Luguelin Santos, the Dominican Republic silver medalist in the 400 meters in the London Olympics, and gold medal winner in the event in the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games is competing for a place in the finals of the fifth IAAF World Championships taking place in Beijing from 22-30 August 2015.
The qualifying heats for the 400-meter race yielded some of the best times ever in the 400. Saudi Arabia’s Yousef Masrahi and Jamaica’s Rusheen McDonald topped the list of qualifiers, both running 43.93 in the second of the six heats. These were the fastest times ever run in any preliminary round of a World Championships and the fastest ever run in a first round at a World Championships or Olympic Games.
In the semi-finals, Luguelin Santos’s 44.26 time was good enough for him to set a new national record and place behind Kirani James of Grenada in his heat and fourth overall. James was the winner of the Olympic gold in the 2012 London Olympics in which Santos won silver.
The finals will be held on 26 August. The official start list for the race are: Machel Cedenio (Trinidad & Tobago), Rabah Yousif (Great Britain), Isaac Makwala (Botswana), Kirani James (Grenada), Wayde Van Niekerk (South Africa), LaShawn Merritt (USA), Yousef Ahmed Masrahi (Saudi Arabia) and Luguelin Santos (Dominican Republic).
http://www.iaaf.org/competitions/iaaf-world-championships/15th-iaaf-world-championships-4875/results/men/400-metres/semi-final/startlist