Report12 Jul 2012


Barcelona 2012 - Event Report - Men's 400m Final

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Luguelin Santos of Dominican Republic wins the Men's 400 metres Final, Arman Hall of USA (bib 917) is second and on the day three of the 14th IAAF World Junior Championships in Barcelona on 12 July 2102 (© Getty Images)

The men’s 400m event at the Barcelona World Junior Championships will go down in history as an event in which the most unexpected did indeed happen.

Firstly, nine men lined up in tonight’s final after Alphas Leken Kishoyian of Kenya was given the opportunity of a "solo" re-run of yesterday’s semi-final following the starter’s own admission that he had fired the gun when the Kenyan was not steady in the set position.

Although there was no protest the officials fairly granted Kishoyian a second chance and the World Number 7 this summer didn't disappoint himself or his supporters when beating the time of 46.49 by 0.03 which Russia's Nikita Uglov achieved as the eighth fastest qualifier for the final.

Running in lane 1 in tonight’s final, Kishoyian would eventually finish sixth at 46.19, the Kenyan having one extra race in his legs but still featuring well.

In fact there was hardly ever any discussion about who would eventually win this race following the 44.45 World Junior leading performance set by London-bound Luguelin Santos of the Dominican Republic in Hengelo.

The 18-year-old did not disappoint closing in 44.85 to win his country’s first ever medal of any kind at the IAAF World Junior Championships, in fact the country’s previous best performance was Santos’ own 6th place finish in Moncton 2 years ago as a 16-year-old.

It was a much closer affair for the minor medals with Arman Hall of the USA the World Youth champion from Lille 2011 holding on to silver in 45.39 ahead of his compatriot Aldrich Bailey and Steven Solomon of Australia, also selected by his National Olympic Committee to compete at the London Olympic Games.

After a close read of the photo finish the judges decided that the position of the torsos of both Bailey and Solomon could not be separated and both were awarded a well-deserved bronze medal in 45.52, a personal best time for the Australian.

After nine men had competed in this final, it was nine 4 flags that were being raised during the medal presentation.

Laura Arcoleo for the IAAF
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