| | Event type

400 metres Hurdles, Men

Date	23 – 26 August 2004
Status	Olympic
Location	Olympiako Stadio, Olympiako Athletiko Kentro Athinon Spiros Loues, Maroussi
Participants	35 from 24 countries

Félix Sánchez (DOM) was a solid favorite, having won the 2001 and 2003 World Championships. The semi-finals in Athina saw many top hurdlers eliminated, among them the 2000 medalists Angelo Taylor (USA), Hadj Soua’an Al-Somaily of Saudi Arabia, and South Africa’s Llewellyn Herbert. The semis were won by Sánchez, Danny McFarlane (JAM), and James Carter (USA), with Sánchez fastest in 47.93. In the final, both Carter and Sánchez false started. On the fair start Sánchez took an early lead, with Carter close through six hurdles. Carter then pulled ahead leading into the final straight, but he faded in the straight and would finish fourth for the second consecutive Olympics. Sánchez regained the lead at the ninth hurdle and would maintain it to the finish, winning comfortably by 0.48 over McFarlane. No American medaled for the first time since 1968, save the 1980 boycotted Olympics.

Pos	Nr	Athlete	NOC	R1	SF	Final
1	1539	Félix Sánchez	DOM	48.51 (1 h4)	47.93 (1 h1)	47.63 (1)	Gold
2	2236	Danny McFarlane	JAM	48.35 (1 h2)	48.00 (1 h2)	48.11 (2)	Silver
3	1748	Naman Keïta	FRA	48.88 (2 h5)	48.24 (3 h3)	48.26 (3)	Bronze
4	3240	James Carter	USA	48.64 (1 h3)	48.18 (1 h3)	48.58 (4)
5	1648	Bayano Kamani	PAN	49.37 (5 h3)	48.23 (2 h3)	48.74 (5)
6	2688	Marek Plawgo	POL	48.67 (3 h2)	48.16 (2 h1)	49.00 (6)
7	2829	Alwyn Myburgh	RSA	48.84 (2 h4)	48.21 (3 h1)	49.07 (7)
8	3228	Bennie Brazell	USA	48.57 (2 h2)	48.19 (2 h2)	49.51 (8)
3 h2 r2/3	2294	Dai Tamesue	JPN	48.80 (3 h3)	48.46 (3 h2)	–
4 h1 r2/3	3347	Angelo Taylor	USA	48.79 (1 h1)	48.72 (4 h1)	–
4 h2 r2/3	1982	Periklis Iakovakis	GRE	48.69 (2 h3)	48.47 (4 h2)	–
4 h3 r2/3	2252	Kemel Thompson	JAM	48.66 (1 h5)	48.25 (4 h3)	–
5 h1 r2/3	2404	Hadi Soua'an Al-Somaily	KSA	49.15 (4 h4)	48.98 (5 h1)	–
5 h2 r2/3	2818	Llewellyn Herbert	RSA	48.70 (4 h2)	48.57 (5 h2)	–
5 h3 r2/3	1507	Jiří Mužík	CZE	48.85 (2 h1)	48.88 (5 h3)	–
6 h1 r2/3	2908	Mikhail Lipsky	RUS	49.00 (3 h4)	49.10 (6 h1)	–
6 h2 r2/3	1622	Eduardo Iván Rodríguez	ESP	49.25 (4 h3)	49.77 (6 h2)	–
6 h3 r2/3	2810	Ockert Cilliers	RSA	49.12 (3 h5)	49.01 (6 h3)	–
7 h1 r2/3	2737	Edivaldo Monteiro	POR	49.53 (4 h5)	49.26 (7 h1)	–
7 h2 r2/3	1519	Štěpán Tesařík	CZE	49.44 (5 h2)	49.87 (7 h2)	–
7 h3 r2/3	2877	Boris Gorban	RUS	49.25 (4 h1)	49.46 (7 h3)	–
8 h1 r2/3	2232	Dean Griffiths	JAM	49.41 (5 h4)	49.51 (8 h1)	–
8 h2 r2/3	1832	Chris Rawlinson	GBR	48.94 (3 h1)	50.89 (8 h2)	–
8 h3 r2/3	2321	Yevgeny Meleshchenko	KAZ	49.43 (5 h1)	49.48 (8 h3)	–
5 h5 r1/3	2399	Ibrahim Al-Hamaidi	KSA	49.64 (5 h5)	–	–
6 h1 r1/3	2304	Ken Yoshizawa	JPN	50.95 (6 h1)	–	–
6 h2 r1/3	2143	Alaa Motar	IRQ	51.97 (6 h2)	–	–
6 h3 r1/3	2543	Ibrahima Maïga	MLI	50.63 (6 h3)	–	–
6 h4 r1/3	3046	Cédric El-Idrissi	SUI	49.44 (6 h4)	–	–
6 h5 r1/3	1800	Matt Douglas	GBR	49.77 (6 h5)	–	–
7 h1 r1/3	2547	Kurt Couto	MOZ	51.18 (7 h1)	–	–
7 h3 r1/3	1167	Michael Aguilar	BIZ	51.21 (7 h3)	–	–
7 h4 r1/3	2660	Mowen Boino	PNG	50.97 (7 h4)	–	–
7 h5 r1/3	2618	Ibrahim Tondi	NIG	52.62 (7 h5)	–	–
AC h2 r1/3	1465	Yacnier Luis	CUB	– (DQ h2)	–	–

Round One (23 August 2004)

Top four in each heat and next four fastest advanced to the semi-finals.

Heat One (19:30)

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	8	Angelo Taylor	USA	48.79	0.170	Q
2	6	Jiří Mužík	CZE	48.85	0.250	Q
3	3	Chris Rawlinson	GBR	48.94	0.227	Q
4	5	Boris Gorban	RUS	49.25	0.279	Q
5	2	Yevgeny Meleshchenko	KAZ	49.43	0.227	q
6	4	Ken Yoshizawa	JPN	50.95	0.276
7	7	Kurt Couto	MOZ	51.18	0.391

Heat Two (19:38)

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	2	Danny McFarlane	JAM	48.35	0.229	Q
2	3	Bennie Brazell	USA	48.57	0.273	Q
3	5	Marek Plawgo	POL	48.67	0.251	Q
4	4	Llewellyn Herbert	RSA	48.70	0.238	Q
5	6	Štěpán Tesařík	CZE	49.44	0.233	q
6	7	Alaa Motar	IRQ	51.97	0.329
DQ	8	Yacnier Luis	CUB	–	[0.340]		1

Heat Three (19:46)

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	8	James Carter	USA	48.64	0.213	Q
2	6	Periklis Iakovakis	GRE	48.69	0.267	Q
3	7	Dai Tamesue	JPN	48.80	0.298	Q
4	4	Eduardo Iván Rodríguez	ESP	49.25	0.169	Q
5	2	Bayano Kamani	PAN	49.37	0.239	q
6	3	Ibrahima Maïga	MLI	50.63	0.277
7	5	Michael Aguilar	BIZ	51.21	0.381

Heat Four (19:54)

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	2	Félix Sánchez	DOM	48.51	0.228	Q
2	5	Alwyn Myburgh	RSA	48.84	0.244	Q
3	4	Mikhail Lipsky	RUS	49.00	0.266	Q
4	3	Hadi Soua'an Al-Somaily	KSA	49.15	0.233	Q
5	7	Dean Griffiths	JAM	49.41	0.210	q
6	6	Cédric El-Idrissi	SUI	49.44	0.233
7	8	Mowen Boino	PNG	50.97	0.373

Heat Five (20:02)

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	8	Kemel Thompson	JAM	48.66	0.264	Q
2	3	Naman Keïta	FRA	48.88	0.266	Q
3	2	Ockert Cilliers	RSA	49.12	0.223	Q
4	4	Edivaldo Monteiro	POR	49.53	0.229	Q
5	6	Ibrahim Al-Hamaidi	KSA	49.64	0.310
6	5	Matt Douglas	GBR	49.77	0.164
7	7	Ibrahim Tondi	NIG	52.62	0.166

Semi-Finals (24 August 2004)

Top two in each heat and next two fastest advanced to the final.

Heat One (21:05)

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	5	Félix Sánchez	DOM	47.93	0.224	Q
2	3	Marek Plawgo	POL	48.16	0.246	Q
3	6	Alwyn Myburgh	RSA	48.21	0.242	q
4	4	Angelo Taylor	USA	48.72	0.217
5	7	Hadi Soua'an Al-Somaily	KSA	48.98	0.261
6	2	Mikhail Lipsky	RUS	49.10	0.229
7	1	Edivaldo Monteiro	POR	49.26	0.162
8	8	Dean Griffiths	JAM	49.51	0.260

Heat Two (21:13)

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	3	Danny McFarlane	JAM	48.00	0.243	Q
2	5	Bennie Brazell	USA	48.19	0.309	Q
3	4	Dai Tamesue	JPN	48.46	0.273
4	6	Periklis Iakovakis	GRE	48.47	0.242
5	2	Llewellyn Herbert	RSA	48.57	0.230
6	8	Eduardo Iván Rodríguez	ESP	49.77	0.223
7	7	Štěpán Tesařík	CZE	49.87	0.205
8	1	Chris Rawlinson	GBR	50.89	0.176

Heat Three (21:21)

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	3	James Carter	USA	48.18	0.214	Q
2	7	Bayano Kamani	PAN	48.23	0.225	Q
3	6	Naman Keïta	FRA	48.24	0.356	q
4	4	Kemel Thompson	JAM	48.25	0.257
5	5	Jiří Mužík	CZE	48.88	0.313
6	1	Ockert Cilliers	RSA	49.01	0.175
7	2	Boris Gorban	RUS	49.46	0.243
8	8	Yevgeny Meleshchenko	KAZ	49.48	0.196

Final (26 August 2004 — 22:30)

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	6	Félix Sánchez	DOM	47.63	0.219	2
2	5	Danny McFarlane	JAM	48.11	0.256
3	7	Naman Keïta	FRA	48.26	0.268
4	4	James Carter	USA	48.58	0.223	3
5	2	Bayano Kamani	PAN	48.74	0.233
6	3	Marek Plawgo	POL	49.00	0.242
7	1	Alwyn Myburgh	RSA	49.07	0.150
8	8	Bennie Brazell	USA	49.51	0.390