Belal Mansoor Ali took the field through the first 400 in 52.48. Kicker Yuriy Borzakovskiy went to the back of the pack, but uncharacteristically moved to the front near the end of the first lap. But the entire field was jostling for position, with Wilfred Bungei elbowing his way to the lead and the entire field scrambling for position, and suddenly Borzakovskiy found himself in seventh place again after expending the effort to get a better position. Djabir Saïd-Guerni led the chase through the final turn, with William Yiampoy on his heels. Through the turn, Rashid Ramzi went around the outside, passing Saïd-Guerni as they hit the home stretch. Saïd-Guerni faded allowing Yiampoy to pass him on the inside. Further back Borzakovskiy was dealing with traffic of Mehdi Baala and Ali still in sixth place coming off the final turn. Ramzi easily sprinted past Bungei and on to victory. Bungei was struggling to hold on to second with Yiampoy sneaking through, again on the inside. Borzakovskiy's late rush caught everybody else, passing Yiampoy just before the line but was too late to catch Ramzi. Three years later Ramzi was disqualified from the Olympics on a doping violation, but to date has been allowed to keep his previous medals.
AR area record | CR championship record | GR games record | NR national record | OR Olympic record | PB personal best | SB season best | WL world leading (in a given season)
DNS = did not start | DQ = disqualification | NM = no mark (i.e. no valid result) | Q = qualification by place in heat | q = qualification by overall place
