1956 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 400 m hurdles (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	400 meter hurdles
gender	Men
Attendees	28 athletes from 18 countries
Competition location	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Competition phase	November 23, 1956 (preliminary / semi-finals) November 24, 1956 (final)
Medalist Glenn Davis ( USA )   Eddie Southern ( USA )   Josh Culbreath ( USA )

The men's 400-meter hurdles at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne was held on November 23 and 24, 1956 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground . 28 athletes took part.

The US team celebrated a triple success. Glenn Davis won ahead of teammates Eddie Southern and Josh Culbreath .

Swiss, Austrian and German athletes did not take part.

Existing records

World record	49.5 s	Glenn Davis ( USA )	Los Angeles , USA	June 29, 1956
Olympic record	50.8 s	Charles Moore ( USA )	Helsinki Final , Finland	July 21, 1952

Conducting the competition

The athletes competed in six heats on November 23. The two best runners qualified for the semi-finals on the same day. From this, the three fastest runners reached the final on November 24th.

Note: The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue.

Time schedule

November 23, 2.30 p.m .: Preliminary runs
November 23, 5.40 p.m .: Semi-finals
November 24, 5.10 p.m .: Final

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

Prelims

Date: November 23, 1956, from 2.30 p.m.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Glenn Davis	United States	51.3 s	51.33 s
2	David Lean	Australia	51.4 s	51.55 s
3	Keiji Ogushi	Japan	53.2 s	53.22 s
4th	Ovidio de Jesús	Puerto Rico	54.0 s	54.08 s
5	Pablo Somblingo	Philippines	54.5 s	54.66 s

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Eddie Southern	United States	51.3 s	51.41 s
2	Harry Kane	Great Britain	51.8 s	51.85 s
3	Geoff Goodacre	Australia	52.5 s	52.85 s
4th	Kalim Khawaja Ghani	Pakistan	55.1 s	55.36 s
5	Jagdev Singh	India	55.2 s	55.36 s

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Josh Culbreath	United States	50.9 s	51.06 s
2	Guy Cury	France	51.6 s	51.76 s
3	Jaime Aparicio	Colombia	52.0 s	52.14 s
4th	Tom Farrell	Great Britain	52.7 s	52.88 s
5	Muhammad Yaqub	Pakistan	53.1 s	53.18 s
6th	Tsai Cheng-fu	Taiwan	54.6 s	54.84 s

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Ross Parker	Australia	53.5 s	53.51 s
2	Ioannis Kambadelis	Greece	53.7 s	53.66 s
3	Amadeo Francis	Puerto Rico	54.3 s	54.3 s

Forward 5

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Yuri Lituev	Soviet Union	51.6 s	51.69 s
2	Gert Potgieter	South African Union	52.0 s	52.05 s
3	Ossi Mildh	Finland	52.1 s	52.19 s
4th	Alexandre Yankoff	France	53.1 s	53.30 s
5	Marcel Lambrechts	Belgium	54.0 s	54.24 s

Forward 6

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Anatoly Julin	Soviet Union	52.1 s	52.22 s
2	Ilie Savel	Romania	52.2 s	52.31 s
3	Bob Shaw	Great Britain	52.5 s	52.62 s
4th	Ulisses dos Santos	Brazil	53.8 s	53.99 s

Semifinals

Date: November 23, 1956, from 5.40 p.m.

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Eddie Southern	United States	50.1 s	50.26 s	OR
2	Glenn Davis	United States	50.7 s	50.78 s
3	Gert Potgieter	South African Union	51.3 s	51.30 s
4th	Guy Cury	Cuba	51.5 s	51.66 s
5	Anatoly Julin	Soviet Union	51.7 s	51.79 s
6th	Ross Parker	Australia	52.6 s	52.72 s

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Josh Culbreath	United States	50.9 s	50.97 s
2	David Lean	Australia	51.4 s	51.45 s
3	Yuri Lituev	Soviet Union	51.8 s	51.78 s
4th	Ilie Savel	Romania	52.0 s	52.06 s
5	Harry Kane	Great Britain	52.7 s	52.95 s
6th	Ioannis Kambadelis	Greece	53.8 s	53.93 s

final

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Glenn Davis	United States	50.1 s	50.29 s	ORe
2	Eddie Southern	United States	50.8 s	50.94 s
3	Josh Culbreath	United States	51.6 s	51.74 s
4th	Yuri Lituev	Soviet Union	51.7 s	51.91 s
5	David Lean	Australia	51.8 s	51.93 s
6th	Gert Potgieter	South African Union	56.0 s	k. A.

Date: November 24, 1956, 5:10 p.m.

The favorites in this final were US runners Glenn Davis and Eddie Southern, both of whom were the first athletes to run under 50 seconds. Davis won the US Olympic eliminations in the new world record time of 49.5 s, Southern finished second in 49.7 s.
In the final, Southern, who had set a new Olympic record with 50.1 seconds in the first semi-final, took the lead at a fast pace. He stayed in front until the eighth hurdle, but then had to let Davis pass. Southern's strength decreased significantly, which was certainly also due to the fact that he had not quite coped with the tough semifinals just a few hours before the decision. Like over 400 meters , this time allocation should be equalized to two days from the upcoming games . Davis now dominated the race and won 0.7 seconds ahead of Southern, who in turn was seven tenths of a second ahead of third US runner Josh Culbreath. Yuri Litujew finished fourth as a medal contender, which was a bit disappointing. The South African Gert Potgieter was there until the last hurdle in the battle for the medals. However, he fell at the last hurdle, but was able to get up and finish the race.
Glenn Davis won the ninth gold medal for the USA in the eleventh Olympic final. It was also the fourth US win in a row.
It was the third triple success of the USA over the 400 meter hurdles . US runners alone won 21 of 33 medals.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 135f

Web links

• SportsReference 400m hurdles , accessed October 3, 2017
• Official report p. 310f, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 3, 2017
• Glenn Jeep Davis 1956 Olympics Australia , published October 26, 2010 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. 310, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 3, 2017
4. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)