The defending champion, Michael Norman, was unable to return due to injury, opening up the field. In the semi-finals, Antonio Watson ran his personal best of 44.13 to lead the field and pulling veteran Vernon Norwood to his personal best of 44.26 in the first semi. This relegated World Record holder, making a heroic return from what should have been a career-ending injury, Wayde van Niekerk to have to wait in the holding room to await his fate. In the second semi, Matthew Hudson-Smith led 2011 champion Kirani James In the third semi-final both 2022 Olympic champion Steven Gardiner and Olympic medalist Bayapo Ndori pulled up mid-race with hamstring injuries, opening the door for Quincy Hall.[2] van Niekerk's time qualified him for the final, but he was relegated to the inside lane 2.
From the gun in the final, Hudson-Smith was out fastest, making up the stagger on Hall to his outside at the end of the first turn. Inside of him, James was also gaining relative to the staggers. Van Niekerk pushed down the backstretch to try to regain contact with James. As they went into the final turn, Norwood began to move forward. Later in the turn, Watson started to move. As they hit the home stretch, Hudson-Smith had a metre and a half on James with Norwood and Watson about even on the outside another metre back, with van Niekerk about the same distance back on the inside. Still further back, Hall started to accelerate. Watson began to separate from Norwood and van Niekerk with Hall overstriding to try to catch them. 40 metres out, Watson caught James who could offer no more resistance. Norwood got past James and looked like he was closing on a slowing Hudson-Smith. Watson passed Hudson-Smith about 25 metres out and was on to victory. Norwood couldn't quite catch Hudson-Smith but a speeding Hall caught Norwood on the last step for bronze.
Records
Before the competition records were as follows:[3]
^"START LIST - 400 Metres Men - Final"(PDF). International Association of Athletics Federations. 24 August 2023. Archived(PDF) from the original on 12 February 2024. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
^"RESULTS 400 Metres Men - Final"(PDF). International Association of Athletics Federations. 24 August 2023. Archived(PDF) from the original on 24 August 2023. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
