Athletics at the 1981 Summer Universiade – Men's 400 metres

The men's 400 metres event at the 1981 Summer Universiade was held at the Stadionul Naţional in Bucharest on 23, 24 and 25 July 1981.^[1]

Rank	Heat	Athlete	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	1	Walter McCoy	United States	46.32	Q^[2]
2	2	Cliff Wiley	United States	46.70	Q
3	3	Viktor Burakov	Soviet Union	46.76	Q
4	2	Vitaliy Fedotov	Soviet Union	46.81	Q
5	6	Gérson de Souza	Brazil	46.99	Q
6	2	Benjamín González	Spain	47.05	Q^[3]
7	3	Roberto Tozzi	Italy	47.12	Q
8	2	Avognan Nogboum	Ivory Coast	47.18	q
8	3	Goran Humar	Yugoslavia	47.18	Q
10	6	Melvin Fowell	Great Britain	47.23	Q
11	3	Urs Kamber	Switzerland	47.32	q^[4]
12	5	Stefano Malinverni	Italy	47.47	Q
13	6	Carlos Reyté	Cuba	47.57	Q
14	5	Christoph Trappe	West Germany	47.60	Q
15	1	Uwe Wegner	West Germany	47.83	Q
16	1	Shigenori Omori	Japan	47.89	Q
17	5	Roberto Ramos	Cuba	47.90	Q
18	1	Silvio Almanzar	Dominican Republic	48.00	q
19	4	Marcel Klarenbeek	Netherlands	48.09	Q^[5]
20	5	Jean Didoce Mbemou	Congo	48.27	q
21	3	Nikolaos Megalemos	Greece	48.49	q
22	4	Alphonse Mandonda	Congo	48.79	Q
23	5	Takashi Nagao	Japan	48.82	q
24	2	Murat Akman	Turkey	49.07
25	2	Zsigmond Nagy	Romania	49.53
26	4	Horia Toboc	Romania	49.67	Q
27	6	Sergio Barajas	Mexico	49.95
28	6	Yukihiro Minami	Mexico	50.03
29	4	Yoav Meckel	Israel	50.14
30	1	Fadi Rahme	Lebanon	51.53
31	4	Edward Maadandedjian	Lebanon	52.54
32	2	Paul Caruana	Malta	53.76

Rank	Heat	Athlete	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	1	Walter McCoy	United States	45.90	Q^[2]
2	2	Cliff Wiley	United States	46.12	Q^[2]
3	2	Stefano Malinverni	Italy	46.21	Q^[2]
4	1	Marcel Klarenbeek	Netherlands	46.45	Q^[2]
5	1	Carlos Reyté	Cuba	46.47	q^[2]
6	1	Benjamín González	Spain	46.48	q^[2]
7	3	Viktor Burakov	Soviet Union	46.55	Q
8	2	Vitaliy Fedotov	Soviet Union	46.56
9	3	Gérson de Souza	Brazil	46.77	Q
10	3	Melvin Fowell	Great Britain	46.94
11	3	Uwe Wegner	West Germany	47.03
12	2	Goran Humar	Yugoslavia	47.16
13	1	Urs Kamber	Switzerland	47.22
14	1	Roberto Tozzi	Italy	47.27
15	2	Avognan Nogboum	Ivory Coast	47.33
16	1	Silvio Almanzar	Dominican Republic	47.84
17	3	Alphonse Mandonda	Congo	48.08
18	2	Jean Didoce Mbemou	Congo	48.26
19	2	Roberto Ramos	Cuba	48.29
20	3	Nikolaos Megalemos	Greece	48.33
21	1	Horia Toboc	Romania	48.41
22	3	Shigenori Omori	Japan	48.64
	?	Christoph Trappe	West Germany	?
	?	Takashi Nagao	Japan	?

Rank	Athlete	Nationality	Time
	Cliff Wiley	United States	45.18
	Walter McCoy	United States	45.33
	Gérson de Souza	Brazil	45.91
4	Carlos Reyté	Cuba	46.10
5	Stefano Malinverni	Italy	46.35
6	Marcel Klarenbeek	Netherlands	46.41
7	Benjamín González	Spain	46.56
8	Viktor Burakov	Soviet Union	46.57

Medalists