1948 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 400 m hurdles (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	400 meter hurdles
gender	Men
Attendees	25 athletes from 17 countries
Competition location	Wembley Stadium
Competition phase	July 30, 1948 (preliminary / semi-finals) July 31, 1948 (final)
Medalist Roy Cochran ( USA )   Duncan White ( CEY )   Rune Larsson ( SWE )

The men's 400-meter hurdles at the 1948 Olympic Games in London was held on July 30 and 31, 1948 at Wembley Stadium . 25 athletes took part.

The American Roy Cochran became Olympic champion . He won ahead of Duncan White from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka ) and Rune Larsson from Sweden.

Existing records

• World record : 50.6 s - Glenn Hardin ( USA ), Stockholm , July 26, 1934
• Olympic record : 52.0 s - Glenn Hardin ( USA ), Los Angeles final , August 1, 1932. Hardin crossed the finish line in second place in this race. However, his time was recognized as the world record at the time, as the actual winner Bob Tisdall ( Ireland ) had illegally knocked over a hurdle during the race. Although Tisdall was Olympic champion, but his time was not recognized as a record.

Conducting the competition

The runners competed in six preliminary runs on July 30th, from which the two best runners qualified for the semi-finals on the same day. The first three of the two semi-finals made it to the final on July 31st.

Note: The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue.

Prelims

July 30, 1948, 2:30 p.m.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Roy Cochran	United States	53.9 s
2	Jacques André	France	54.5 s
3	Hermelindo Alberti	Argentina	54.6s
4th	Jaime Aparicio	Colombia	55.1 s

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Harry Whittle	Great Britain	56.9 s
2	Jean-Claude Arifon	France	56.9 s
3	Lazaros Petropoulakis	Greece	57.9 s
4th	Mohsin Nazar Khan	Pakistan	59.2

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	John Holland	New Zealand	54.6 s
2	Bertel Storskrubb	Finland	54.6 s
3	Kemal Horulu	Turkey	55.1 s
4th	Michael Pope	Great Britain	55.3 s

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Ottavio Missoni	Italy	53.9 s
2	Rune Larsson	Sweden	54.5 s
3	Ronald Unsworth	Great Britain	55.1 s
4th	Sergio Guzmán	Chile	55.9 s
5	Mario Rosas	Colombia	55.9 s

Forward 5

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Dick Ault	United States	54.7 s
2	Yves Cros	France	55.7 s
3	Werner Christians	Switzerland	56.7 s
4th	Huang Liangzhen	China	57.7 s

Forward 6

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Duncan White	Ceylon	53.6 s
2	Jeff Kirk	United States	54.3 s
3	Alf Westman	Sweden	54.5 s
4th	Bill LaRochelle	Canada	54.9 s

Semifinals

July 30, 1948, 5 p.m.

Run 1

The Swede Rune Larsson (128) wins his semifinals ahead of Dick Ault (338). Far left Jean-Claude Arifon, in the background Jacques André. To the right of Larsson the American Jeff Kirk and to the far right Duncan White

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Rune Larsson	Sweden	51.9 s	OR
2	Dick Ault	United States	52.1 s
3	Duncan White	Ceylon	52.1 s
4th	Jean-Claude Arifon	France	52.3 s
5	Jeff Kirk	United States	52.5
6th	Jacques André	France	56.3 s

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Roy Cochran	United States	51.9 s	ORe
2	Yves Cros	France	52.5 s
3	Ottavio Missoni	Italy	53.4 s
4th	Harry Whittle	Great Britain	53.4 s
5	Bertel Storskrubb	Finland	53.5 s
6th	John Holland	New Zealand	53.9 s

final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Roy Cochran	United States	51.1 s	OR
2	Duncan White	Ceylon	51.8 s
3	Rune Larsson	Sweden	52.2 s
4th	Dick Ault	United States	52.4 s
5	Yves Cros	France	53.3 s
6th	Ottavio Missoni	Italy	54.0 s

July 31, 1948, 3:30 p.m.

The entire competition was dominated by the American Roy Cochran, who won the final by six meters. The silver medal went to Duncan White from Ceylon, who rose over 52.1 s in the semi-finals to 51.8 s in the final, relegating Sweden's Rune Larsson to third place. Larsson stayed three tenths of a second over his 51.9 s out of the semifinals.

Duncan White became the first athlete in this island nation to win a medal.
Rune Larsson won the first Swedish medal in this discipline.
In the ninth Olympic final, Cochran ran for the seventh gold medal in the USA.
US athletes won 17 out of 27 medals.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 28–30

Web links

• SportsReference 400m hurdles , accessed August 20, 2017
• Official report , page 256, engl. (PDF), accessed on August 20, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 page 548 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ Official report "Athletic Timetable" page 240
3. ↑ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, p. 28ff
4. ^ Official report "Athletic Timetable" page 240
5. ^ Official report "Athletic Timetable" page 240, engl.
6. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)