1997 IAAF World Indoor Championships – Men's 400 metres

The men's 400 metres event at the 1997 IAAF World Indoor Championships was held on March 7–9.

Medalists

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Sunday Bada Nigeria	Jamie Baulch Great Britain	Shunji Karube Japan

First 2 of each heat (Q) and next 4 fastest (q) qualified for the semifinals.^[1]

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	1	Jamie Baulch	Great Britain	46.52	Q
2	2	Sunday Bada	Nigeria	46.58	Q
3	1	Troy McIntosh	Bahamas	46.59	Q
4	2	Robert Maćkowiak	Poland	46.64	Q, SB
5	1	Mathias Rusterholz	Switzerland	46.65	q
6	3	Sanderlei Parrela	Brazil	46.84	Q, AR
7	5	Ruslan Mashchenko	Russia	46.90	Q
8	5	Kjell Provost	Belgium	46.94	Q
9	5	Shunji Karube	Japan	47.08	q
10	4	Derek Mills	United States	47.10	Q
11	1	Shigekazu Ōmori	Japan	47.13	q, PB
12	2	Antonio Andrés	Spain	47.14	q, PB
13	4	Linval Laird	Jamaica	47.18	Q
14	5	Ibrahim Ismail Muftah	Qatar	47.32
15	4	Slobodan Branković	Yugoslavia	47.42
16	3	Marco Vaccari	Italy	47.56	Q
17	6	Alejandro Cárdenas	Mexico	47.57	Q
18	7	Mark Hylton	Great Britain	47.58	Q
19	7	Deon Minor	United States	47.61	Q
20	7	Siniša Peša	Yugoslavia	47.64
21	7	Pierre-Marie Hilaire	France	47.68
22	3	Valentin Kulbatskiy	Ukraine	47.76
23	6	Dusán Kovács	Hungary	47.81	Q
23	7	Kevin Widmer	Switzerland	47.81
25	4	Vadim Zadoynov	Moldova	48.18
26	6	Valdinei da Silva	Brazil	48.19
27	2	Péter Nyilasi	Hungary	48.21
28	3	Erasto Sampson	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	48.26
29	5	Carlos José Toledo	El Salvador	49.23
30	1	Pablo Escriba	Spain	49.90
31	6	Emmanuel Rubayiza	Rwanda	50.25	SB
32	3	Mandiaye Seck	Mauritania	51.70
33	7	Mike Ezra	Uganda	53.74
	2	Davis Kamoga	Uganda	DNS
	3	Michael McDonald	Jamaica	DNS
	4	Clement Chukwu	Nigeria	DNS
	4	Mahdi Moullai	Iran	DNS
	5	Neil de Silva	Trinidad and Tobago	DNS
	6	Greg Haughton	Jamaica	DNS
	6	Kenmore Hughes	Antigua and Barbuda	DNS

First 2 of each semifinal (Q) qualified directly for the final.^[2]

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	1	Jamie Baulch	Great Britain	46.02	Q
2	2	Sunday Bada	Nigeria	46.06	Q, SB
3	2	Derek Mills	United States	46.14	Q
4	3	Shunji Karube	Japan	46.16	Q, NR
5	2	Mark Hylton	Great Britain	46.19
6	1	Troy McIntosh	Bahamas	46.20	Q, NR
7	3	Robert Maćkowiak	Poland	46.22	Q, SB
8	3	Sanderlei Parrela	Brazil	46.33	AR
9	3	Ruslan Mashchenko	Russia	46.42
10	1	Alejandro Cárdenas	Mexico	46.50
11	1	Deon Minor	United States	46.68
12	2	Linval Laird	Jamaica	47.01
13	3	Mathias Rusterholz	Switzerland	47.16
14	2	Dusán Kovács	Hungary	47.23
15	2	Shigekazu Ōmori	Japan	47.34
16	1	Marco Vaccari	Italy	47.54
17	1	Antonio Andrés	Spain	47.71
18	3	Kjell Provost	Belgium	48.30

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Sunday Bada	Nigeria	45.51	AR
	Jamie Baulch	Great Britain	45.62
	Shunji Karube	Japan	45.76	AR
4	Robert Maćkowiak	Poland	45.94	SB
5	Derek Mills	United States	46.30
	Troy McIntosh	Bahamas	DNF