Commonwealth Games: Men's 440yds/400m hurdles
The first Commonwealth champion over 440 yards hurdles was Lord Burghley, who won easily in 54.4. England took the first four places and a week later Burghley won the high hurdles too.
Scotland’s Alan Hunter won by half that distance in 1934 but was almost a second slower. The 1938 final was much faster, devoid of Brits and won by a huge margin of 1.7 seconds by Canadian Olympic silver medallist John Loaring.
After the war, Duncan White won Ceylon’s first ever medal – a gold – and they had to wait 38 years for their next medal, by which time they were Sri Lanka. His 52.5 broke Loaring’s Games record.
In 1954, Australia’s David Lean improved it further with 52.3 in his heat and he won the final by almost a second but in a slower time with England’s Harry Kane and Wales’ Bob Shaw sharing a time of 53.3 as they took the other medals. Lean ran a much faster 50.6 in 1958, but he was a distant second to Gert Potgieter’s world record for the imperial distance of 49.7/49.73, which was superior to the metric world record. As a teenager the South African had been in third position in the 1956 Olympics until falling at the last hurdle.
The 1962 event was pedestrian in contrast and won by Ken Roche in just 51.5. In the final 440 yards event, the Australian Roche won again in another slow time of 51.0 with Peter Warden third for England.
John Sherwood did not start the 1966 final due to illness, but the Olympic bronze medallist won a hard fought race in windy conditions in the first metric final in 1970 in 50.0. Africans Bill Koskei and Charles Yego took the other medals for Uganda and Kenya respectively. However, it was the fourth-placer John Akii-Bua who was to make history when two years later he won Olympic gold in a world record in Munich.
The title stayed in English hands in 1974 as Alan Pascoe won with a classy Games record of 48.83, though it was Pascoe’s two attempts at hurdling a barrier in the wrong direction on his lap of honour where he fell each time which has lasted longer in the memory.
An unfit Pascoe was only third in 1978 as Daniel Kimaiyo was a clear winner in 49.48. To the delight of the Brisbane crowd, the 1982 race was won by the 1978 runner-up and local teacher Gary Brown easily in 49.37.
The African Caribbean boycott weakened the 1986 race in Edinburgh and the surprise winner was Phil Beattie of Northern Ireland, who smashed his PB to take gold with England’s Max Robertson a close second.
England were back on top in 1990 as Kriss Akabusi, who had been fourth in the flat 400m in 1986, won his first title over the barriers in 48.89 to just miss Pascoe’s record. Canadian John Graham won his second successive bronze.
The record fell in 1994 as Zambia’s 1991 world champion Samuel Matete proved a class apart, winning in 48.67 to claim his nation's first gold at any event. The record didn’t last the next Games, though, as Jamaican Dinsdale Morgan won impressively in 48.28 with Australia’s Rohan Robinson also inside 49 seconds as Matete missed the event to focus on a meeting in Japan.
Morgan was nearly two seconds slower in 2002 as England’s Chris Rawlinson defeated Wales’ Matt Elias with a good 49.14. Rawlinson was last in 2006 as Louis van Zyl smashed the Games record with a world-class 48.05, while his fellow South African Alwyn Myburgh also broke the old record with 48.23. Wales’ Rhys Williams ran 49.09 to be the fastest ever runner to go home without a medal.
Wales won two medals in 2010 with Williams third behind his compatriot David Greene, who won in 48.52, just a metre ahead of defending champion Van Zyl. Wales thus became the 11th nation to strike gold.
1930 Lord Burghley (ENG) 54.4
1934 Alan Hunter (SCO) 55.2
1938 John Loaring (CAN) 52.9
1950 Duncan White (CEY) 52.5
1954 David Lean (AUS) 52.4
1958 Gert Potgieter (RSA) 49.73
1962 Ken Roche (AUS) 51.5
1966 Ken Roche (AUS) 50.95y
1970 John Sherwood (ENG) 50.03
1974 Alan Pascoe (ENG) 48.83
1978 Daniel Kimaiyo (KEN) 49.48
1982 Garry Brown (AUS) 49.37
1986 Phil Beattie (NIR) 49.60
1990 Kriss Akabusi (ENG) 48.89
1994 Samuel Matete (ZAM) 48.67
1998 Dinsdale Morgan (JAM) 48.28
2002 Chris Rawlinson (ENG) 49.14
2006 LJ van Zyl (RSA) 48.05
2010 David Greene (WAL) 48.52
Gold: Burghley (Eng: 1930), Hunter (Sco: 1934), Sherwood (Eng: 1970), Pascoe (Eng: 1974), Beattie (NIR, 1986), Akabusi (Eng: 1990), Rawlinson (Eng: 2002), Greene (Wal: 2010)
Silver: Roger Leigh-Wood (Eng: 1930), Harry Kane (Eng: 1954), Max Robertson (Eng: 1986), Matt Elias (Wal: 2002)
Bronze: Douglas Neame (Eng: 1930), Ralph Brown (Eng: 1934), Bob Shaw (Wal: 1954), Peter Warden (Eng: 1966), Pascoe (Eng: 1978), Williams (Wal: 2010)
Most successful athlete: Ken Roche is the only double champion.
Most successful Briton: Alan Pascoe is the only British winner to have won gold plus another medal.
» Find other event-by-event histories here and an overall history of the Commonwealth Games here
