1960 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 400 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	400 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	59 athletes from 44 countries
Competition location	Stadio Olimpico
Competition phase	September 3, 1960 (preliminary / quarter-finals) September 5, 1960 (semi-finals) September 6, 1960 (final)
Medalist Otis Davis ( USA )   Carl Kaufmann ( GER )   Malcolm Spence ( RSA )

The men's 400-meter race at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome was held from September 3 to 6, 1960 at the Stadio Olimpico . 59 athletes took part.

The American Otis Davis became Olympic champion in a new world record time . He won ahead of the German Carl Kaufmann and the South African Malcolm Spence .

With Manfred Kinder another German runners reached the final. With a gap of 97/100 s on the winner, Kinder finished fifth. Hans-Joachim Reske reached the quarter-finals and was eliminated there in fourth of his run. For Switzerland, René Weber started, who was eliminated in the run-up. Austrian runners did not take part.

Existing records

World record	45.2 s	Lou Jones ( United States )	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 athletes competed in nine heats on September 3. In each preliminary run, the three best runners qualified for the quarter-finals on the same day. The three best runners from the quarter-finals also made it to the next round, the semi-finals. The preliminary rounds were held on September 5th and from here the three best runners reached the next round, the final on September 6th.

Note: The directly qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue.

Time schedule

September 3, 9.50 a.m .: Preliminaries
September 3, 4.10 p.m .: quarter-finals
September 5, 4.15 p.m .: semi-finals
September 6, 3.45 p.m .: final

Prelims

Date: September 3, 1960, from 9.50 a.m.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Manfred children	Germany	46.7 s	46.87 s
2	Edgar Davis	South African Union	47.2 s	47.31 s
3	Malcolm Yardley	Great Britain	47.3 s	47.38 s
4th	Josef Trousil	Czechoslovakia	47.4 s	47.53 s
5	John Asare-Antwi	Ghana	47.7 s	47.81 s
6th	Kimitada Hayase	Japan	49.1 s	49.13 s
7th	Habib Sayed	Afghanistan	53.8 s	53.91 s

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Alf Petersson	Sweden	48.3 s	48.44 s
2	Robbie Brightwell	Great Britain	48.4 s	48.58 s
3	Konstantin Grachev	Soviet Union	49.3 s	49.44 s
4th	Felix Heuertz	Luxembourg	50.2 s	50.34 s

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Carl Kaufmann	Germany	47.3 s	47.42 s
2	Barry Robinson	New Zealand	47.6 s	47.70 s
3	Lodewijk De Clerck	Belgium	47.9 s	48.00 s
4th	Anubes da Silva	Brazil	48.0 s	48.10 s
5	Csaba Csutorás	Hungary	48.2 s	48.31 s
6th	Hugh Bullard	Bahamas	51.1 s	51.20 s

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Malcolm Spence	South African Union	46.7 s	46.79 s
2	Kevan Gosper	Australia	47.1 s	47.20 s
3	Terry Tobacco	Canada	47.4 s	48.52 s
4th	Gadi Ado	Uganda	49.0 s	49.12 s
5	Marcel Lambrechts	Belgium	49.5 s	49.66 s
6th	Jorge Teran	Mexico	49.6 s	49.75 s
7th	Brahim Karabi	Tunisia	52.0 s	52.12 s

Forward 5

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	German Guenard	Puerto Rico	47.3 s	47.39 s
2	Jerzy Kowalski	Poland	48.3 s	48.49 s
3	Giuseppe Bommarito	Italy	48.6 s	48.79 s
4th	Li Po-Ting	Taiwan	49.5 s	49.69 s
5	Clayton Glasgow	British Guiana	50.7 s	50.84 s
6th	George Johnson	Liberia	51.4 s	51.54 s

Forward 6

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Jack Yerman	United States	47.2 s	47.37 s
2	Milkha Singh	India	47.6 s	47.72 s
3	Stanislaw Swatowski	Poland	48.1 s	48.23 s
4th	Manikavasagam Jegathesan	Malaya	48.4 s	48.56 s
5	Iván Rodríguez	Puerto Rico	49.6 s	49.74 s
6th	Claro Pellosis	Philippines	51.4 s	51.51 s

Forward 7

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Malcolm Spence	West Indian Federation	47.6 s	47.77 s
2	Earl Young	United States	47.6 s	47.79 s
3	Bartonjo Rotich	Kenya	47.7 s	47.89 s
4th	Zdeněk Váňa	Czechoslovakia	48.3 s	48.48 s
5	Vasilios Sillis	Greece	48.4 s	48.56 s
6th	Manut Bumrungphuk	Thailand	49.6 s	49.85 s

Forward 8

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Abdul Karim Amu	Nigeria	46.8 s	46.93 s
2	Gordon Day	South African Union	47.1 s	47.22 s
3	Hans-Joachim Reske	Germany	47.2 s	47.38 s
4th	Voitto Hellsten	Finland	48.4 s	48.52 s
5	Jassim Karim Kuraishi	Iraq	49.2 s	49.35 s
6th	Fahir Özgüden	Turkey	50.7 s	50.87 s

Forward 9

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Otis Davis	United States	46.8 s	46.91 s
2	James Wedderburn	West Indian Federation	47.4 s	47.56 s
3	John Wrighton	Great Britain	47.4 s	47.60 s
4th	René Weber	Switzerland	47.6 s	47.73 s
5	Moussa Said	Ethiopia	48.2 s	48.30 s
6th	Amos Grodzinowsky	Israel	48.9 s	49.03 s

Quarter finals

Failed in the quarter-finals: Hans-Joachim Reske (GER)

Date: September 3, 1960, from 4.10 p.m.

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Carl Kaufmann	Germany	46.5 s	46.67 s
2	Milkha Singh	India	46.5 s	46.71 s
3	Malcolm Spence	West Indian Federation	46.9 s	47.00 s
4th	Terry Tobacco	Canada	47.5 s	47.61 s
5	Edgar Davis	South African Union	48.0 s	48.18 s
6th	Malcolm Yardley	Great Britain	48.8 s	48.93 s

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Jack Yerman	United States	46.4 s	46.54 s
2	Kevan Gosper	Australia	46.5 s	46.64 s
3	Manfred children	Germany	46.7 s	46.82 s
4th	James Wedderburn	West Indian Federation	47.0 s	47.22 s
5	German Guenard	Puerto Rico	47.2 s	47.39 s
6th	John Wrighton	Great Britain	48.0 s	48.09 s

Run 3

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Earl Young	United States	46.1 s	46.25 s
2	Robbie Brightwell	Great Britain	46.2 s	46.31 s
3	Gordon Day	South African Union	46.3 s	46.47 s
4th	Hans-Joachim Reske	Germany	47.3 s	47.43 s
5	Stanislaw Swatowski	Poland	47.4 s	47.56 s
6th	Konstantin Grachev	Soviet Union	47.6 s	47.78 s
7th	Bartonjo Rotich	Kenya	47.8 s	47.97 s

Run 4

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Otis Davis	United States	45.9 s	46.02 s
2	Malcolm Spence	South African Union	46.1 s	46.21 s
3	Abdul Karim Amu	Nigeria	46.6 s	46.76 s
4th	Jerzy Kowalski	Poland	46.7 s	46.82 s
5	Giuseppe Bommarito	Italy	47.5 s	47.71 s
6th	Barry Robinson	New Zealand	48.3 s	48.44 s
7th	Lodewijk De Clerck	Belgium	48.4 s	48.51 s

Semifinals

Silver for Carl Kaufmann (GER)

Date: September 5, 1960, from 4.15 p.m.

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Otis Davis	United States	45.5 s	45.62 s	OR
2	Milkha Singh	India	45.9 s	46.08 s
3	Manfred children	Germany	46.0 s	46.13 s
4th	Robbie Brightwell	Great Britain	46.1 s	46.25 s
5	Gordon Day	South African Union	46.7 s	46.84 s
6th	Kevan Gosper	Australia	47.1 s	47.28 s

Run 2

Olympic champion Otis Davis ahead of Carl Kaufmann - here at the relay race

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Carl Kaufmann	Germany	45.7 s	45.88 s
2	Malcolm Spence	South African Union	45.8 s	46.01 s
3	Earl Young	United States	46.1 s	46.29 s
4th	Abdul Karim Amu	Nigeria	46.6 s	46.74 s
5	Malcolm Spence	West Indian Federation	46.8 s	46.99 s
6th	Jack Yerman	United States	48.9 s	48.96 s

final

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Otis Davis	United States	44.9 s	45.07 s	WR
2	Carl Kaufmann	Germany	44.9 s	45.08 s	WR
3	Malcolm Spence	South African Union	45.5 s	45.60 s
4th	Milkha Singh	India	45.6 s	45.73 s
5	Manfred children	Germany	45.9 s	46.04 s
6th	Earl Young	United States	45.9 s	46.07 s

Date: September 6, 1960, 3:45 p.m.

There was no clear favorite over 400 meters . But the respective winners in the two preliminary rounds, Carl Kaufmann and Otis Davis, had looked very good there, so that both could be expected in the final. Davis had improved the Olympic record to 45.5 s.

Two US runners (Davis, Earl Young), two Germans (Kaufmann, Manfred Kinder), a South African (Malcolm Spence) and an Indian (Milkha Singh) contested the final. Spence started the race quickly and took the lead. In the second corner he was overtaken by Davis, who pulled away. But when it was on the home straight, Kaufmann caught up meter by meter. The German tried to secure victory with a jump, but Davis had crossed the finish line with his upper body a hundredth of a second ahead of him. A time of 44.9 s was set for both, and the 45-second limit was undercut for the first time. The order could not be seen with the naked eye, only the evaluation of the target photo and the electronic timekeeping revealed the narrow victory of the US athlete. Mal Spence defended his third place to the finish.

Even the sixth placed Young ran under 46 seconds, so this was the fastest 400-meter race ever. One reason for this was certainly that there was a new schedule: the semifinals and finals were no longer held on the same day as before.

Spence ran for the first South African medal over 400 meters.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 182–185

Videos

• Otis Davis & Carl Kaufmann Set Equal Olympic 400m Record - Rome 1960 Olympics , published June 22, 2013 on youtube.com, accessed October 11, 2017

Web links

• SportsReference 400m , accessed October 11, 2017
• Official report pp. 75–79, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 11, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 page 548 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Official report of the 1960 Olympic Games , p. 63 (English) at library.la84.org (PDF), accessed on October 11, 2017
3. ^ Official report of the 1960 Olympic Games , pp. 75–77 (English) at library.la84.org (PDF), accessed on October 11, 2017
4. ↑ Official Report of the 1960 Olympic Games , p. 77f (English) at library.la84.org (PDF), accessed on October 11, 2017
5. ↑ Official Report of the 1960 Olympic Games , p. 78 (English) at library.la84.org (PDF), accessed on October 11, 2017
6. ↑ Official Report of the 1960 Olympic Games , p. 79 (English) at library.la84.org (PDF), accessed on October 11, 2017
7. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)