1920 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 400 m hurdles (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	400 meter hurdles
gender	Men
Attendees	19 athletes from 9 countries
Competition location	Antwerp Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 15, 1920 (preliminary round / semi-finals) August 16, 1920 (final)
Medalist Frank Loomis ( USA )   John Norton ( USA )   August Desch ( USA )

The men's 400-meter hurdles at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp was held on August 15 and 16, 1920 in the Antwerp Olympic Stadium. 19 athletes took part.

The American Frank Loomis , who won in a new world record time in front of his compatriots John Norton and August Desch , became Olympic champion .

Participants from Switzerland did not start. Austria and Germany were excluded from participating in these games.

Existing records

World record	Charles Bacon ( USA )	55.0 s	London	July 22, 1908
Olympic record

Conducting the competition

A total of five preliminary runs were carried out on August 15 at 11:30 a.m. local time. The two best runners in each case qualified for the semi-finals, which took place on the same day at 2.30 p.m. The first three of each of these two runs made it to the final on August 16 at 2.30 p.m.

Note: The relays qualified for the next round are highlighted in light blue.

Prelims

Date: August 15, 1920, 11:30 a.m. local time

The times are not completely handed down.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	August Desch	United States	57.6 s
2	Erik Wilén	Finland	58.4 s
3	George Gray	Great Britain	58.8 s
4th	František Marek	Czechoslovakia	k. A.

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Wilfrid Kent Hughes	Australia	57.2 s
2	Gosta Bladin	Sweden	57.7 s
3	František Kiehlmann	Czechoslovakia	59.9 s
DNF	Marcel Jarrety	France
	Attie van Heerden	South African Union

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	John Norton	United States	57.6 s
2	Edward Wheller	Great Britain	58.4 s
3	Georg Lindström	Sweden	59.1
4th	Albert Lucas	France	k. A.

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Carl-Axel Christiernsson	Sweden	56.4 s
2	Charles Daggs	United States	56.7 s
3	Valdemar Wickholm	Finland	57.9 s
DNF	Omer Smet	Belgium

Forward 5

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Frank Loomis	United States	55.8 s
2	Géo André	France	55.9 s

Semifinals

Date: August 15, 1920, 2:30 p.m. local time

The times are not completely handed down.

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	August Desch	United States	55.4 s
2	Géo André	France	55.5 s
3	John Norton	United States	56.2 s
4th	Gosta Bladin	Sweden	56.5 s
5	Wilfrid Kent Hughes	Australia	56.9 s

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Frank Loomis	United States	55.4 s
2	Carl-Axel Christiernsson	Sweden	55.7 s
3	Charles Daggs	United States	55.8 s
4th	Edward Wheller	Great Britain	k. A.
5	Erik Wilén	Finland	k. A.

Bronze by a tenth of a second: Géo André (FRA)

final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Frank Loomis	United States	54.0 s	WR
2	John Norton	United States	54.6 s
3	August Desch	United States	54.7 s
4th	Géo André	France	54.8 s
5	Carl-Axel Christiernsson	Sweden	55.4 s
6th	Charles Daggs	United States	57.5 s

Date: August 16, 1920, 2:30 p.m. local time

The existing world record also fell over 400 meter hurdles despite the poor track conditions . Géo André set the fastest starting pace, but couldn't get through it and in the end had to be content with fourth place. Frank Loomis had better divided the race and won the gold medal. He improved the world record by exactly one second. John Norton finished second just ahead of August Desch, with both still remaining below the old world record.

The victory of Frank Loomis meant the fourth US victory in the fourth Olympic final in this discipline. Of the twelve medals to date, nine went to athletes from the USA. In this competition there was the only track and field triple success by US athletes at these games.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, pp. 141f

Web links

• SportsReference 400 meter hurdles , accessed August 31, 2017
• Official report , French (PDF), accessed on August 31, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 page 554 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ Official report ( Memento of October 7, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) p. 104, French. (PDF)