1986 European Athletics Indoor Championships – Women's 400 metres

The women's 400 metres event at the 1986 European Athletics Indoor Championships was held on 22 and 23 February.

Medalists

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Sabine Busch East Germany	Petra Müller East Germany	Ann-Louise Skoglund Sweden

Results

Heats

The winner of each heat (Q) and the next 4 fastest (q) qualified for the semifinals.

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	1	Petra Müller	East Germany	52.47	Q
2	1	Taťána Kocembová	Czechoslovakia	53.16	q
3	4	Ann-Louise Skoglund	Sweden	53.98	Q
4	2	Sabine Busch	East Germany	54.03	Q
5	4	Gisela Kinzel	West Germany	54.08	q
6	2	Astrid Ortel	West Germany	54.21	q
7	2	Erica Rossi	Italy	54.25	q
8	4	Cristina Pérez	Spain	54.25
9	3	Ute Thimm	West Germany	54.86	Q
10	4	Gerda Haas	Austria	54.94
11	1	Fabienne Lise	France	54.97
12	3	Angela Piggford	Great Britain	55.07
13	3	Pepa Pavlova	Bulgaria	55.34
14	2	Semra Aksu	Turkey	56.13
	3	Cristieana Cojocaru	Romania	DNS

Semifinals

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

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	1	Sabine Busch	East Germany	52.17	Q
2	2	Petra Müller	East Germany	52.91	Q
3	1	Taťána Kocembová	Czechoslovakia	53.27	Q
4	2	Ann-Louise Skoglund	Sweden	53.39	Q
5	2	Erica Rossi	Italy	53.67
6	1	Ute Thimm	West Germany	54.24
7	1	Gisela Kinzel	West Germany	55.09
8	2	Astrid Ortel	West Germany	56.68

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Sabine Busch	East Germany	51.40
	Petra Müller	East Germany	51.59
	Ann-Louise Skoglund	Sweden	52.40	NR
4	Taťána Kocembová	Czechoslovakia	53.16