1920 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 400 m (men)
![]() |
|||||||||
![]() |
|||||||||
sport | athletics | ||||||||
discipline | 400 meter run | ||||||||
gender | Men | ||||||||
Attendees | 37 athletes from 16 countries | ||||||||
Competition location | Antwerp Olympic Stadium | ||||||||
Competition phase | August 19, 1920 (preliminary round / quarter-finals) August 20, 1920 (semi-finals / final) |
||||||||
|
The men's 400-meter race at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp was held on August 19 and 20, 1920 in the Antwerp Olympic Stadium. 37 athletes took part.
The South African Bevil Rudd was the Olympic champion ahead of the Briton Guy Butler . The Swede Nils Engdahl won bronze .
No athletes from Switzerland took part. Germany and Austria were excluded from the 1920 Olympic Games .
Existing records
World record |
Ted Meredith ( United States )
![]() |
47.4 s (race over 440 yards = 402.34 m) | Cambridge, Massachusetts | May 27, 1916 |
Olympic record |
Charles Reidpath ( United States )
![]() |
48.2 s | Stockholm | July 13, 1912 |
Conducting the competition
A total of ten preliminary runs were carried out on August 19 (9:30 a.m. local time). The athletes who finished in the first two places qualified for the quarter-finals, which took place on the same day at 3:15 p.m. In each of these four runs, the top three made it to the semi-finals of the following day. In both preliminary rounds, starting from 2 p.m., the first three runners qualified for the final, which started at 4.15 p.m.
Note: The runners qualified for the next round are highlighted in light blue.
Prelims
Date: August 19, 1920, 9:30 a.m. local time
The times are not completely handed down.
Forward 1
space | Surname | nation | time | annotation |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Robert Lindsay |
![]() |
52.0 s | |
2 | Clarence Oldfield |
![]() |
52.2 s | |
3 | Tolly Bolin |
![]() |
52.6 s |
Forward 2
space | Surname | nation | time | annotation |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Gaston Féry |
![]() |
51.1 s | |
2 | John Ainsworth-Davis |
![]() |
51.3 s | |
3 | Karel Frankenstein |
![]() |
51.8 s | |
4th | Frank Irvine |
![]() |
k. A. |
Forward 3
space | Surname | nation | time | annotation |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Frank Shea |
![]() |
50.8 s | |
2 | Henry Dafel |
![]() |
51.2 s | |
3 | Sven Krokström |
![]() |
51.6 s |
Forward 4
space | Surname | nation | time | annotation |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Ted Meredith |
![]() |
51.6 s | |
2 | Géo André |
![]() |
52.3 s | |
3 | Giuseppe Bernardoni |
![]() |
52.8 s |
Forward 5
space | Surname | nation | time | annotation |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Bevil Rudd |
![]() |
50.6 s | |
2 | Erik Wilén |
![]() |
51.1 s | |
3 | Reinhold Saulmann |
![]() |
51.6 s | |
4th | Giovanni Tosi |
![]() |
51.8 s |
Forward 6
space | Surname | nation | time | annotation |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Robert Emery |
![]() |
52.6 s | |
2 | Guy Butler |
![]() |
53.2 s | |
3 | Karel Přibyl |
![]() |
54.0 s | |
4th | Jules Migeot |
![]() |
55.1 s |
Forward 7
space | Surname | nation | time | annotation |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | George Schiller |
![]() |
50.4 s | |
2 | Nils Engdahl |
![]() |
50.6 s | |
3 | Maurice Delvart |
![]() |
50.9 s | |
4th | Einar Mangset |
![]() |
51.3 s |
Forward 8
space | Surname | nation | time | annotation |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Eric Sundblad |
![]() |
52.0 s | |
2 | Hector Phillips |
![]() |
52.3 s | |
3 | Agide Simonazzi |
![]() |
53.0 s | |
4th | Purma Bannerjee |
![]() |
53.1 s |
Forward 9
space | Surname | nation | time | annotation |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Omer Corteyn |
![]() |
52.2 s | |
2 | Hedges Worthington-Eyre |
![]() |
52.5 s | |
3 | Jean Proess |
![]() |
52.6 s | |
4th | José García Lorenzana |
![]() |
52.8 s |
Forward 10
space | Surname | nation | time | annotation |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | François Morren |
![]() |
51.6 s | |
2 | Miguel García Onsalo |
![]() |
52.0 s | |
3 | Eugène Bayon |
![]() |
52.4 s | |
4th | Ahmed Khairy |
![]() |
k. A. |
Quarter finals
Date: August 19, 1920, 3:15 p.m. local time
Run 1
space | Surname | nation | time | annotation |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Nils Engdahl |
![]() |
50.4 s | |
2 | John Ainsworth-Davis |
![]() |
50.7 s | |
3 | Robert Emery |
![]() |
50.7 s | |
4th | François Morren |
![]() |
50.8 s | |
5 | Clarence Oldfield |
![]() |
51.1 s |
Run 2
space | Surname | nation | time | annotation |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Gaston Féry |
![]() |
50.6 s | |
2 | Guy Butler |
![]() |
50.7 s | |
3 | Ted Meredith |
![]() |
50.8 s | |
4th | Erik Wilén |
![]() |
51.1 s | |
5 | Hector Phillips |
![]() |
51.5 s |
Run 3
space | Surname | nation | time | annotation |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Henry Dafel |
![]() |
51.0 s | |
2 | George Schiller |
![]() |
51.3 s | |
3 | Eric Sundblad |
![]() |
51.4 s | |
4th | Robert Lindsay |
![]() |
51.7 s | |
5 | Omer Corteyn |
![]() |
52.1 s |
Run 4
space | Surname | nation | time | annotation |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Frank Shea |
![]() |
51.0 s | |
2 | Bevil Rudd |
![]() |
51.2 s | |
3 | Géo André |
![]() |
51.3 s | |
4th | Miguel García Onsalo |
![]() |
52.6 s | |
5 | Hedges Worthington-Eyre |
![]() |
52.7 s |
Semifinals
Date: August 20, 1920 from 2 p.m. local time
The transmission of the times is not complete.
Run 1
space | Surname | nation | time | annotation |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Nils Engdahl |
![]() |
49.6 s | |
2 | Bevil Rudd |
![]() |
49.7 s | |
3 | John Ainsworth-Davis |
![]() |
49.9 s | |
4th | Robert Emery |
![]() |
k. A. | |
5 | George Schiller |
![]() |
k. A. | |
6th | Gaston Féry |
![]() |
k. A. |
Run 2
space | Surname | nation | time | annotation |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Frank Shea |
![]() |
50.0 s | |
2 | Guy Butler |
![]() |
50.2 s | |
3 | Henry Dafel |
![]() |
50.4 s | |
4th | Ted Meredith |
![]() |
50.4 s | |
5 | Géo André |
![]() |
50.5 s |
final
space | Surname | nation | time | annotation |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Bevil Rudd |
![]() |
49.6 s | |
2 | Guy Butler |
![]() |
49.9 s | |
3 | Nils Engdahl |
![]() |
50.0 s | |
4th | Frank Shea |
![]() |
50.2 s | |
5 | John Ainsworth-Davis |
![]() |
50.4 s | |
6th | Henry Dafel |
![]() |
50.4 s |
Date: August 20, 1920, 4:15 p.m. local time
The times run in the final were pretty weak given Ted Meredith's world record of 47.4 s. However, the condition of the track and the fact that the preliminary rounds took place on the same day as the final must be taken into account.
There was nothing left of the superiority of the Americans in the last games - there was only one runner in the final who did not come from the USA. The South African Bevil Rudd was victorious in a cleverly arranged race.
Rudd's victory was the first South African gold medal in this discipline.
Nils Engdahl won the first Swedish medal over 400 meters .
literature
- Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, p. 134f
Web links
- SportsReference 400m , accessed August 30, 2017
- Official report , French (PDF), accessed on August 30, 2017
Video
- South Africa's Bevil Rudd Wins 400m Gold - Antwerp 1920 Olympics , published June 20, 2013 on youtube.com, accessed August 30, 2017
Individual evidence
- ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 page 548 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Official report, page 90 (French) ( Memento from October 7, 2018 in the Internet Archive )