04 | 10 | 4 | |
| 13 | Jean Basson | South Africa | 3:46.64 | 10 | 8 | |
| 14 | Robert Renwick | Great Britain | 3:46.75 | 9 | 0 | |
| 15 | Takeshi Matsuda | Japan | 3:46.95 | 10 | 3 | |
| 16 | Massimiliano Rosolino | Italy | 3:47.05 | 10 | 6 | |
| 17 | Cesare Sciocchetti | Italy | 3:47.40 | 8 | 7 | |
| 18 | Sun Yang | China | 3:47.51 | 10 | 0 | |
| 19 | David Brandl | Austria | 3:47.61 | 9 | 8 | |
| 20 | Ahmed Mathlouthi | Tunisia | 3:47.83 | 10 | 7 | |
| 21 | Ryan Napoleon | Australia | 3:47.98 | 10 | 1 | |
| 22 | Pál Joensen | Faroe Islands | 3:48.93 | 8 | 1 | |
| 23 | Jon Rahauge Rud | Denmark | 3:49.17 | 10 | 9 | |
| 24 | Péter Bernek | Hungary | 3:49.43 | 7 | 4 | |
| 25 | Sho Uchida | Japan | 3:50.16 | 8 | 2 | |
| 26 | Moss Burmester | New Zealand | 3:51.31 | 8 | 8 | |
| 27 | Blake Worsley | Canada | 3:51.86 | 6 | 5 | |
| 28 | Gard Kvale | Norway | 3:52.22 | 8 | 0 | |
| 29 | Dominik Koll | Austria | 3:52.57 | 9 | 1 | |
| 30 | David Karasek | Switzerland | 3:52.64 | 6 | 4 | |
| 31 | Esteban Paz | Argentina | 3:53.07 | 7 | 5 | NR |
| 32 | Julio Galofre | Colombia | 3:54.24 | 6 | 2 | NR |
| 33 | Stef Verachten | Belgium | 3:54.66 | 7 | 3 | |
| 34 | Djordje Markovic | Serbia | 3:54.87 | 8 | 9 | |
| 35 | Fabio Pereira | Portugal | 3:55.00 | 7 | 7 | |
| 36 | Daniele Tirabassi | Venezuela | 3:55.55 | 7 | 6 | |
| 37 | Jorge Maia | Portugal | 3:55.76 | 9 | 9 | |
| 38 | Ryan Harrison | Ireland | 3:55.88 | 7 | 1 | NR |
| 39 | Jang Sangjin | South Korea | 3:56.35 | 7 | 2 | |
| 40 | Mohamed Farhoud | Egypt | 3:57.01 | 7 | 0 | |
| 41 | Raphaël Stacchiotti | Luxembourg | 3:57.34 | 6 | 3 | |
| 42 | Daniel Delgadillo | Mexico | 3:58.66 | 7 | 8 | |
| 43 | Jan Karel Petric | Slovenia | 3:58.91 | 6 | 7 | |
| 44 | Ricardo Monasterio | Venezuela | 3:59.04 | 6 | 1 | |
| 45 | Mateo de Angulo | Colombia | 3:59.11 | 6 | 6 | |
| 46 | Nicolas Rostoucher | France | 3:59.15 | 9 | 6 | |
| 47 | Kemal Arda Gürdal | Turkey | 3:59.47 | 5 | 5 | |
| 48 | Oleg Rabota | Kazakhstan | 3:59.60 | 6 | 8 | |
| 49 | Chien Jui-Ting | Chinese Taipei | 3:59.78 | 5 | 4 | |
| 50 | Sebastián Jahnsen Madico | Peru | 4:01.47 | 5 | 6 | |
| 51 | Dmitriy Gordiyenko | Kazakhstan | 4:02.13 | 5 | 3 | |
| 52 | Ivan Alejandro Enderica | Ecuador | 4:02.86 | 6 | 0 | |
| 53 | Saeid Maleka Ashtiani | Iran | 4:03.69 | 4 | 1 | NR |
| 54 | Sebastian Arispe Silva | Peru | 4:03.72 | 5 | 2 | |
| 55 | Lin Kuan-Ting | Chinese Taipei | 4:04.61 | 5 | 8 | |
| 56 | Sobitjon Amilov | Uzbekistan | 4:04.92 | 4 | 4 | |
| 56 | Pan Kai-Wen | Chinese Taipei | 4:04.92 | 7 | 9 | |
| 58 | Irakli Revishvili | Georgia | 4:05.18 | 6 | 9 | |
| 59 | Hajder Ensar | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 4:05.50 | 4 | 2 | |
| 60 | Mandar Divase | India | 4:06.18 | 1 | 6 | |
| 61 | Berrada Morad | Morocco | 4:06.48 | 4 | 5 | |
| 62 | Marzouq Alsalem | Kuwait | 4:07.43 | 5 | 0 | |
| 63 | Esteban Enderica | Ecuador | 4:07.58 | 5 | 7 | |
| 64 | José Alberto Montoya | Costa Rica | 4:08.84 | 4 | 7 | |
| 65 | Gary Pineda | Guatemala | 4:08.99 | 3 | 2 | |
| 66 | Danny Yeo | Singapore | 4:11.32 | 5 | 9 | |
| 67 | Loai Abdulwahid Tashkandi | Saudi Arabia | 4:12.19 | 4 | 3 | |
| 68 | Colin Bensadon | Gibraltar | 4:12.31 | 3 | 7 | NR |
| 69 | Ahmed Jebrel | Palestine | 4:12.94 | 3 | 5 | |
| 70 | Antonio Tong | Macau | 4:13.87 | 3 | 6 | |
| 71 | Aleksandr Slepchenko | Kyrgyzstan | 4:14.31 | 4 | 8 | |
| 72 | Neil Agius | Malta | 4:16.10 | 3 | 3 | |
| 73 | Allan Gutiérrez Castro | Honduras | 4:16.14 | 4 | 6 | |
| 74 | Radhames Kalaf | Dominican Republic | 4:16.29 | 4 | 0 | |
| 75 | Rafael Alfaro | El Salvador | 4:16.95 | 3 | 1 | |
| 76 | Vitalii Khudiakov | Kyrgyzstan | 4:17.26 | 3 | 4 | |
| 77 | Luis Andres Martorell Name | Honduras | 4:18.18 | 3 | 9 | |
| 78 | Ngou Pok Man | Macau | 4:18.21 | 2 | 4 | |
| 79 | Cheah Mingzhe Marcus | Singapore | 4:19.28 | 5 | 1 | |
| 80 | Ignacio Iván Quevedo Bubba | Bolivia | 4:20.09 | 2 | 5 | |
| 80 | Omar Núñez | Nicaragua | 4:20.09 | 3 | 8 | |
| 82 | Heimanu Sichan | French Polynesia | 4:20.11 | 4 | 9 | |
| 83 | Ali Al Kaabi | United Arab Emirates | 4:25.78 | 2 | 7 | |
| 84 | Jean Marie Froget | Mauritius | 4:26.48 | 2 | 3 | |
| 85 | Paul Elaisa | Fiji | 4:26.61 | 2 | 1 | |
| 86 | Douglas Miller | Fiji | 4:27.13 | 2 | 2 | |
| 87 | Vincent Perry | French Polynesia | 4:27.41 | 3 | 0 | |
| 88 | Ahmed Majeed Ali Tayawi | Iraq | 4:30.55 | 2 | 8 | |
| 89 | Mathieu Marquet | Mauritius | 4:32.36 | 2 | 6 | |
| 90 | Adam Viktora | Seychelles | 4:43.14 | 2 | 9 | |
| 91 | Shin Kimura | Northern Mariana Islands | 4:47.58 | 2 | 0 | |
| 92 | Elio Berberi | Albania | 4:49.85 | 1 | 5 | |
| 93 | Henk Aloysius Lowe | Guyana | 4:52.56 | 1 | 4 | |
| 94 | Shameel Ibrahim | Maldives | 5:28.11 | 1 | 3 | |
Legend: ER: European record; NR: National record

### Final

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Lane | Time | Notes |
| | Paul Biedermann | Germany | 4 | 3:40.07 | WR |
| | Oussama Mellouli | Tunisia | 3 | 3:41.11 | AF |
| | Zhang Lin | China | 5 | 3:41.35 | AS |
| 4 | Peter Vanderkaay | United States | 2 | 3:43.20 | |
| 5 | Mads Glæsner | Denmark | 6 | 3:44.40 | NR |
| 6 | Gergő Kis | Hungary | 8 | 3:46.30 | |
| 7 | Ryan Cochrane | Canada | 1 | 3:46.60 | |
| 8 | David Davies | Great Britain | 7 | 3:47.02 | |
Legend: WR: World record; AF: African record; AS: Asian record; NR: National record