| Final | time | L | age | | 1. John Akii-Bua |  Uganda | 47.82s WR | 1 | 22 | | 2. Ralph Mann |  United States | 48.51s | 6 | 23 | | 3. David Hemery |  Great Britain | 48.52s | 5 | 28 | | 4. James Seymour | United States | 48.64s | 4 | 23 | | 5. Rainer Schubert |  West Germany | 49.65s | 7 | 30 | | 6. Yevgeniy Gavrilenko |  Soviet Union | 49.66s | 2 | 21 | | 6. Stavros Tziortzis |  Greece | 49.66s | 8 | 23 | | 8. Yuriy Zorin | Soviet Union | 50.25s | 3 | 24 |
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| Semi 1 | time | | 1. John Akii-Bua | Uganda | 49.25s | | 2. Ralph Mann | United States | 49.53s | | 3. David Hemery | Great Britain | 49.66s | | 4. Rainer Schubert | West Germany | 49.80s | | 5. Rolf Ziegler | West Germany | 49.88s | | 6. Ivan Danis |  Czechoslovakia | 50.01s | | 7. Victor Savchenko | Soviet Union | 50.28s | | 8. Jean-Pierre Corval |  France | 50.75s |
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| Semi 2 | time | | 1. James Seymour | United States | 49.33s | | 2. Evgeni Gavrilenko | Soviet Union | 49.34s | | 3. Yuri Zorin | Soviet Union | 49.60s | | 4. Stavros Tziortzis | Greece | 50.06s | | 5. Tadeusz Kulczycki |  Poland | 50.80s | | 6. Gary Knoke |  Australia | 52.79s | | -. Christian Rudolph |  East Germany | | | -. Dieter-Wolfgang Buttner | West Germany | |
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The fastest heat winners were Hemery with 49.72, Gavrilenko (49.73)
and Dieter Büttner (FRG, 49.78). Hemery led the first semi until the
eighth hurdle, when Akii-Bua surged past to win in 49.25 from Mann
(49.53) and an easing up Hemery (49.66). In the second semi-final
Gary Knoke heard an echo when the gun went off and didn’t leave his
blocks. Seymour and Christian Rudolph (GDR) led at the 10th hurdle,
but Rudolph fell and Buttner then fell over him, thereby missing qual-
ification.
In the final Hemery led by the first hurdle, and reached the fifth in
21.1, with Akii-Bua and Mann just over a metre behind. Akii-Bua, run-
ning 13 strides to halfway, and then 14s alternating his hurdling leg,
gained on Hemery and caught him at the eighth. Radiating energy, the
Ugandan ran away from the reigning champion to cross the line with
the first ever sub-48 clocking, wonderful under any conditions, but
staggering from lane 1 for a hurdler leading with his right leg. Hemery
flagged a little on the run-in, which was enough for Mann to catch him
on the line. Seymour was a metre behind, after hitting the first hurdle
so hard he almost fell.
| Heat 1 | time | | 1. Dieter-Wolfgang Buttner | West Germany | 49.78s | | 2. Victor Savchenko | Soviet Union | 49.90s | | 3. Jean-Pierre Corvaf | France | 50.15s | | 4. Tadeusz Kulczycki | Poland | 50.19s | | 5. Manuel Soriano |  Spain | 50.88s | | 6. Fatwell Kimaiyo |  Kenya | 51.23s | | 7. Roberto Frinolli |  Italy | 51.69s | | 8. Jaime Randrianalijaona |  Madagascar | 52.75s |
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| Heat 2 | time | | 1. Evgeni Gavrilenko | Soviet Union | 49.73s | | 2. James Seymour | United States | 49.81s | | 3. Rolf Ziegler | West Germany | 50.17s | | 4. Roger Johnson |  New Zealand | 50.48s | | 5. Mike Murei | Kenya | 51.63s | | 6. Chung-Ping Lee |  ROC | 52.61s | | 7. Gladstone Agbamu |  Nigeria | 53.58s | | -. John Sherwood | Great Britain | |
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| Heat 3 | time | | 1. Christian Rudolph | East Germany | 50.00s | | 2. Ralph Mann | United States | 50.18s | | 3. Rainer Schubert | West Germany | 50.23s | | 4. Ari Salin |  Finland | 50.45s | | 5. Jean-Pierre Perrinelle | France | 51.81s | | 6. Jose de Jesus Caravalho |  Portugal | 52.64s | | 7. Hassen Bergaoui |  Tunisia | 53.70s |
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| Heat 4 | time | | 1. John Akii-Bua | Uganda | 50.35s | | 2. Stavros Tziortzis | Greece | 50.54s | | 3. Ivan Danis | Czechoslovakia | 50.62s | | 4. Bruce Field | Australia | 51.46s | | 5. Hans Jorg Wirz |  Switzerland | 52.34s | | 6. Richard Bruggeman | United States | 54.36s | | 7. Julio E. Ferrer |  Puerto Rico | 54.83s | | -. Francisco Rojas Soto |  Paraguay | |
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| Heat 5 | time | | 1. David Hemery | Great Britain | 49.72s | | 2. Gary Knoke | Australia | 50.10s | | 3. Yuri Zorin | Soviet Union | 50.35s | | 4. William Koskei | Kenya | 50.58s | | 5. Giorgio Ballati | Italy | 50.90s | | 6. Jose Hidalgo |  Venezuela | 54.00s | | 7. Norman Brinkworth |  Pakistan | 54.67s |
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