European Athletics Championships 1954/800 m men

5th European Athletics Championships
discipline	Men's 800-meter run
city	Bern
Stadion	Neufeld Stadium
Attendees	33 athletes from 21 countries
Competition phase	August 25th (preliminary) August 27th (semi-finals) August 28th (final)
Medalist
gold	Lajos Szentgáli ( HUN )
silver	Lucien De Muynck ( BEL )
bronze	Audun Boysen ( NOR )

Grandstand of the Neufeld stadium in Bern

The men's 800-meter run at the 1954 European Athletics Championships was held from August 25 to 28, 1954 in the Neufeld stadium in Bern .

The Hungarian Lajos Szentgáli became European champion . He won ahead of the Belgian Lucien De Muynck. Bronze went to the Norwegian Audun Boysen .

Records

Existing records

World record	1: 46.6 min	Rudolf Harbig	Milan , Italy	July 15, 1939
European record
Championship record	1: 50.5 min	John Parlett	EM in Brussels , Belgium	August 26, 1950

Record improvement

The existing EM record has been improved three times:

• 1: 50.2 min - Brian Hewson , lead-in on August 25th 
• 1: 50.0 min - Lajos Szentgáli , semi-finals on August 27th 
• 1: 47.1 min - Lajos Szentgáli , final on August 28th 

Preliminary round

August 25, 1954, 6:10 p.m.

The preliminary round was held in four runs. The first four athletes per run - highlighted in light blue - qualified for the semi-finals.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Olaf Lawrenz	BR Germany	1: 52.0
2	Lucien De Muynck	Belgium	1: 52.2
3	István Bárkányi	Hungary	1: 52.4 PB
4th	Days Ekfeldt	Sweden	1: 52.4
5	Tauno Kontio	Finland	1: 52.8 SB
6th	Ludvík Liška	Czechoslovakia	1: 53.2 PB
7th	Alfred Lasch	Austria	1: 55.4 PB
8th	Manuel Macías	Spain	1: 56.7 PB

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Lajos Szentgáli	Hungary	1: 51.8
2	Derek Johnson	Great Britain	1: 51.8
3	Edmund Potrzebowski	Poland	1: 52.3
4th	René Djian	France	1: 52.8
5	Josef Steger	Switzerland	1: 53.5 PB
6th	Ekrem Koçak	Turkey	1: 56.2 PB
7th	De Kroon	Netherlands	NT
DNF	Gunnar Nielsen	Denmark

Forward 3

Patrick El Mabrouk was eliminated with seventh place in his preliminary run

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Brian Hewson	Great Britain	1: 50.2 CR
2	Audun Boysen	Norway	1: 50.3
3	Gérard Rasquin	Luxembourg	1: 51.6
4th	Oleg Ageev	Soviet Union	1: 51.7 PB
5	Evangelos Depastas	Greece	1: 52.7 SB
6th	Hugo Wallkamm	Switzerland	1: 55.1 PB
7th	Patrick El Mabrouk	France	1: 56.0 PB
8th	Ernst Suppan	Austria	1: 58.4 PB
9	Somuncuoğlu Ünal	Turkey	2: 02.6 PB

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Roger Moens	Belgium	1: 51.5
2	Ron Delany	Ireland	1: 51.8
3	Friedel Stracke	BR Germany	1: 52.1 PB
4th	Urpo Vähäranta	Finland	1: 52.2
5	Hans Ring	Sweden	1: 52.7 PB
6th	Georgi Iwakin	Soviet Union	1: 53.9 PB
7th	Dušan Čikel	Czechoslovakia	1: 54.2 PB
8th	Miloje Grujić	Yugoslavia	1: 55.7 PB

Semifinals

August 27, 1954, 3:05 p.m.

In each of the two semi-finals, the first four athletes - highlighted in light blue - qualified for the final.

Run 1

Brian Hewson - here as a spectator at the dog race - reached seventh place in his semi-final run and was eliminated after he had run a championship record in the preliminary run

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Lajos Szentgáli	Hungary	1: 50.0 CR
2	Ron Delany	Ireland	1: 50.2 NO
3	Lucien De Muynck	Belgium	1: 50.3
4th	Days Ekfeldt	Sweden	1: 50.3 PB
5	Edmund Potrzebowski	Poland	1: 51.2 PB
6th	Brian Hewson	Great Britain	1: 51.2
7th	Olaf Lawrenz	BR Germany	1: 51.4 PB
8th	Urpo Vähäranta	Finland	1: 51.4 PB

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Audun Boysen	Norway	1: 50.6
2	Roger Moens	Belgium	1: 50.7
3	Derek Johnson	Great Britain	1: 51.0
4th	Gérard Rasquin	Luxembourg	1: 51.5
5	René Djian	France	1: 51.8 PB
6th	Friedel Stracke	BR Germany	1: 52.3
7th	Oleg Ageev	Soviet Union	1: 52.5
8th	István Bárkányi	Hungary	1: 52.8

final

Audun Boysen won the bronze medal after finishing fifth in 1950

August 28, 1954, 4:50 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Lajos Szentgáli	Hungary	1: 47.1 CR / NR
2	Lucien De Muynck	Belgium	1: 47.3
3	Audun Boysen	Norway	1: 47.4
4th	Derek Johnson	Great Britain	1: 47.4
5	Roger Moens	Belgium	1: 47.8 PB
6th	Gérard Rasquin	Luxembourg	1: 51.4
7th	Days Ekfeldt	Sweden	1: 53.8
8th	Ron Delany	Ireland	2: 03.5

• 

  Roger Moens, who was supposed to replace Rudolf Harbig as world record holder in 1955 , reached fifth place

• 

  Tage Ekfeldt came in seventh place

• 

  Ron Delany - two years later Olympic champion over 1500 meters

Web links

• European Athletics Championships - Bern 1954 at european-athletics.org, accessed on April 5, 2019
• Men 800m European Championship 1954 Bern on todor66.com, accessed on April 5, 2019
• V European Championship, Bern 1954 from trackfield.brinkster.net, accessed on April 5, 2019
• Results of all European Athletics Championships - 1954, 800 m men on sportschau.de, accessed on April 5, 2019
• 5th European Athletics Championships 1954 in Bern, Switzerland from ifosta.de, accessed on April 5, 2019

References and comments

1. ↑ IAAF world records. 800m men , accessed April 5, 2019