1956 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 110 m hurdles (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	110 meter hurdles
gender	Men
Attendees	24 athletes from 15 countries
Competition location	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Competition phase	November 27, 1956 (prelims) November 28, 1956 (semifinals / finals)
Medalist Lee Calhoun ( USA )   Jack Davis ( USA )   Joel Shankle ( USA )

The men's 110-meter hurdles at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne was held on November 27 and 28, 1956 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground . 24 athletes took part.

The US team celebrated a triple success. Lee Calhoun won ahead of teammates Jack Davis and Joel Shankle .

Swiss and Austrian athletes did not take part. The two German participants survived their preliminary runs. Berthold Steines failed as fourth in his semifinals, while Martin Lauer made it to the final and finished fourth.

Existing records

World record	13.4 s	Jack Davis ( USA )	Bakersfield , USA	June 22, 1956
Olympic record	13.7 s	Harrison Dillard ( USA )	Helsinki Final , Finland	July 24, 1952
		Jack Davis ( USA )

Conducting the competition

The athletes competed in four heats on November 27th. The top three runners each qualified for the semi-finals. The two preliminary rounds and the final were held on November 28th. From the semi-finals, the first three reached the final.

Note: The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue.

Time schedule

November 27, 3:20 p.m .: Prelim

November 28, 2:30 p.m .: semi-finals

November 28, 4:05 p.m .: Final

Note: All times are local Melbourne time (UTC + 10)

Prelims

Date: November 27, 1956, from 3:20 p.m.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Jack Davis	United States	14.0 s	14.17 s
2	Edmond Roudnitska	France	14.3 s	14.49 s
3	Ghulam Raziq	Pakistan	14.5 s	14.65 s
4th	Eamonn Kinsella	Ireland	14.6 s	14.66 s
5	Ken Doubleday	Australia	14.8 s	14.98 s
6th	Guillermo Zapata	Colombia	15.3 s	15.58 s

Forward 2

The Yugoslav Stanko Lorger reaches the final and is fifth there.

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Lee Calhoun	United States	14.1 s	14.36 s
2	Stanko Lorger	Yugoslavia	14.6 s	14.75 s
3	Jean-Claude Bernard	France	14.7 s	14.88 s
4th	Jack Parker	Great Britain	14.8 s	15.00 s
5	John Chittick	Australia	14.9 s	15.18 s
6th	Kalim Khawaja Ghani	Pakistan	16.1 s	16.32 s

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Joel Shankle	United States	14.0 s	14.20 s
2	Berthold Steines	Germany	14.3 s	14.59 s
3	Danie Burger	South African Union	14.4 s	14.59 s
4th	Anatoly Mikhailov	Soviet Union	14.5 s	14.63 s
5	Keith Gardner	Jamaica	14.6 s	14.65 s
6th	Bob Joyce	Australia	14.7 s	15.02 s

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Martin Lauer	Germany	14.2 s	14.41 s
2	Evaristo Iglesias	Cuba	14.3 s	14.52 s
3	Boris Stolyarov	Soviet Union	14.3 s	14.54 s
4th	Peter Hildreth	Great Britain	14.5 s	14.68 s
5	Ioannis Kambadelis	Greece	15.1 s	15.28 s
6th	Sri Chand Ram	India	15.2 s	15.40 s

Semifinals

Date: November 28, 1956, from 2.30 p.m.

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Jack Davis	United States	14.0 s	14.28 s
2	Martin Lauer	Germany	14.4 s	14.57 s
3	Stanko Lorger	Yugoslavia	14.6 s	14.73 s
4th	Evaristo Iglesias	Cuba	14.6 s	14.73 s
5	Edmond Roudnitska	France	14.9 s	14.87 s
6th	Danie Burger	South African Union	15.0 s	14.95 s

Run 2

The second silver medal in a row for Jack Davis (USA)

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Lee Calhoun	United States	14.0 s	14.18 s
2	Joel Shankle	United States	14.0 s	14.23 s
3	Boris Stolyarov	Soviet Union	14.5 s	14.64 s
4th	Berthold Steines	Germany	14.5 s	14.70 s
5	Ghulam Raziq	Pakistan	14.6 s	14.74 s
6th	Jean-Claude Bernard	France	14.6 s	14.78 s

final

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Lee Calhoun	United States	13.5 s	13.70 s	OR
2	Jack Davis	United States	13.5 s	13.73 s	OR
3	Joel Shankle	United States	14.1 s	14.25 s
4th	Martin Lauer	Germany	14.5 s	14.67 s
5	Stanko Lorger	Yugoslavia	14.5 s	14.68 s
6th	Boris Stolyarov	Soviet Union	14.6 s	14.71 s

Date: November 28, 1956, 4:05 p.m.

As a world record holder , Jack Davis was the favorite for the Olympic victory. Teammate Lee Calhoun took the lead in the final. Davis was close, but he could never fill the gap. The lead was extremely narrow with three hundredths of a second. As early as 1952 Davis had missed the Olympic victory by only nine hundredths of a second, at that time he lost to Harrison Dillard . Like four years before, the two fastest runners set a new Olympic record and again Jack Davis didn't win a gold medal. Bronze went to the third American, Joel Shankle, ahead of the German Martin Lauer, who competed in the decathlon the next day and came in fifth there.

Lee Calhoun won the eleventh gold medal for the USA in the 13th Olympic final.

It was the seventh triple success of the USA over the 110 meter hurdles , the third of them in a row.

Of 38 medals - there was no third place in 1896 - US runners alone won 31.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 134f

Web links

• SportsReference 110m hurdles , accessed October 3, 2017
• Official report p. 308f, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 3, 2017
• Melbourne 1956 (Lee Calhoun) 110m Final (Amateur Footage) , published July 4, 2017 on youtube.com, accessed October 3, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 page 554 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ Official report p. 284, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 3, 2017
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Official report p. 308, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 3, 2017
4. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)