2023 World Athletics Championships – Women's 400 metres hurdles

Forty-one athletes of thirty nations participated in the five heats of the first round on 21 August.

Kemi Adekoya of Bahrain set an Asian record of 53.56 seconds.

Twenty-four athletes competed in the three heats of the semifinals on 22 August.

Bol remained unbeaten in all her hurdles races since the 2022 final and her world-leading time of 51.45 s was almost 2 seconds faster than anyone else had run this year.

Other medal hopefuls were Bahraini Kemi Adekoya, who set Asian records in both the preliminary heats and semi-finals, and 2019 bronze medalist Rushell Clayton from Jamaica, who set a personal best in the semi-finals.

Photo of an athletics track with hurdles seen from an angle with Femke Bol jumping over a hurdle, followed by Yanique Haye-Smith, Eileen Demes, and two other athletes whose faces are not in the pictre
Yanique Haye-Smith (back left), Eileen Demes (front left), and Femke Bol (right) during the first round heats