| Final | time | L | | 1. Volker Beck |  East Germany | 48.70s | 8 | | 2. Vasili Arkhipenko |  Soviet Union | 48.86s | 2 | | 3. Gary Oakes |  Great Britain | 49.11s | 1 | | 4. Nikolai Vasiliev | Soviet Union | 49.34s | 4 | | 5. Rok Kopitar |  Yugoslavia | 49.67s | 5 | | 6. Horia Toboc |  Romania | 49.84s | 7 | | 7. Franz Meier |  Switzerland | 50.00s | 6 | | 8. Yanko Bratanov |  Bulgaria | 56.35s | 5 |
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| Competitors: 22; Countries: 19 |
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| Semi 1 | time | | 1. Volker Beck | East Germany | 50.36s | | 2. Rok Kopitar | Yugoslavia | 50.55s | | 3. Horia Toboc | Romania | 50.58s | | 4. Harry Schulting |  Netherlands | 50.61s | | 5. Aleksandr Kharlov | Soviet Union | 50.64s | | 6. Jozsef Szalai |  Hungary | 51.06s | | 7. Antonio Dias Ferreira |  Brazil | 52.31s | | -. Christer Gullstrand |  Sweden | DNS |
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| Semi 2 | time | | 1. Vasili Arkhipenko | Soviet Union | 49.80s | | 2. Nikolai Vasiliev | Soviet Union | 49.87s | | 3. Gary Oakes | Great Britain | 50.07s | | 4. Franz Meier | Switzerland | 50.12s | | 5. Yanko Bratanov | Bulgaria | 50.17s | | 6. Ryszard Szparak |  Poland | 50.41s | | 7. John Aki-Bua |  Uganda | 51.10s | | 8. Juan Lloveras |  Spain | 51.86s |
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Edwin Moses (nine) and Harald Schmid (six) had the top 15 marks of
the year, but were not in Moscow because of the US-led boycott. This
event was seriously devalued without the best men in the event, as was
shown by no-one breaking 50 seconds in the heats, and only
Arkhipenko (49.80) and Vasilyev (49.87) ducking below that mark in
the semi-finals.
Oakes blasted out from the gun in the final and led by a metre from
Beck at halfway, with Arkhipenko third. The Soviet athlete worked
hard around the final curve and caught the Briton at the eighth hurdle,
with Beck appearing to be holding back. The East German kicked hard
after the ninth hurdle, going past the tiring Oakes, and catching
Arkhipenko at the final barrier. Beck was too strong for the Ukrainian
over the last 40m and won by a long metre. Oakes was a further 2m
back, well clear of Vasilyev, and won a medal which was wholly unex-
pected for the British.
| Heat 1 | time | | 1. Nikolai Vasiliev | Soviet Union | 50.09s | | 2. Antonio Dias Ferreira | Brazil | 50.14s | | 3. Volker Beck | East Germany | 50.35s | | 4. Ryszard Szparak | Poland | 50.45s | | 5. John Aki-Bua | Uganda | 50.87s | | 6. Horia Toboc | Romania | 50.89s | | 7. Davison Lishebo |  Zambia | 51.73s |
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| Heat 2 | time | | 1. Vasili Arkhipenko | Soviet Union | 50.22s | | 2. Franz Meier | Switzerland | 50.32s | | 3. Rok Kopitar | Yugoslavia | 50.34s | | 4. Juan Lloveras | Spain | 50.48s | | 5. Yanko Bratanov | Bulgaria | 50.56s | | 6. Christer Gullstrand | Sweden | 50.95s | | 7. Amer Maaraoui |  Syria | 53.26s | | 8. Abdultif Hashem |  Kuwait | 53.31s |
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| Heat 3 | time | | 1. Harry Schulting | Netherlands | 50.01s | | 2. Jozsef Szalai | Hungary | 50.23s | | 3. Gary Oakes | Great Britain | 50.39s | | 4. Aleksandr Kharlov | Soviet Union | 50.79s | | 5. Jose Casabona | Spain | 51.26s | | -. Wilfred Kareng |  Botswana | DNF | | -. Leonel Teller |  Nicaragua | DNF | | -. Ali Hassan Kadhum |  Iraq | DNS |
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