The runners started eight heats on August 4th. The three best athletes each qualified for the quarter-finals on the same day, from which the first three athletes also qualified for the next round, the semi-finals. The two preliminary rounds and the final were held on August 5th. In the semifinals, the first three qualified for the final.
Note: The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue. The times in brackets are the unofficial electronically timed times.
Prelims
August 6, 1936, 10.30 a.m.
Weather conditions: overcast, 16 ° C, wind speeds of approx. 2.4 m / s headwind on the back straight, tail wind on the home straight.
August 6, 1936, 3.15 p.m.
Weather conditions: overcast, 18 ° C, tail wind at approx. 1.9 m / s. Headwind on the back straight, tailwind on the home straight Adolf Metzner (DEU) and József Vadas (HUN), who
qualified for the quarter-finals, did not take part in their races.
August 7, 1936, 3 p.m.
Weather conditions: overcast, 21 ° C, wind speed approx. 1.2 m / s. Crosswind on both straights
Harold Smallwood (USA) qualified for the semifinals did not start because of appendicitis.
August 5, 1936, 6:00 p.m.
Weather conditions: overcast, 20.6 ° C, calm The American Archie Williams started a lightning career. In 1935, his best time was over 49 seconds. In 1936 it improved to 47.4 s in April, then via another stopover to the world record of 46.1 s. His compatriots were only a few tenths of a second behind him with their best performances. Harold Smallwood could no longer compete due to an illness in the intermediate run, so that the US runners were only two in the final. This final turned out to be more exciting than expected. At the start there were two Americans, two British and two Canadians. Archie Williams and James LuValle set a very high starting pace, but the two British runners in particular caught up in the second half of the race. Williams was just able to make it to the finish line as an Olympic champion, with Godfrey Arthur Brown behind. LuValle ran wafer-thin ahead of Bill Roberts in third place.
Archie Williams won the seventh gold medal for the USA in the tenth Olympic final.
For a better classification of the intervals, the unofficial electronically timed times - if known - are listed in the table on the left.
literature
Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, pp. 271f
Great Britain
Sweden
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Canada
Switzerland
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Hungary
France
Czechoslovakia
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South African Union
Austria
Italy
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German Empire
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Egypt
Belgium
China
United States
Norway
Brazil
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Japan
Argentina
Romania
Finland
Luxembourg
Denmark
Chile
British India
