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Men's 400 metres world record progression

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Summary

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The first world record in the 400 m for men (athletics) was recognized by the International Amateur Athletics Federation, now known as World Athletics, in 1912. The IAAF ratified Charles Reidpath's 48.2 s performance set at that year's Stockholm Olympics as a world record, but it also recognized the superior mark over 440 yd run by Maxie Long in 1900 as a world record.

Up to and including 2021, World Athletics has ratified 24 outdoor world records in the event. |access-date = August 2, 2009 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110629134819/http://www.iaaf.org/mm/document/competitions/competition/05/15/63/20090706014834_httppostedfile_p345-688_11303.pdf |archive-date=June 29, 2011

The following tables show the world record progression in the men's 400 metres, as ratified by World Athletics.

Indoor

Indoor records are run on a shorter 200 metres track. "y" indicates marks were set over the 440 yards imperial distance, and an asterisk indicates a record was repeated. All records since Schönlebe's 45.41 in 1986 were ratified by the IAAF.

Time	Athlete	Nationality	Location of race	Date
50.8y	Harry Hillman	cnuie	New York	1907
50.4y	James Rosenberger	cnuie	New York	February 17, 1911
49.6y	Thomas Halpin	cnuie	Buffalo	March 15, 1913
49.6y	Walter Koppisch	cnuie	Buffalo	March 17, 1923
48.9y	Bill Henke	cnuie	Iowa City	February 28, 1931
48.9y*	Ray Ellinwood	cnuie	Chicago	March 14, 1936
48.2y	Roy Cochran	cnuie	Chicago	March 9, 1940
48.1y	Bob Ufer	cnuie	Chicago	March 7, 1942
47.9	Roy Cochran	cnuie	New York	March 25, 1942
47.9y	Herbert McKenley	cnuie	Chicago	March 15, 1947
47.9y*	Dave Mills	cnuie	Bloomington	February 3, 1962
47.9y*	Elzie Higginbottom	cnuie	Madison	February 10, 1962
47.9y*	Elzie Higginbottom	cnuie	Minneapolis	February 17, 1962
47.9y*	Elzie Higginbottom	cnuie	Madison	February 24, 1962
47.8y	Dave Mills	cnuie	East Lansing	March 3, 1962
47.8y*	Jean-Pierre Boccardo	cnuie	Stuttgart	February 14, 1964
47.6y	Ray Saddler	cnuie	Louisville	February 27, 1965
46.8	Mike Larrabee	cnuie	Berlin	April 8, 1965
46.2y	Tommie Smith	cnuie	Louisville	February 18, 1967
46.1	Marcello Fiasconaro	cnuie	Genova	March 15, 1972
45.9	Alfons Brijdenbach	cnuie	Sofia	February 17, 1974
45.9*	Mikhail Linge	cnuie	Moscow	February 16, 1980
47.55	Jan Balachowski	cnuie	Madrid	March 10, 1968
47.09	Andrzej Badenski	cnuie	Madrid	March 10, 1968
46.38	Luciano Susanj	cnuie	Rotterdam	March 11, 1973
46.21	Karel Kolar	cnuie	Wien	February 25, 1979
45.96	Hartmut Weber	cnuie	Sindelfingen	February 7, 1981
45.79	Antonio McKay	cnuie	Gainesville	February 11, 1984
45.60	Thomas Schönlebe	cnuie	Paris-Bercy	January 19, 1985
45.56	Todd Bennett	cnuie	Piraeus	March 3, 1985
45.41	Thomas Schönlebe	cnuie	Wien	February 9, 1986
45.05	Thomas Schönlebe	cnuie	Sindelfingen	February 5, 1988
45.05	Danny Everett	cnuie	Stuttgart	February 4, 1990
45.02	Danny Everett	cnuie	Stuttgart	February 2, 1992
44.97	Michael Johnson	cnuie	Reno	February 10, 1995
44.63	Michael Johnson	cnuie	Atlanta	March 4, 1995
44.57	Kerron Clement	cnuie	Fayetteville, AR	March 12, 2005
44.52	Michael Norman	cnuie	College Station, TX	March 10, 2018

Outdoor

Records 1912–1976

Time	Auto	Athlete	Nationality	Location of race	Date
47.8y		Maxie Long	United States	New York, USA	September 29, 1900
48.2		Charles Reidpath	United States	Stockholm, Sweden	July 13, 1912
47.4y		Ted Meredith	United States	Cambridge, USA	May 27, 1916
47.6		Eric Liddell		Paris, France	url=https://iaaf-ebooks.s3.amazonaws.com/2015/Progression-of-IAAF-World-Records-2015/projet/IAAF-WRPB-2015.pdf	title=IAAF World Records Progression	edition=2015	author1=Hymans, Richard	author2=Matrahazi, Imre	publisher=International Association of Athletics Federations	access-date=April 30, 2018}}
47.0		Emerson Spencer	United States	Palo Alto, USA	May 12, 1928
46.4y		Ben Eastman	United States	Palo Alto, California, USA	March 26, 1932
46.2	46.28	Bill Carr	United States	Los Angeles, USA	August 5, 1932
46.1		Archie Williams	United States	Chicago, USA	June 19, 1936
46.0		Rudolf Harbig	Germany	Frankfurt am Main, Germany	August 12, 1939
	Grover Klemmer	United States	Philadelphia, USA	url=http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675028733_Track-and-field-events-at-Franklin-field_400-meters_pole-vault_Grover-klemmer	title=HD Stock Video Footage - Track and Field events at Franklin Field in Philadelphia}}
46.0y		Herb McKenley	Jamaica	Berkeley, USA	June 5, 1948
45.9	46.00	Herb McKenley	Jamaica	Milwaukee, USA	July 2, 1948
45.8		George Rhoden	Jamaica	Eskilstuna, Sweden	August 22, 1950
45.4A	45.68	Lou Jones	United States	Mexico City, Mexico	March 18, 1955
45.2		Lou Jones	United States	Los Angeles, USA	June 30, 1956
44.9	45.07	Otis Davis		Rome, Italy	September 6, 1960
45.08	Carl Kaufmann		Rome, Italy	September 6, 1960
44.9y		Adolph Plummer		Tempe, USA	May 25, 1963
44.9		Mike Larrabee		Los Angeles, USA	September 12, 1964
44.5+		Tommie Smith		San Jose, USA	May 20, 1967
44.1A	44.19	Larry James		Echo Summit, USA	September 14, 1968
43.8A	43.86	Lee Evans		Mexico City, Mexico	October 18, 1968

(+) plus sign denotes en route time during longer race

"y" denotes time for 440 yards, ratified as a record for this event

"A" indicates that the time was set at altitude.

The "Time" column indicates the ratified mark; the "Auto" column indicates a fully automatic time that was also recorded in the event when hand-timed marks were used for official records, or which was the basis for the official mark, rounded to the 10th of a second, depending on the rules then in place.

Records post-1976

From 1975, the IAAF accepted separate automatically electronically timed records for events up to 400 metres. Starting January 1, 1977, the IAAF required fully automatic timing to the hundredth of a second for these events.

Lee Evans' 1968 Olympic gold medal victory time of 43.86 was the fastest recorded result to that time.

Time	Athlete	Location of race	Date
43.86	Lee Evans	Mexico City, Mexico	October 18, 1968
43.29	Butch Reynolds	Zürich, Switzerland	August 17, 1988
43.18	Michael Johnson	Seville, Spain	August 26, 1999
43.03	Wayde van Niekerk	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	August 14, 2016

For the period when the record automatic time was Lee Evans' mark of 43.86, the progression excluding races run at high altitude (above 1,000 metres) was as follows:

Time	Athlete	Location of race	Date
44.95	Lee Evans	Winnipeg, Canada	July 30, 1967
44.60	John Smith	Cali, Colombia	August 1, 1971
44.26	Alberto Juantorena	Montreal, Canada	July 29, 1976
44.10	Butch Reynolds	Columbus, Ohio, USA	May 3, 1987
43.93	Butch Reynolds	Indianapolis, USA	July 20, 1988

Notes

References

"Main > Records Progression - World Indoor Records Men, 400 m".
"The Official Report of the Games of the 8th Olympiade" (PDF). Paris, FR. 1924. p. 107. Retrieved 21 April 2011.
"IAAF World Records Progression". [[International Association of Athletics Federations]].
(14 August 2016). "Men's 400m Results". International Olympic Committee.

Wikipedia Source

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