2023 World Athletics Championships – Men's 400 metres hurdles

The men's 400 metres hurdles at the 2023 World Athletics Championships was held at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest, Hungary from 20 to 23 August 2023.

Summary
World record holder #1 Karsten Warholm was back. With three time silver medalist #2 Rai Benjamin and defending champion #3 Alison dos Santos, the top three of all time were there. And don't forget #8 Kyron McMaster. During the semi-finals, 18 year old Roshawn Clarke got inspired trying to chase Warholm, and the result was a new World Junior Record, now called a U20 Record, and #13 of all time. Trevor Bassitt moved to #18 all time with his performance in the semis just to be a time qualifier behind Warholm and Clarke.

Warholm was assigned his favorite lane 7. Outside of him was McMaster in 8 and dos Santos in 9. With Benjamin in 6 and Clarke in 5, all the major players were on the outside of the track. As expected, Warholm took it out hard. Unexpectedly, Benjamin also took it out hard, marginally ahead of Warholm, and McMaster was right there with them. The three were virtually even at the halfway point, and then Warholm started to edge ahead. Down the home stretch, unlike previous meetings, Benjamin was not coming from behind, but instead was watching Warholm pulling away from him. And it was McMaster coming from behind to catch Benjamin before the line for silver. Warholm's winning time of 46.89 was the eighth time he has run under 47 seconds, a time that had only been achieved once before 2018. It was Warholm's third World Championship gold medal in this event.

Records
Before the competition, records were as follows:

Qualification standard
The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 48.70.

Schedule
The event schedule, in local time (UTC+2), was as follows:

Heats
The first four athletes in each heat (Q) and the next four fastest (q) qualified to the semi-finals.

Semi-finals
The first 2 athletes in each heat (Q) and the next 2 fastest (q) qualified to the final.

Final
The final was started on 23 August at 21:50.