© Stade de France ®
Macary, Zublena et Regembal
Costantini - Architects
ADAGP - Paris - 2002
|
|
COMPETITION  EVENTS |
 THE MEN’S 400M - AN EULOGY TO AGONY
Paris 2003 Saint-Denis
Some truly great runners have graced the one-lap race. The retirement of the greatest of them all, Michael Johnson, has left an immense void. Is anyone ready to break the 400m pain barrier and step out of Johnson’s shadow at Paris Saint-Denis ?
 |
| Vandystadt |
A bit of historyThe 400m was invented by British runners who, inspired by the Greeks double stadium or diaulic race (384m), began competing over the quarter mile distance. The first recorded time over 440 yards (402.17m) dates back to 1799 when a captain in Admiral Nelson’s troops clocked 56 sec. It was not until the second half of the 19th century, though, that things began to really heat up. In 1868, for example, Ed Ridley and Edward J. Colbeck, the two "stars" of the day went head-to-head at the English Championship, only for a stray sheep to wander onto the track and bring the race to a premature end! The first “phenomenon” over one lap was a precursor for the great American 400m runners of the 20th Century: Lon Myers was his name, and from 1879 to 1886 he reigned supreme over every distance from the 100 up to the 880 yards.
Thomas Burke was the next athlete from the USA to leave an indelible mark on the event. The first Olympic champion of the modern era in 1896 (54.1/5) was succeeded by compatriot Maxey Long, who was unbeatable in the early 1900s. Benjamin Eastman, the “White Blizzard”, came next, the man who invented a new breathing technique that helped him lower the world record to 46.4 in 1932. Bill Carr then shaved 2/10ths of a second off the record to win gold at the Los Angeles Olympics, before Archie Williams ushered in yet another generation of American pre-war quarter-milers by setting a new world best of 46.1 in 1936. American domination of the discipline was brought to an abrupt end in the immediate post-war era, though, as Jamaican sprinters came to the fore. Arthur Wint won gold in the London Olympics of 1948 and the world record fell to his countryman Herbert McKenley (45.9), before the third member of that golden generation of Jamaican runners, George Rhoden broke it again two years later (45.8).
How to run the 400m
The 400m is both a sprint and a middle-distance race, or not quite either depending on how you look at it! In any case, it is not just a case of going out hard and running fast all the way round. Fluid rhythm is essential if the athlete is not to tie up in the home straight. The huge difference between the 400m and the short sprints is the pain barrier that every athlete hits somewhere between 30 and 35 seconds into the race. This excruciating pain is caused by the sensation of asphyxia brought on by arterial oxygen saturation and the violent effort involved.
The greatest men’s 400m runners of all time:
Lee Evans (USA)
The photograph is the stuff of legends: that of three black Americans in black berets and black socks standing arms raised, fists clenched on the podium at the 400m medal ceremony of the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. The man on the top podium that day was Lee Evans, gold-medal winner in a new world record time of 43.86. Evans had nearly pulled out of the race that morning in protest at the exclusion from the athletes village of fellow athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos on the grounds that they belonged to the Black Students Union. Coaxed back into competing by his coach Bud Winter, Evans’ world record would stand for 19 years, only beaten by Harry Butch Reynolds on 17 August 1988 in Zurich (43.29).
 |
| Vandystadt |
Michael Johnson (USA)
One of the all-time great 400m runners, and one of the all-time great athletes - period. Double Olympic 400m champion, four-times world champion, the Texan was virtually in a league of his own throughout the 1990’s. His dominance was absolute, and finally rewarded in Seville in 1999, when “the Duck” broke the world record in 43.18. He had already broken the 200m world record three years earlier in Atlanta on his way to Olympic gold at that distance too.
World record
Michael Johnson (USA) : 43.18
Schedule
Saturday 23 August 2003, 4.35pm: Heats
Sunday 24 August 2003, 5.10pm: Semi-finals
Tuesday 26 August 2003, 9.50pm: Final
|
|
|
|
