1956 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 800 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	800 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	38 athletes from 24 countries
Competition location	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Competition phase	November 23, 1956 (preliminary) November 24, 1956 (semi-finals) November 25, 1956 (final)
Medalist Tom Courtney ( USA )   Derek Johnson ( GBR )   Audun Boysen ( NOR )

The men's 800 meter race at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne was held on November 23, 24 and 26, 1956 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground . 38 athletes took part.

The American Tom Courtney was Olympic champion . He won ahead of the British Derek Johnson and the Norwegian Audun Boysen .

Swiss and Austrian athletes did not take part. The German starters all failed in the preliminary round: Paul Schmidt in run two, Günter Dohrow in run three and Klaus Richtzenhain in run five.

Existing records

World record	1: 45.7 min	Roger Moens ( Belgium )	Oslo , Norway	3rd August 1955
Olympic record	1: 49.2 min	Mal Whitfield ( USA )	London finals , Great Britain	July 31, 1948
			Helsinki Final , Finland	July 22, 1952

Conducting the competition

The runners competed in five heats on November 23. The three best placed athletes qualified for the semi-finals on November 24th. From this, the best four reached the final on November 26th.

Note: The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue.

Time schedule

November 23, 4.15 p.m .: Prelim

November 24, 4:00 p.m .: semi-finals

November 26th, 3:30 p.m .: Final

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

Prelims

Date: November 23, 1956, from 4.15 p.m.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Audun Boysen	Norway	1: 52.0 min	1: 52.08 min
2	Mike Rawson	Great Britain	1: 52.1 min	1: 52.20 min
3	Yoshitaka Muroya	Japan	1: 52.3 min	1: 52.42 min
4th	Gérard Rasquin	Luxembourg	1: 52.7 min	1: 52.88 min
5	Dimitrios Konstantinidis	Greece	1: 52.7 min	1: 53.03 min
6th	Frank Rivera	Puerto Rico	1: 56.4 min	1: 56.58 min
7th	Mamo Wolde	Ethiopia	1: 58.0 min	k. A.

Forward 2

No time was taken for the runners in positions seven to nine.

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Tom Courtney	United States	1: 52.7 min	1: 52.83 min
2	Mike Farrell	Great Britain	1: 52.8 min	1: 52.86 min
3	Evangelos Depastas	Greece	1: 53.1 min	1: 53.23 min
4th	Don MacMillan	Australia	1: 53.4 min	1: 53.50 min
5	Shigeharu Suzuki	Japan	1: 54.1 min	1: 54.29 min
6th	Paul Schmidt	Germany	1: 55.6 min	1: 55.71 min
7th	Manikavagasam Harichandra	Malaya	k. A.	k. A.
8th	Doug Clement	Canada
9	Phol Jaiswang	Thailand

Forward 3

No time was taken for the runners in positions seven to nine.

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Jim Bailey	Australia	1: 51.1 min	1: 51.13 min
2	Arnie Sowell	United States	1: 51.3 min	1: 51.27 min
3	Émile Leva	Belgium	1: 52.0 min	1: 52.03 min
4th	Sohan Singh Dhanoa	India	1: 52.4 min	1: 52.57 min
5	Eduardo Fontecilla	Chile	1: 52.8 min	1: 52.94 min
6th	Günter Dohrow	Germany	1: 53.7 min	1: 53.90 min
7th	Arap Kiptalam Keter	Kenya	k. A.	k. A.
8th	Ayanev Bayene	Ethiopia
9	Kenneth Perera	Malaya

Forward 4

No time was taken for the runner in seventh place.

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Gunnar Nielsen	Denmark	1: 51.2 min	1: 51.27 min
2	Lonnie Spurrier	United States	1: 51.5 min	1: 51.52 min
3	Bill Butchart	Australia	1: 51.6 min	1: 51.67 min
4th	Gianfranco Baraldi	Italy	1: 51.9 min	1: 51.90 min
5	Abdullah Khan	Pakistan	1: 52.6 min	1: 52.71 min
6th	Sim sang ok	South Korea	1: 55.5 min	1: 55.56 min
7th	George Johnson	Liberia	k. A.	k. A.

Forward 5

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Derek Johnson	Great Britain	1: 50.8 min	1: 50.93 min
2	René Djian	France	1: 51.1 min	1: 51.15 min
3	Lajos Szentgáli	Hungary	1: 51.8 min	1: 51.89 min
4th	Ramon Sandoval	Chile	1: 51.9 min	1: 52.12 min
5	Klaus Richtzenhain	Germany	1: 53.3 min	1: 53.47 min
6th	Mahmoud Jan	Pakistan	1: 59.5 min	k. A.

Semifinals

Date: November 24, 1956, from 4 p.m.

Run 1

Gunnar Nielsen from Denmark did not start the run.

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Tom Courtney	United States	1: 53.6 min	1: 53.62 min
2	Lonnie Spurrier	United States	1: 53.6 min	1: 53.71 min
3	Mike Farrell	Great Britain	1: 53.7 min	1: 53.78 min
4th	Bill Butchart	Australia	1: 53.8 min	1: 53.81 min
5	Lajos Szentgáli	Hungary	1: 53.9 min	1: 53.94 min
6th	Yoshitaka Muroya	Japan	1: 54.5 min	1: 54.68 min
DNS	Gunnar Nielsen	Denmark

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Arnie Sowell	United States	1: 50.0 min	1: 50.08 min
2	Audun Boysen	Norway	1: 50.0 min	1: 50.20 min
3	Derek Johnson	Great Britain	1: 50.2 min	1: 50.23 min
4th	Émile Leva	Belgium	1: 50.4 min	1: 50.44 min
5	Mike Rawson	Great Britain	1: 50.4 min	1: 50.45 min
6th	René Djian	France	1: 50.7 min	1: 50.47 min
7th	Jim Bailey	Australia	1: 51.4 min	1: 51.40 min
8th	Evangelos Depastas	Greece	1: 52.0 min	1: 52.19 min

final

Olympic Champion Tom Courtney (USA)

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Tom Courtney	United States	1: 47.7 min	1: 47.75 min	OR
2	Derek Johnson	Great Britain	1: 47.8 min	1: 47.88 min
3	Audun Boysen	Norway	1: 48.1 min	1: 48.25 min
4th	Arnie Sowell	United States	1: 48.3 min	1: 48.41 min
5	Mike Farrell	Great Britain	1: 49.2 min	1: 49.29 min
6th	Lonnie Spurrier	United States	1: 49.3 min	1: 49.38 min
7th	Émile Leva	Belgium	1: 51.8 min	1: 51.75 min
8th	Bill Butchart	Australia	1: 52.0 min	k. A.

Date: November 26, 1956, 3:30 p.m.

World record holder Roger Moens, Belgium, was unable to take part in the Olympic Games due to a knee injury. The Norwegian Audun Boysen, who was beaten by only two tenths of a second in Moen's world record race in Oslo and thus remained below the old world record, was the favorite. But he had to face promising competitors. Above all, the two US runners Tom Courtney - winner of the US Olympic elimination - and Lonnie Spurrier - with 1: 47.5 min world record holder over 880  yards - were to be rated highly.

The final took place in a strong wind that blew towards the runners on the home straight. Courtney took the lead after the start, but was soon overtaken by his compatriot Arnie Sowell, who led the field in a sharp drive - 200 m: 25.1 s / 400 m: 52.7 s / 600 m: 1:20, 4 min. At the 600 meter mark, four runners were still in the running for the medals: Courtney, Sowell, Boysen and the British Derek Johnson. Courtney now took the lead for a short time, but was initially passed the home straight by Johnson, who almost looked like the winner with a strong start. But with the strong headwind, his steps were shorter and Courtney caught the British shortly before the finish line. The Norwegian Boysen secured the bronze medal ahead of Sowell.

Despite the strong wind, the times achieved were excellent. Olympic champion Courtney set a new Olympic record and Michael Farrell, who placed fifth, was as fast as Mal Whitfield in his Olympic record in 1948 and 1952 .

Tom Courtney won the seventh gold medal for the USA in the 13th Olympic final.

Audun Boysen won the first Norwegian medal in this discipline.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 126–128

Web links

• SportsReference 800m , accessed October 2, 2017
• Official report p. 292f, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 2, 2017
• Melbourne 1956 - Men's 800m Olympic final , published August 19, 2015 on youtube.com, accessed October 2, 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. 292, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 2, 2017
4. ^ Official report p. 293, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 2, 2017
5. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)