Athletics at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metres hurdles

Men's 400 metres hurdles at the Games of the XXIV Olympiad
Soviet stamp commemorating 1988 Olympic athletics
Venue	Olympic Stadium
Dates	23 September 1988 (quarterfinals) 24 September 1988 (semifinals) 25 September 1988 (final)
Competitors	38 from 28 nations
Winning time	47.19 OR
Medalists
Andre Phillips  United States Amadou Dia Ba  Senegal Edwin Moses  United States
← 1984 1992 →

Athletics at the 1988 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m	men	women
1500 m	men	women
3000 m		women
5000 m	men
10,000 m	men	women
100 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men	women
3000 m steeplechase	men
4 × 100 m relay	men	women
4 × 400 m relay	men	women
Road events
Marathon	men	women
20 km walk	men
50 km walk	men
Field events
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men
Shot put	men	women
Discus throw	men	women
Javelin throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men
Combined events
Heptathlon		women
Decathlon	men
Wheelchair races
v t e

The men's 400 metres hurdles at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea had an entry list of 38 competitors, with five qualifying heats (38 runners) and two semifinals (16) before the final (8) took place on Sunday September 25, 1988.^[1] One athlete did not start, so there were 37 competitors from 28 nations.^[2] The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Andre Phillips of the United States, the nation's second consecutive and 14th overall victory in the event. Amadou Dia Ba earned Senegal's first medal in the event with his silver. Dia Ba broke up a potential American sweep, as 1976 and 1984 champion Edwin Moses took bronze and Kevin Young placed fourth. Moses was the second man to earn three medals in the event (after Morgan Taylor from 1924 to 1932).

This was the 19th time the event was held. It had been introduced along with the men's 200 metres hurdles in 1900, with the 200 being dropped after 1904 and the 400 being held through 1908 before being left off the 1912 programme. However, when the Olympics returned in 1920 after World War I, the men's 400 metres hurdles was back and would continue to be contested at every Games thereafter.

Three of the eight finalists from the 1984 Games returned: gold medalist (and 1976 champion) Edwin Moses of the United States, bronze medalist Harald Schmid of West Germany, and fifth-place finisher Amadou Dia Bâ of Senegal. Fourth-place finisher Sven Nylander of Sweden was entered but did not start. Moses had won over 100 consecutive finals in nearly 10 years starting in August 1977, but had finally been beaten in June 1987. No longer unbeatable, Moses had still won the 1987 World Championships and the 1988 U.S. Olympic trials—both featured very strong fields.^[2]

Barbados, Fiji, Honduras, Nepal, Sierra Leone, and South Korea each made their debut in the event. The United States made its 18th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

The competition used the three-round format used every Games since 1908 (except the four-round competition in 1952): quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. Ten sets of hurdles were set on the course. The hurdles were 3 feet (91.5 centimetres) tall and were placed 35 metres apart beginning 45 metres from the starting line, resulting in a 40 metres home stretch after the last hurdle. The 400 metres track was standard.

There were 5 quarterfinal heats with between 7 and 8 athletes each. The top 3 men in each quarterfinal advanced to the semifinals along with the next fastest 1 overall. The 16 semifinalists were divided into 2 semifinals of 8 athletes each, with the top 4 in each semifinal advancing to the 8-man final.^[2]

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1988 Summer Olympics.

World record	Edwin Moses (USA)	47.02	Koblenz, West Germany	31 August 1983
Olympic record	Edwin Moses (USA)	47.64	Montreal, Canada	25 July 1976

Andre Phillips set a new Olympic record in the final with a time of 47.19 seconds.

All times are Korea Standard Time adjusted for daylight savings (UTC+10)

The quarterfinals were held on Friday September 23, 1988.

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Amadou Dia Ba	Senegal	49.41	Q
2	Klaus Ehrle	Austria	50.10	Q
3	John Graham	Canada	50.30	Q
4	Hwang Hong-Chul	South Korea	50.52
5	Philip Harries	Great Britain	50.81
6	Jasem Aldowaila	Kuwait	51.87
7	Dambar Kunwar	Nepal	56.80
—	Sven Nylander	Sweden	DNS

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Harald Schmid	West Germany	49.77	Q
2	Simon Kitur	Kenya	49.88	Q
3	Alain Cuypers	Belgium	50.42	Q
4	Ahmed Ghanem	Egypt	50.44
5	Ryoichi Yoshida	Japan	50.49
6	Samuel Matete	Zambia	51.06
7	Domingo Cordero	Puerto Rico	51.26
8	Jorge Fidel Ponce	Honduras	55.38

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Edwin Moses	United States	49.38	Q
2	Edgar Itt	West Germany	50.10	Q
3	José Alonso	Spain	50.12	Q
4	Leigh Miller	Australia	50.53
5	Branislav Karaulić	Yugoslavia	51.32
6	Allan Ince	Barbados	52.76
7	Oral Selkridge	Antigua and Barbuda	53.44

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Kevin Young	United States	49.35	Q
2	Kriss Akabusi	Great Britain	49.62	Q
3	Gideon Yego	Kenya	49.80	Q
4	Jozef Kucej	Czechoslovakia	49.89
5	Rok Kopitar	Yugoslavia	50.54
6	Hamidou M'Baye	Senegal	50.58
7	Benjamin Grant	Sierra Leone	51.73
8	Joseph Rodan	Fiji	53.66

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Andre Phillips	United States	49.34	Q
2	Winthrop Graham	Jamaica	49.40	Q
3	Joseph Maritim	Kenya	49.64	Q
4	Toma Tomov	Bulgaria	49.66	q
5	Max Robertson	Great Britain	50.67
6	Ahmed Hamada Jassim	Bahrain	51.34
7	Yousif Al-Dossary	Saudi Arabia	53.51

The semifinals were held on Saturday September 24, 1988.

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes	LANE
1	3	Edwin Moses	United States	47.89	Q
2	5	Kevin Young	United States	48.56	Q
3	1	Harald Schmid	West Germany	48.93	Q
4	6	Kriss Akabusi	Great Britain	49.22	Q
5	4	Joseph Maritim	Kenya	49.50
6	8	José Alonso	Spain	49.57
7	2	Klaus Ehrle	Austria	51.04
8	7	John Graham	Canada	51.33

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes	LANE
1	5	Andre Phillips	United States	48.19	Q
2	6	Winthrop Graham	Jamaica	48.37	Q
3	4	Amadou Dia Ba	Senegal	48.48	Q
4	2	Edgar Itt	West Germany	48.86	Q
5	3	Toma Tomov	Bulgaria	48.90
6	1	Simon Kitur	Kenya	49.74
7	7	Alain Cuypers	Belgium	49.75
—	8	Gideon Yego	Kenya	DSQ

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
	6	Andre Phillips	United States	47.19	OR
	5	Amadou Dia Ba	Senegal	47.23	NR
	3	Edwin Moses	United States	47.56
4	2	Kevin Young	United States	47.94
5	4	Winthrop Graham	Jamaica	48.04
6	7	Kriss Akabusi	Great Britain	48.69
7	1	Harald Schmid	West Germany	48.76
8	8	Edgar Itt	West Germany	48.78

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final	Notes
	Andre Phillips	United States	49.34	48.19	47.19	OR
	Amadou Dia Ba	Senegal	49.41	48.48	47.23	NR
	Edwin Moses	United States	49.38	47.89	47.56
4	Kevin Young	United States	49.35	48.56	47.94
5	Winthrop Graham	Jamaica	49.40	48.37	48.04
6	Kriss Akabusi	Great Britain	49.62	49.22	48.69
7	Harald Schmid	West Germany	49.77	48.93	48.76
8	Edgar Itt	West Germany	50.10	48.86	48.78
9	Toma Tomov	Bulgaria	49.66	48.90	Did not advance
10	Joseph Maritim	Kenya	49.64	49.50
11	José Alonso	Spain	50.12	49.57
12	Simon Kitur	Kenya	49.88	49.74
13	Alain Cuypers	Belgium	50.42	49.75
14	Klaus Ehrle	Austria	50.10	51.04
15	John Graham	Canada	50.30	51.33
16	Gideon Yego	Kenya	49.80	DSQ
17	Jozef Kucej	Czechoslovakia	49.89	Did not advance
18	Ahmed Ghanem	Egypt	50.44
19	Ryoichi Yoshida	Japan	50.49
20	Hwang Hong-Chul	South Korea	50.52
21	Leigh Miller	Australia	50.53
22	Rok Kopitar	Yugoslavia	50.54
23	Hamidou M'Baye	Senegal	50.58
24	Max Robertson	Great Britain	50.67
25	Philip Harries	Great Britain	50.81
26	Samuel Matete	Zambia	51.06
27	Domingo Cordero	Puerto Rico	51.26
28	Branislav Karaulić	Yugoslavia	51.32
29	Ahmed Hamada Jassim	Bahrain	51.34
30	Benjamin Grant	Sierra Leone	51.73
31	Jasem Aldowaila	Kuwait	51.87
32	Allan Ince	Barbados	52.76
33	Oral Selkridge	Antigua and Barbuda	53.44
34	Yousif Al-Dossary	Saudi Arabia	53.51
35	Joseph Rodan	Fiji	53.66
36	Jorge Fidel Ponce	Honduras	55.38
37	Dambar Kunwar	Nepal	56.80
—	Sven Nylander	Sweden	DNS

• 1987 Men's World Championships 400m Hurdles (Rome)
• 1990 Men's European Championships 400m Hurdles (Split)
• 1991 Men's World Championships 400m Hurdles (Tokyo)

• (in English) Official Report