1956 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 3000 m obstacle (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	3000 meter obstacle course
gender	Men
Attendees	23 athletes from 13 countries
Competition location	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Competition phase	November 27, 1956 (preliminary) November 29, 1956 (final)
Medalist Chris Brasher ( GBR )   Sándor Rozsnyói ( HUN )   Ernst Larsen ( NOR )

The men's 3000-meter obstacle course at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne was held on November 27 and 29, 1956 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground . 23 athletes took part.

Olympic champion was the Briton Chris Brasher . He won ahead of the Hungarian Sándor Rozsnyói and the Norwegian Ernst Larsen .

Swiss and Austrian athletes did not take part. An athlete from Germany started. Heinz Laufer reached fourth place in the final.

Existing records

World record	8: 35.6 min	Sándor Rozsnyói ( Hungary )	Budapest , Hungary	September 16, 1956
Olympic record	8: 45.4 min	Horace Ashenfelter ( USA )	Helsinki Final , Finland	July 25, 1952

Conducting the competition

The runners competed in two preliminary runs on November 27th. The five fastest runners qualified for the final on November 29th.

Note: The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue.

Time schedule

November 27, 4:00 p.m .: Preliminaries
November 29, 4:00 p.m .: Final

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

Prelims

Date: November 27, 1956, from 4 p.m.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Sándor Rozsnyói	Hungary	8: 46.6 min	8: 46.89 min
2	John Disley	Great Britain	8: 46.6 min	8: 46.93 min
3	Ernst Larsen	Norway	8: 46.8 min	8: 46.96 min
4th	Deacon Jones	United States	8: 47.4 min	8: 47.57 min
5	Zdzisław Krzyszkowiak	Poland	8: 48.0 min	8: 48.29 min
6th	Horace Ashenfelter	United States	8: 51.0 min	8: 51.12 min
7th	Vasily Vlassenko	Soviet Union	8: 55.0 min	8: 54.99 min
8th	Georgios Papavasileiou	Greece	8: 55.6 min	8: 55.93 min
9	Yevgeny Kadjaikin	Soviet Union	9: 09.6 min	k. A.
10	Graham Thomas	Australia	9: 09.8 min
11	Olavi Rinteenpää	Finland	9: 10.0 min
DNF	Frans Herman	Belgium

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Eric Shirley	Great Britain	8: 52.6 min	8: 52.72 min
2	Semyon Rshishchin	Soviet Union	8: 53.0 min	8: 53.18 min
3	Heinz Laufer	Germany	8: 53.0 min	8: 53.23 min
4th	Chris Brasher	Great Britain	8: 53.8 min	8: 54.19 min
5	Neil Robbins	Australia	8: 55.4 min	8: 55.62 min
6th	Gunnar Tjornebo	Sweden	9: 02.0 min	9: 02.13 min
7th	Ilkka Auer	Finland	9: 04.0 min	9: 04.57 min
8th	László Jeszenszky	Hungary	9: 04.2 min	9: 04.99 min
9	Phil Coleman	United States	9: 10.0 min	k. A.
10	Ron Blackney	Australia	9: 16.0 min
DNF	Eduardo Fontecilla	Chile

final

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Chris Brasher	Great Britain	8: 41.2 min	8: 41.35 min	OR
2	Sándor Rozsnyói	Hungary	8: 43.6 min	8: 43.68 min
3	Ernst Larsen	Norway	8: 44.0 min	8: 44.05 min
4th	Heinz Laufer	Germany	8: 44.4 min	8: 44.53 min
5	Semyon Rshishchin	Soviet Union	8: 44.6 min	8: 44.58 min
6th	John Disley	Great Britain	8: 44.6 min	8: 44.79 min
7th	Neil Robbins	Australia	8: 50.0 min	8: 50.36 min
8th	Eric Shirley	Great Britain	8: 57.0 min	k. A.
9	Deacon Jones	United States	9: 13.0 min

Date: November 29, 1956, 4:00 p.m.

In a quick final race, the Norwegian Ernst Larsen took the lead, followed by the British John Disley. The field stayed close together. In the last lap, the Hungarian world record holder Sándor Rozsnyói led ahead of Larsen and the Briton Christopher Brasher. At the obstacle on the back straight, Brasher pushed himself between his two opponents and passed them. During this overtaking maneuver, there was contact between Brasher and Larsen. Brasher was the first to cross the finish line, behind him Rozsnyói, Larsen, the German Heinz Laufer, the former Soviet world record holders Semjon Rschishchin and Disley. All of these six runners undercut the previous Olympic record .
Because of the contact while overtaking, Brasher was initially disqualified. The disqualification was later withdrawn mainly because of the support of the other finalists. Larsen said he did not feel disabled.

Sándor Rozsnyói and Ernst Larsen won the first medals in their countries in this discipline.

The 1954 European champion Rozsnyói used the Olympic Games to escape from the Soviet Union occupied Hungary and later gave up competitive sport after the IAAF forbade him to compete for Austria at the 1958 European Championships .
Horace Ashenfelter, 1952 Olympic champion at this distance, achieved in his pre-run here in Melbourne with 8: 51.0 minutes exactly the lead time of four years ago, with which he had won this pre-run. At the same time, his performance at the time was an Olympic record. This time it wasn't even enough to reach the final.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 136f

Web links

• SportsReference 3000 m obstacle , accessed October 3, 2017
• Official report pp. 312-314, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 3, 2017
• 1956 Melbourne Olympics! , Range 3:09 min - 3:35 min, published April 23, 2012 on youtube.com, accessed October 3, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009, page 553 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ Official report p. 284, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 3, 2017
3. ↑ Official report p. 313, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 3, 2017
4. ^ Official report p. 314, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 3, 2017
5. ↑ Official Report, page 274
6. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)