AthleticsAthletics world record
400 m, men
43.03 s
- Holder
- Wayde van Niekerk
- Date
- Place
- Rio de Janeiro
- Standing since
- 2016 (10 years)
✓ Value cross-checked in a second source
How the record evolved
The last record set in each decade, up to the current record (highlighted).
| Year | Record | Holder |
|---|---|---|
| 43.03 s | Wayde van Niekerk | |
| 43.18 s | Michael Johnson | |
| 43.29 s | Butch Reynolds | |
| 44.1 s | Larry James | |
| 44.95 s | Lee Evans | |
| 45.2 s | Lou Jones | |
| 45.9 s | Herb McKenley | |
| 46.0 s | Rudolf Harbig | |
| 47.0 s | Emerson Spencer | |
| 47.4 s | Ted Meredith | |
| 47.8 s | Maxie Long | |
| 48.5 s | Edgar Bredin |
Put them in order
Sort these records from the oldest to the most recent.
- 46.0 sRudolf Harbig
- 48.5 sEdgar Bredin
- 43.03 sWayde van Niekerk
- 44.95 sLee Evans
What to remember
One full lap of the track, run from a staggered start to the finish in the same lane: that is the 400 m. In the Olympic final in Rio de Janeiro on August 14, 2016, South Africa's Wayde van Niekerk ran it in 43.03 s, an average of 33.47 km/h (20.79 mph), and took the title in the same race.
In 1895, the record stood at 48.5 s (Edgar Bredin). Rudolf Harbig brought it to 46.0 s in 1939, Butch Reynolds with 43.29 s in 1988, then Michael Johnson with 43.18 s in 1999. Between 1895 and 2016 the time fell by 11.3%.
Van Niekerk won the 400 m world title in Beijing in 2015 and again in London in 2017, where he also took silver in the 200 m. In 2017 he also set the 300 m world record, taking it from Michael Johnson.
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Sources and licences
- Value, holder and date: Wikipedia article “List of world records in athletics” (revision used 1378411308). Data from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Photo: gabriel Santana, Photo licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons).
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