1956 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 400 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	400 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	42 athletes from 23 countries
Competition location	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Competition phase	November 28, 1956 (preliminary / quarter-finals) November 29, 1956 (semi-finals / final)
Medalist Charles Jenkins ( USA )   Karl-Friedrich Haas ( EUA )   Voitto Hellsten ( FIN ) Ardalion Ignatjew ( URS )

The men's 400-meter race at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne was held on November 28 and 29, 1956 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground . 42 athletes took part.

The American Charles Jenkins became Olympic champion . He won ahead of the German Karl-Friedrich Haas . There were two bronze medals in this final, they went to Voitto Hellsten from Finland and Ardalion Ignatjew from the Soviet Union.

Two other German athletes started. While Horst Mann could not finish his prelim, Jürgen Kühl qualified for the quarter-finals, but was eliminated there in fifth. Swiss and Austrian athletes did not take part.

Existing records

World record	45.2 s	Lou Jones ( USA )	Los Angeles , USA	June 30, 1956
Olympic record	45.9 s	George Rhoden ( Jamaica )	Helsinki Final , Finland	July 25, 1952
		Herb McKenley ( Jamaica )

Conducting the competition

The runners started eight heats on November 28th. The three best runners qualified for the quarter-finals on the same day. Here again the best three starters reached the semi-finals. The two preliminary rounds and the final were held on November 29th. In the semifinals, too, the top three qualified for the final.

Note: The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue.

Time schedule

November 28th, 3 p.m .: preliminary runs

November 28, 5:35 p.m .: preliminary runs

November 29, 3 p.m .: semi-finals

November 29, 5:30 p.m .: Final

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

Prelims

Date: November 28, 1956, from 3 p.m.

Forward 1

The Japanese Kenji Akagi crossed the finish line in second place with 48.4 s, but was subsequently disqualified.

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Lou Jones	United States	48.1 s	48.30 s
2	Murray Cockburn	Canada	49.0 s	49.07 s
3	Abdullah Khan	Pakistan	49.0 s	49.19 s
4th	Konstantin Grachev	Soviet Union	49.4 s	49.58 s
5	Bejene Layesse	Ethiopia	50.7 s	50.83 s
DSQ	Kenji Akagi	Japan

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Terry Tobacco	Canada	47.9 s	47.92 s
2	Jacques Degats	France	48.3 s	48.32 s
3	Jim Lea	United States	48.3 s	48.41 s
4th	Bartonjo Rotich	Kenya	48.8 s	48.90 s
5	Jaime Aparicio	Colombia	49.0 s	49.14s
6th	Pablo Somblingo	Philippines	49.4 s	49.50s
7th	Kenneth Perera	Malaya	k. A.	51.96 s

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Malcolm Spence	South African Union	47.7 s	47.77 s
2	Jürgen Kühl	Germany	48.7 s	48.74 s
3	Charles Jenkins	United States	48.7 s	48.82 s
4th	Abebe Hailou	Ethiopia	49.0 s	49.18 s
5	Abdul Amu	Nigeria	49.4 s	49.57 s

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Voitto Hellsten	Finland	48.4 s	48.52 s
2	Michael Wheeler	Great Britain	49.3 s	49.37 s
3	Kibet Boit	Kenya	49.3 s	49.48 s
4th	Laird Sloan	Canada	50.0 s	50.18 s
5	Somsakdi Tongaram	Thailand	53.4 s	53.61 s

Forward 5

The Indian Milkha Singh - photo from 2012 - was eliminated in the preliminary run.

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Karl-Friedrich Haas	Germany	47.2 s	47.29 s
2	Graham Gipson	Australia	47.7 s	47.87 s
3	John Salisbury	Great Britain	47.7 s	47.95 s
4th	Milkha Singh	India	48.9 s	49.07 s

Forward 6

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Ardalion Ignatiev	Soviet Union	48.6 s	48.69 s
2	George Kerr	Jamaica	49.7 s	49.74 s
3	Pierre Haarhoff	France	49.8 s	49.99 s
4th	Kamau Wanyoke	Kenya	50.6 s	50.74 s

Forward 7

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Kevan Gosper	Australia	48.0 s	48.07 s
2	Malcolm Spence	Jamaica	48.2 s	48.31 s
3	Iván Rodríguez	Puerto Rico	48.8 s	48.86 s
4th	Gérard Rasquín	Luxembourg	50.6 s	50.76 s
5	Abdul Rahim bin Ahmed	Malaya	50.8 s	50.93 s
6th	George Johnson	Liberia	54.8 s	unknown

Horst Mann, Germany, had to give up his race.

Forward 8

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Peter Higgins	Great Britain	47.9 s	47.98 s
2	Melville Spence	Jamaica	47.9 s	48.00 s
3	Jean-Paul Martin du Gard	France	48.3 s	48.39 s
4th	John Goodman	Australia	48.5 s	48.73 s
5	Ayanev Bayene	Ethiopia	51.3 s	51.53 s
DNF	Horst Mann	Germany

Quarter finals

Date: November 28, 1956, from 5:35 p.m.

Run 1

The Pakistani Abdullah Khan did not run.

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Lou Jones	United States	47.4 s	47.42 s
2	John Salisbury	Great Britain	47.4 s	47.60 s
3	Iván Rodríguez	Puerto Rico	47.5 s	47.64 s
4th	Terry Tobacco	Canada	47.7 s	47.79 s
5	Jürgen Kühl	Germany	48.0 s	48.23 s
DNS	Abdullah Khan	Pakistan

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Ardalion Ignatiev	Soviet Union	46.8 s	46.88 s
2	Malcolm Spence	Jamaica	47.4 s	47.42 s
3	Peter Higgins	Great Britain	47.4 s	47.43 s
4th	Graham Gipson	Australia	47.4 s	47.45 s
5	Jacques Degats	France	48.7 s	48.79 s
6th	Murray Cockburn	Canada	49.5 s	49.74 s

Run 3

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Voitto Hellsten	Finland	46.8 s	46.85 s
2	Malcolm Spence	South African Union	47.1 s	47.08 s
3	Melville Spence	Jamaica	47.3 s	47.38 s
4th	Pierre Haarhoff	France	47.6 s	47.82 s
5	Jim Lea	United States	48.1 s	48.33 s
6th	Kibet Boit	Kenya	49.1 s	49.18 s

Run 4

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Kevan Gosper	Australia	46.7 s	46.83 s
2	Karl-Friedrich Haas	Germany	47.3 s	47.73 s
3	Charles Jenkins	United States	47.5 s	47.63 s
4th	George Kerr	Jamaica	47.7 s	47.79 s
5	Michael Wheeler	Great Britain	47.9 s	48.05 s
6th	Jean-Paul Martin du Gard	France	48.2 s	48.37 s

Semifinals

Date: November 29, 1956, from 3 p.m.

Run 1

The Australian Kevan Gosper was eliminated in the semifinals.

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Ardalion Ignatiev	Soviet Union	46.8 s	46.93 s
2	Malcolm Spence	South African Union	47.2 s	47.27 s
3	Lou Jones	United States	47.3 s	47.32 s
4th	Melville Spence	Jamaica	47.5 s	47.58 s
5	Peter Higgins	Great Britain	47.7 s	47.65 s
6th	Iván Rodríguez	Puerto Rico	47.7 s	47.86 s

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Charles Jenkins	United States	46.1 s	46.19 s
2	Voitto Hellsten	Finland	46.1 s	46.20 s
3	Karl-Friedrich Haas	Germany	46.2 s	46.29 s
4th	Kevan Gosper	Australia	46.2 s	46.45 s
5	John Salisbury	Great Britain	47.3 s	47.47 s
6th	Malcolm Spence	Jamaica	47.4 s	47.52 s

final

Date: November 29, 1956, 5:30 p.m.

The favorite was the winner of the US Olympic elimination, Louis Jones. Jones' teammate Charles Jenkins and the Soviet European Champion Ardalion Ignatjew were also highly rated.

The conditions in the final were not exactly conducive to performance. The temperatures were a little over 10 ° Celsius, and a sharp wind was blowing against the runners on the home straight. Jones, running on the outside lane, immediately set a high world record pace. At 200 meters there was the following result: 1. Jones 21.8 s / 2. Ignatiev s and Mal Spence 22.0 s / 4. Jenkins 22.2 s / 5. Voitto Hellsten 22.3 s / 6. Karl-Friedrich Haas 22.7 p. In the curve, Ignatjew moved close to Jones, Jenkins had overtaken the declining Spence, Haas was still at the end of the field with the same deficit. With the headwind on the home stretch, everything changed. Jenkins pulled past Jones, who had to pay tribute to his too fast starting pace. Haas rushed up from the back and secured the silver medal. With Ignatiew and Hellsten, a duo fought for third place. Both came to the finish line at the same time and no difference could be seen on the target photograph. Both runners received the bronze medal.

The fact that the times of the final were not exactly on a top level is explained by the wind and the fact that the preliminary decision and the final took place on the same day. From the 1960 games onwards, the finals were held the day after the semi-finals.

Charles Jenkins won the eighth gold medal for the USA in the 13th Olympic final.

Voitto Hellsten and Ardalion Ignatjew each won the first medal for their countries in this discipline.

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Charles Jenkins	United States	46.7 s	46.86 s
2	Karl-Friedrich Haas	Germany	46.8 s	47.12 s
3	Voitto Hellsten	Finland	47.0 s	47.15 s
	Ardalion Ignatiev	Soviet Union
5	Lou Jones	United States	48.1 s	48.35 s
6th	Malcolm Spence	South African Union	48.3 s	48.40 s

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 124–126

Web links

• SportsReference 400m , accessed October 2, 2017
• Official report p. 290f, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 2, 2017
• 1956 Olympialaiset 400m Finaali , published June 25, 2014 on youtube.com, accessed October 1, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 page 548 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ Official report p. 284, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 2, 2017
3. ^ Official report p. 290, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 2, 2017
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Official report p. 291, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 2, 2017
5. ↑ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, p. 125