1936 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 110 m hurdles (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	110 meter hurdles
gender	Men
Attendees	31 athletes from 20 countries
Competition location	Olympiastadion Berlin
Competition phase	August 5, 1936 (preliminary) August 6, 1936 (semifinals / finals)
Winning time	14.2 s
Medalist Forrest Towns ( USA ) Don Finlay ( GBR ) Fritz Pollard Jr. ( USA )
← 1932 1948 →

The men's 110-meter hurdles at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin was held on August 5 and 6, 1936 in the Berlin Olympic Stadium. 31 athletes took part.

The American Forrest Towns was Olympic champion ahead of Don Finlay from Britain . Bronze went to the US athlete Fritz Pollard Jr. .

Existing records

• World record : 14.1 s - Forrest Towns ( USA ), Chicago , June 19, 1936
• Olympic record : 14.4s - George Saling ( USA ), Los Angeles semi-finals , August 3, 1932

Conducting the competition

The runners competed in six heats on August 5th. The two best athletes in each case qualified for the semi-finals on August 6th, from which the first three athletes came to the final on the same day.

Note: The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue.

Prelims

August 5, 1936, 4.30 p.m.
Weather conditions: sunny, 17 ° C, tail wind at 2.8 m / s. Wind diagonally from behind.

Not all times have been passed down.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Tom Lavery	South African Union	15.0 s
2	Larry O'Connor	Canada	15.1 s
3	Christos mantikas	Greece	15.2 s
4th	Svend Aage Thomsen	Denmark	15.3 s
5	Juul Bosmans	Belgium	k. A.
5	Yasuharu Furuta	Japan

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Fritz Pollard Jr.	United States	14.7 s
2	John Thornton	Great Britain	15.0 s
3	Johann Langmayr	Austria	15.1 s
4th	Willi Welscher	German Empire	15.2 s
5	Huang Yingjie	China	k. A.

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Don Finlay	Great Britain	14.7 s
2	Tadashi Murakami	Japan	15.3 s
3	James Worrall	Canada	15.6 s
4th	Darcy Guimarães	Brazil	k. A.
5	Ludvík Kománek	Czechoslovakia

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Roy Staley	United States	15.0 s
2	Juan Lavenás	Argentina	15.1 s
3	Ashleigh Pilbrow	Great Britain	15.5 s
4th	Ioannis Skiadas	Greece	k. A.
5	Lin Shaozhou	China

Forward 5

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Forrest Towns	United States	14.5 s
2	Erwin Wegner	German Empire	15.1 s
3	Ernst Leitner	Austria	15.3 s
4th	René Kunz	Switzerland	k. A.
5	Kotaro Shimizu	Japan

Forward 6

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Håkan Lidman	Sweden	14.9 s
2	Vane Ivanović	Yugoslavia	15.1 s
3	Gianni Caldana	Italy	15.1 s
4th	Alf Watson	Australia	15.1 s
5	Miguel White	Philippines	k. A.

Semifinals

August 6, 1936, 3 p.m.

Weather conditions: sunny, 18 ° C, slightly windy.

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Forrest Towns	United States	14.1 s	WRe / OR
2	Håkan Lidman	Sweden	14.5 s
3	John Thornton	Great Britain	14.7 s
4th	Roy Staley	United States	14.8 s
5	Murakami Tadashi	Japan	15.1 s
6th	Juan Lavenás	Argentina	15.6 s

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Don Finlay	Great Britain	14.5 s
2	Fritz Pollard Jr.	United States	14.6 s
3	Larry O'Connor	Canada	15.0 s
4th	Vane Ivanović	Yugoslavia	15.2 s
5	Erwin Wegner	German Empire	15.3 s
6th	Tom Lavery	South African Union	15.6 s

The Swede Håkan Lidman reached fourth place in the final.

final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Forrest Towns	United States	14.2 s
2	Don Finlay	Great Britain	14.4 s
3	Fritz Pollard Jr.	United States	14.4 s
4th	Håkan Lidman	Sweden	14.4 s
5	John Thornton	Great Britain	14.7 s
6th	Larry O'Connor	Canada	14.8 s

August 6, 1936, 5.45 p.m.
Weather conditions: sunny, approx. 18 ° C, slightly windy.

In the interim, Forrest Towns set his own existing world record with 14.1 s . This Forrest Towns had actually wanted to be a high jumper and had built a high jump facility in the garden at home. At the age of 19 he jumped 1.83 m, which earned him a scholarship. However, the track and field coach at college persuaded him to switch to hurdles , where Towns improved to 14.4 s within two years by 1935. Before the games he even ran a new world record with 14.1 seconds. This made him the favorite in Berlin .

In the final his compatriot Pollard had the better start, but Towns was clearly the best hurdle sprinter with his excellent hurdles technique. With a lead of two tenths of a second, he won ahead of the British Donald Finlay and Pollard, who had to let Finlay pass when he broke a hurdle. The winner missed his own world record, which Towns had set again in the interim, by just a tenth of a second.

Forrest Towns won the eighth gold medal for the USA in the tenth Olympic final.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, pp. 281-283

Web links

• SportsReference 110m hurdles , accessed September 19, 2017
• Official report pp. 651–652, engl. (PDF), accessed on September 19, 2017
• 1936, 110mH, Men, Olympic Games, Berlin , published on August 12, 2013 on youtube.com, accessed on September 19, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009, page 553 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ Official report p. 651, engl. (PDF)
3. ↑ ^{a b} Official report p. 652, engl. (PDF)
4. ↑ Official report ( Memento of the original dated January 30, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 605, engl. (PDF)