The Swiss Josef Imbach reached the quarter-finals, but was eliminated there. His team-mate August Waibel was eliminated in the preliminary run. German and Austrian participants were not allowed to participate.
A total of 12 preliminary runs were carried out on August 15 (3:15 p.m. local time). The athletes who finished in the first two places qualified for the quarter-finals, which were held on the same day at 5 p.m. In these five races, the first two places in each case also entitle them to advance to the semi-finals of the following day (9.30 a.m.). In both preliminary rounds, the first three runners qualified for the final, which started at 4 p.m. on the same day.
Note: The runners qualified for the next round are highlighted in light blue.
Prelims
Date: August 15, 1920, 3:15 p.m. local time
With a few exceptions, only the times of the runners who have qualified for the quarter-finals are recorded.
With Ahmed Khairy from Egypt (preliminary run 2) and Edmond Médécin from Monaco (preliminary run 8), athletes from these countries took part in the Olympic Games for the first time.
In Antwerp , the famous Charles Paddock jump was seen for the first time at the Olympic Games. Morris Kirksey always seemed inhibited in all of his numerous races against Paddock because he was so impressed by his opponent's target jump technique. Of the six finalists, four came from the USA, one from Great Britain and one from France.
Before the start, Paddock was warned to withdraw his hands behind the start line. Loren Murchison got up, believing the start-up procedure would be repeated. But the starting shot was fired, so that Murchison had no chance to intervene in the race. Paddock won the final with his final jump.
In many sources the time of 11.2 s is given for Murchison, which, however, is hardly consistent in view of the starting problems. Accordingly, the u. G. Ekkehard's literature on Megede Basis for Murchison's end times, which remains there without any indication. Other times are sometimes given for other runners as well, although they differ by no more than a tenth of a second. Paddock's win was the fifth US win in the sixth Olympic final. Of the 19 medals awarded so far (there were two third places in 1896) 12 were won by runners from the USA.