1988 European Athletics Indoor Championships – Men's 400 metres

The men's 400 metres event at the 1988 European Athletics Indoor Championships was held on 5 and 6 March.

Medalists

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Jens Carlowitz East Germany	Brian Whittle Great Britain	Ralf Lübke West Germany

Results

Heats

First 2 from each heat (Q) and the next 4 fastest (q) qualified for the semifinals.

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	1	Ralf Lübke	West Germany	46.83	Q
2	2	Brian Whittle	Great Britain	46.93	Q
3	2	Thomas Schönlebe	East Germany	46.96	Q
4	2	Ángel Heras	Spain	46.98	q
5	3	Gusztáv Menczer	Hungary	47.06	Q
6	3	Jens Carlowitz	East Germany	47.07	Q
7	1	Željko Knapić	Yugoslavia	47.15	Q
8	4	Vito Petrella	Italy	47.28	Q
9	3	Ulf Sedlacek	Sweden	47.29	q
10	4	Antonio Sánchez	Spain	47.32	Q
11	4	Klaus Ehrle	Austria	47.39	q
12	1	Danilo Bertaggia	Italy	47.45	q
13	2	Ervin Katona	Hungary	47.46
14	3	Alessandro Pinna	Italy	47.50
15	4	Mark Thomas	Great Britain	47.83
16	3	José Alonso	Spain	47.84
17	1	Peter Sinclair	Ireland	48.62
18	4	Manlio Molinari	San Marino	49.14	=NR
	1	Fethi Bildirici	Turkey	DQ

Semifinals

First 3 from each semifinal qualified directly (Q) for the final.

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	1	Ralf Lübke	West Germany	46.66	Q
2	1	Jens Carlowitz	East Germany	46.77	Q
3	2	Brian Whittle	Great Britain	46.86	Q
4	2	Thomas Schönlebe	East Germany	46.86	Q
5	2	Antonio Sánchez	Spain	46.97	Q
6	1	Vito Petrella	Italy	47.09	Q
7	2	Gusztáv Menczer	Hungary	47.13
8	1	Klaus Ehrle	Austria	47.36
9	2	Danilo Bertaggia	Italy	47.55
10	2	Željko Knapić	Yugoslavia	47.56
11	1	Ulf Sedlacek	Sweden	47.60
12	1	Ángel Heras	Spain	47.70

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	4	Jens Carlowitz	East Germany	45.63
	5	Brian Whittle	Great Britain	45.98
	3	Ralf Lübke	West Germany	45.98
4	6	Antonio Sánchez	Spain	46.49
5	1	Vito Petrella	Italy	47.73
	2	Thomas Schönlebe	East Germany	DNS