1978 European Athletics Indoor Championships – Men's 400 metres

The men's 400 metres event at the 1978 European Athletics Indoor Championships was held on 11 and 12 March in Milan.

Medalists

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Pietro Mennea Italy	Ryszard Podlas Poland	Nikolay Chernetskiy Soviet Union

Results

Heats

First 2 from each heat (Q) qualified directly for the semifinals.

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	2	Nikolay Chernetskiy	Soviet Union	47.20	Q
2	2	Ryszard Podlas	Poland	47.80	Q
3	3	Alfonso Di Guida	Italy	47.96	Q
4	3	Karel Kolář	Czechoslovakia	47.96	Q
5	3	Narzis Popov	Bulgaria	48.19
6	2	Eddy De Leeuw	Belgium	48.34
7	4	Pietro Mennea	Italy	48.40	Q
8	4	Željko Knapić	Yugoslavia	48.55	Q
9	1	Nándor Hornyacsek	Hungary	48.64	Q
9	2	Yanko Bratanov	Bulgaria	48.64
11	1	Vasiliy Arkhipenko	Soviet Union	48.79	Q
12	1	Giovanni Bongiorni	Italy	48.79
13	4	Pavel Pavlov	Bulgaria	48.83

Semifinals

First 2 from each heat (Q) qualified directly for the final.

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	2	Ryszard Podlas	Poland	47.08	Q
2	2	Pietro Mennea	Italy	47.16	Q
3	1	Nikolay Chernetskiy	Soviet Union	47.29	Q
4	1	Željko Knapić	Yugoslavia	47.61	Q
5	2	Vasiliy Arkhipenko	Soviet Union	47.71
6	1	Alfonso Di Guida	Italy	47.86
7	1	Nándor Hornyacsek	Hungary	48.06
8	2	Karel Kolář	Czechoslovakia	48.62

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	2	Pietro Mennea	Italy	46.51
	4	Ryszard Podlas	Poland	46.55
	3	Nikolay Chernetskiy	Soviet Union	46.72
4	1	Željko Knapić	Yugoslavia	47.83