1948 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 50 km walk (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	50 km walk
gender	Men
Attendees	23 athletes from 11 countries
Competition location	Wembley Stadium (start and finish)
Competition phase	July 31, 1948
Medalist John Ljunggren ( SWE )   Gaston Godel ( SUI )   Tebbs Lloyd Johnson ( GBR )

The men's 50 km walk at the 1948 Olympic Games in London was held on July 31, 1948 at Wembley Stadium . 23 athletes took part.

The Olympic champion was the Swede John Ljunggren ahead of the Swiss Gaston Godel . Bronze went to Tebbs Lloyd Johnson from Britain .

Existing records

• Unofficial world record : 4:23:40 h - Josef Doležal ( Czechoslovakia ), Poděbrady , August 4, 1946
• Olympic record : 4:30: 41.4 h - Harold Whitlock ( Great Britain ), Olympic competition in Berlin , August 5, 1932

Routing

Start of the race

After starting at Wembley Stadium , the track turned to the northwest. At the A 4088 she turned right and followed the road there to Salmon Street , which led again to the northwest. The Salmon Street becomes the Fryant Way and crosses the Fryant Country Park . It went on to the northwest again on Honeypot Lane and Marsh Lane . At Stanmore the route turned right onto London Lane . About the Spur Road it went on the Edgware Way to Edgware. After crossing the railway line, the route led north over the Barnet By-Pass . Past Stirling Corner , it went left into Elstree Way , until the route turned right into Theobald Street just before the railway line . Following the course of Theobald Street to the northwest parallel to the railway line, the rails at the Radlett tennis club were crossed. Now it went right on Watling Street , then left over Aldenham Road to Watford Road . Here the route led in an arc to the southeast of New Road and Common Lane to the village of Letchmore Heath. Then came Grange Lane , Primrose Lane and, turning left, Radlett Road to Aldenham. Via the A 41, the Watford Bypass, it went to Spur Road and finally back to the stadium to the finish.

The race

July 31, 1948, 1:15 p.m.

John Ljunggren, the reigning European champion, took the lead right after the start and steadily expanded his lead. After just ten kilometers, Edgar Bruun, the pursuer, was one and a half minutes behind. At 20 km, Brit Rex Whitlock was almost 2:30 minutes behind, five kilometers further it was over four and a half, and at 35 km more than eight minutes before Whitlock had to give up the race. Ljunggren finally won with over six minutes ahead of Swiss Gaston Godel, who caught up in the end but never saw the leading Swedes and therefore believed that he had won himself. Beaming with joy, he waved to the spectators in the stadium. Only after crossing the finish line did he notice his mistake.

John Ljunggren's gold medal was the first Swedish Olympic victory in this discipline.

result

Olympic Champion John Ljunggren (SWE)

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	John Ljunggren	Sweden	4:41:52 h
2	Gaston Godel	Switzerland	4:48:17 h
3	Tebbs Lloyd Johnson	Great Britain	4:48:31 h
4th	Edgar Bruun	Norway	4:53:18 h
5	Herbert Martineau	Great Britain	4:53:58 h
6th	Bjurström rune	Sweden	4:56:43 h
7th	Pierre Mazille	France	5:01:40 h
8th	Claude Hubert	France	5:03:12 h
9	Enrique Villaplana	Spain	5:03:31 h
10	Days Jonsson	Sweden	5:05:08 h
11	Henri Caron	France	5:08:15 h
12	Ernest Crosbie	United States	5:15:16 h
13	Sándor László	Hungary	5:16:30 h
14th	Salvatore Cascino	Italy	5:20:03 h
15th	John Deni	United States	5:28:33 h
16	Adolf Weinacker	United States	5:30:14 h
DNF or DSQ	Per Olav Baarnaas	Norway
	Valentino Bertolini	Italy
	Sixto Ibañez	Argentina
	Francesco Pretti	Italy
	Sadhu Singh	India
	Rex Whitlock	Great Britain
	Gerhard Winther	Norway

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, p. 31f

Web links

• SportsReference 50km Walk , accessed August 21, 2017
• Official report pp. 262–263, engl. (PDF), accessed on August 21, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009, page 566 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ Official report p. 261, engl. (PDF)
3. ^ Official report p. 240, engl. (PDF)
4. ^ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, p. 31f.
5. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)