1956 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 1500 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	1500 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	37 athletes from 22 countries
Competition location	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Competition phase	November 29, 1956 (heats) December 1, 1956 (final)
Medalist Ron Delany ( IRL )   Klaus Richtzenhain ( DEU )   John Landy ( AUS )

The men's 1,500-meter run at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne was held on November 29 and December 1, 1956 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground . 37 athletes took part.

Olympic champion was the Irish Ron Delany . He won ahead of the German Klaus Richtzenhain and the Australian John Landy .

Swiss and Austrian athletes did not take part. Two other German starters failed in the preliminary round: Günther Dohrow in ninth in run two and Siegfried Herrmann in run three, who had to give up the race.

Existing records

World record	3: 40.6 min	István Rózsavölgyi ( Hungary )	Tata , Hungary	3rd August 1956
Olympic record	3: 45.2 min	Josy Barthel ( Luxembourg )	Helsinki Final , Finland	July 26, 1952

Conducting the competition

The athletes competed in three heats on November 29th. The four fastest runners each qualified for the final, which took place on December 1st.

Note: The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue.

Time schedule

November 29th, 4.30 p.m .: Preliminaries
December 1st, 4.15 p.m .: Final

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

Prelims

Date: November 29, 1956, from 4.30 p.m.

The Swede Dan Waern - recording from 1959 - failed in preliminary three.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Klaus Richtzenhain	Germany	3: 46.6 min	3: 46.76 min
2	Stanislav Jungwirth	Czechoslovakia	3: 46.6 min	3: 46.79 min
3	Ian Boyd	Great Britain	3: 47.0 min	3: 47.13 min
4th	Murray Halberg	New Zealand	3: 47.2 min	3: 47.39 min
5	István Rózsavölgyi	Hungary	3: 49.4 min	3: 49.54 min
6th	André Ballieux	Belgium	3: 49.8 min	3: 49.94 min
7th	Michel Jazy	France	3: 50.0 min	3: 49.95 min
8th	Ted Wheeler	United States	3: 50.1 min	3: 50.02 min
9	Jonas Pipynė	Soviet Union	3: 50.6 min	3: 50.86 min
10	Josy Barthel	Luxembourg	3: 50.6 min	3: 50.64 min
11	Mamo Wolde	Ethiopia	3: 51.0 min	k. A.

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Merv Lincoln	Australia	3: 45.4 min	3: 45.63 min
2	Ken Wood	Great Britain	3: 46.6 min	3: 46.90 min
3	Ron Delany	Ireland	3: 47.4 min	3: 47.48 min
4th	László Tábori	Hungary	3: 48.0 min	3: 48.21 min
5	Ingvar Ericsson	Sweden	3: 49.0 min	3: 49.20 min
6th	Yevgeny Sokolov	Soviet Union	3: 49.2 min	3: 49.27 min
7th	Evangelos Depastas	Greece	3: 52.0 min	3: 51.79 min
8th	Olavi Salsola	Finland	3: 55.0 min	k. A.
9	Günter Dohrow	Germany	3: 58.0 min
10	Ramon Sandoval	Chile	3: 58.1 min
11	Don Bowden	United States	3: 59.7 min
12	Émile Leva	Belgium	4: 06.0 min
13	Sim sang ok	South Korea	4: 09.0 min
14th	Mahmoud Jan	Pakistan	4: 15.0 min
15th	Somnuek Srisombat	Thailand	4: 06.0 min

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Neville Scott	New Zealand	3: 48.0 min	3: 48.09 min
2	Brian Hewson	Great Britain	3: 48.0 min	3: 48.10 min
3	John Landy	Australia	3: 48.6 min	3: 48.67 min
4th	Gunnar Nielsen	Denmark	3: 48.6 min	3: 48.80 min
5	Dan Waern	Sweden	3: 48.8 min	3: 48.84 min
6th	Gianfranco Baraldi	Italy	3: 52.0 min	3: 52.20 min
7th	Sergei Sukhanov	Soviet Union	3: 53.0 min	3: 52.96 min
8th	Jerome Walters	United States	3: 55.7 min	3: 55.60 min
9	Georgios Papavasileiou	Greece	3: 57.0 min	3: 57.57 min
10	Eduardo Fontecilla	Chile	3: 58.6 min	3: 58.45 min
DNF	Siegfried Herrmann	Germany

final

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Ron Delany	Ireland	3: 41.2 min	3: 41.49 min	OR
2	Klaus Richtzenhain	Germany	3: 42.0 min	3: 42.02 min
3	John Landy	Australia	3: 42.0 min	3: 42.03 min
4th	László Tábori	Hungary	3: 42.4 min	3: 42.55 min
5	Brian Hewson	Great Britain	3: 42.6 min	3: 42.69 min
6th	Stanislav Jungwirth	Czechoslovakia	3: 42.6 min	3: 42.80 min
7th	Neville Scott	New Zealand	3: 42.8 min	3: 42.87 min
8th	Ian Boyd	Great Britain	3: 43.0 min	3: 42.94 min
9	Ken Wood	Great Britain	3: 44.3 min	3: 44.76 min
10	Gunnar Nielsen	Denmark	3: 45.0 min	3: 45.58 min
11	Murray Halberg	New Zealand	3: 45.2 min	3: 46.09 min
12	Merv Lincoln	Australia	3: 51.9 min	k. A.

Date: December 1, 1956, 4.15 p.m.

Roger Bannister , who was the first person to run the mile under four minutes in 1954, had decided not to start in Melbourne . In the meantime, four other athletes had beaten this 4-minute mark: the Hungarian László Tábori, the British Brian Hewson and Christopher Chataway and the Australian John Landy. While Chataway only competed over the 5000 meter distance , the other three qualified for the final, which the Hungarian world record holder István Rózsavölgyi surprisingly missed.
The final was led by the Australian Lincoln at the beginning. Then Murray Halberg was ahead - 400 m: 58.4 s / 600 m: 1: 29.3 min. The Irishman Ronald Delaney ran at the back. The field stayed together for a long time. Hewson took the lead up to the final straight - 800 m: 2: 00.1 min / 1200 m: 3: 01.3 min. Delaney had meanwhile worked his way forward. He flew past Hewson and surprisingly won the gold medal. Behind that, Hewson had to let three more runners pass. The German Klaus Richtzenhain secured the silver medal just ahead of Landy and Tábori.
Delaney improved the Olympic record by exactly four seconds and only missed the world record by six tenths of a second.

Ronald Delaney won the first Irish Olympic victory over 1500 meters . It was the first Irish Olympic victory in 24 years.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 128–130

Web links

• SportsReference 1500 m
• Official report p. 294f, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 2, 2017

Videos

• lt 1500m olympic final 1956 , published June 16, 2015 on youtube.com, accessed October 2, 2017
• 1956, Ronnie Delany, Olympic Games, 1500m Final, (Complete & in full color) , published May 19, 2013 on youtube.com, accessed October 2, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 page 549 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ Official report p. 284, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 2, 2017
3. ↑ ^{a b} Official report p. 294, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 2, 2017
4. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)