1968 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 110 m hurdles (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	110 meter hurdles
gender	Men
Attendees	33 athletes from 24 countries
Competition location	Estadio Olímpico Universitario
Competition phase	October 16, 1968 (preliminary / semi-finals) October 17, 1968 (final)
Medalist Willie Davenport ( USA )   Ervin Hall ( USA )   Eddy Ottoz ( ITA )

The men's 110-meter hurdles at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City was held on October 16 and 17, 1968 at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario . 33 athletes took part.

The American Willie Davenport became Olympic champion . He won ahead of his compatriot Ervin Hall and the Italian Eddy Ottoz .

While for the GDR - officially East Germany - no athletes started, the Federal Republic of Germany - officially Germany - was represented by Hinrich John and Werner Trzmiel . Both survived the preliminary round. John was eliminated in the semifinals, Trzmiel qualified for the final, in which he was fifth.
Daniel Riedo started for Switzerland and was eliminated in the semi-finals.
Runners from Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Existing records

World record	13.2 s	Martin Lauer ( FR Germany )	Zurich , Switzerland	July 7, 1959
		Lee Calhoun ( USA )	Bern , Switzerland	August 21, 1960
		Earl McCullouch ( USA )	Minneapolis , USA	July 16, 1967
Olympic record	13.5 s	Lee Calhoun ( USA )	Melbourne finals , Australia	November 28, 1956
		Jack Davis ( USA )

Conducting the competition

The athletes competed in a total of five heats on October 16. The three best runners as well as the following fastest made it to the semi-finals, which took place on the same day. Here the four best runners qualified for the final on October 17th.

Time schedule

October 16, 10:00 am: Heats
October 16 15.00: semi-final
on October 17, 17.00: Final

Note: All times are Mexico City local time ( UTC −6)

The directly qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue, the others in light green.

Preliminary round

Date: October 16, 1968, from 10 a.m.

Forward 1

Wind: 0.0 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Ervin Hall	United States	13.7 s	13.75 s
2	Pierre Schoebel	France	13.8 s	13.83 s
3	Daniel Riedo	Switzerland	14.0 s	14.10 s
4th	Giovanni Cornacchia	Italy	14.1 s	14.13 s
5	Franklin Blyden	American Virgin Islands	14.7 s	14.74 s
6th	Kimaru Songok	Kenya	14.7 s	14.76 s

Forward 2

Wind: +1.0 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Willie Davenport	United States	13.6 s	13.65 s
2	Hinrich John	BR Germany	13.8 s	13.87 s
3	Arnaldo Bristol	Puerto Rico	13.9 s	13.92 s
4th	Oleg Stepanenko	Soviet Union	13.9 s	13.95 s
5	Hernando Arrechea	Colombia	14.0 s	14.09 s
6th	Ishtiaq Mubarak	Malaysia	14.3 s	14.36 s
7th	Su Po-tai	Taiwan	15.0 s	15.11 s

Forward 3

Wind: +1.7 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Eddy Ottoz	Italy	13.5 s	13.61 s	ORe
2	Werner Trzmiel	BR Germany	13.8 s	13.87 s
3	Juan Morales	Cuba	13.9 s	13.95 s
4th	Gary Knoke	Australia	14.1 s	14.14 s
5	Stuart Storey	Great Britain	14.1 s	14.20 s
6th	Simbara Maki	Ivory Coast	14.3 s	14.32 s
7th	Fernand Tovondray	Madagascar	14.9 s	15.00 s

Forward 4

Wind: +3.0 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Leon Coleman	United States	13.7 s	13.77 s
2	Bo Forssander	Sweden	13.9 s	14.00 s
3	Kjellfred Weum	Norway	14.0 s	14.08 s
4th	Mike Parker	Great Britain	14.1 s	14.16 s
5	Patricio Saavedra	Chile	14.4 s	14.47 s
6th	Rogelio Onofre	Philippines	15.0 s	15.01 s

Forward 5

Wind: 0.0 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Victor Balikin	Soviet Union	13.8 s	13.82 s
2	Marcel Duriez	France	13.9 s	14.00 s
3	Sergio Liani	Italy	13.9 s	14.01 s
4th	Alan Pascoe	Great Britain	13.9 s	14.01 s
5	Lubomír Nádeníček	Czechoslovakia	14.1 s	14.18 s
6th	Alfredo Deza	Peru	14.3 s	14.38 s
7th	Radhamés Mora	Dominican Republic	16.8 s	16.85 s

Semifinals

Date: October 16, 1968, from 3 p.m.

Run 1

Wind: +1.8 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Ervin Hall	United States	13.3 s	13.38 s	OR
2	Eddy Ottoz	Italy	13.5 s	13.53 s
3	Bo Forssander	Sweden	13.7 s	13.75 s
4th	Pierre Schoebel	France	13.7 s	13.78 s
5	Hinrich John	BR Germany	13.8 s	13.87 s
6th	Daniel Riedo	Switzerland	14.0 s	14.07 s
7th	Juan Morales	Cuba	14.0 s	14.08 s
8th	Victor Balikin	Soviet Union	14.1 s	14.13 s

Run 2

Wind: 0.0 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Willie Davenport	United States	13.5 s	13.53 s
2	Leon Coleman	United States	13.5 s	13.54 s
3	Werner Trzmiel	BR Germany	13.5 s	13.60 s
4th	Marcel Duriez	France	13.7 s	13.73 s
5	Oleg Stepanenko	Soviet Union	13.8 s	13.83 s
6th	Kjellfred Weum	Norway	14.0 s	14.04 s
7th	Sergio Liani	Italy	14.0 s	14.09 s
8th	Arnaldo Bristol	Puerto Rico	14.1 s	14.13 s

final

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Willie Davenport	United States	13.3 s	13.33 s	ORe
2	Ervin Hall	United States	13.4 s	13.42 s
3	Eddy Ottoz	Italy	13.4 s	13.46 s
4th	Leon Coleman	United States	13.6 s	13.67 s
5	Werner Trzmiel	BR Germany	13.6 s	13.68 s
6th	Bo Forssander	Sweden	13.7 s	13.73 s
7th	Marcel Duriez	France	13.7 s	13.77 s
8th	Pierre Schoebel	France	14.0 s	14.02 s

Date: October 17, 1968, 5 p.m.

Wind: 0.0 m / s

There were two favorites for this race, both from the United States: Willie Davenport and Ervin Hall, who had shown himself particularly strong by improving the Olympic record in his semi-final run. Earl McCullouch , another US hurdler, had set the world record last year , but had switched to the professional football camp before the Olympic season and so was not present at these games.

In the final race, Davenport got off the starting blocks very well and took the lead early on, which he did not relinquish until the finish line. With a lead of about one meter while setting the Olympic record, he became Olympic champion ahead of Ervin Hall. The Italian Eddy Ottoz, European champion in 1966 , prevented total US success with his third place at the same time as Hall. Leon Coleman, USA, was two tenths of a second behind in fourth place and German Werner Trzmiel surprisingly finished fifth at the same time as Coleman.

In the 16th Olympic final over the 110 meter hurdles Willie Davenport ran for the 14th US gold medal. It was the eighth US victory in a row.

At the same time it was the eleventh double victory for the USA, the sixth in a row.

Eddy Ottoz won the first Italian 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. 349–351

Video

• 1968 Olympics 400m Hurdles Men Final , published August 27, 2016 on youtube.com, accessed November 5, 2017

Web links

• Sports Reference 110m hurdles , accessed on November 5, 2017
• Official report - summary p. 70f, English / French. (PDF), accessed on November 5, 2017
• Official report of the Olympic Games 1968 p. 523f, English / French. (PDF), accessed on November 5, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF world records. 110 m hurdles men on rekorde-im-sport.de, accessed on November 5, 2017
2. ↑ Official report of the 1968 Olympic Games ( Memento of the original from September 17, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 10, English / French (PDF), accessed on November 5, 2017 
3. ↑ Official report of the 1968 Olympic Games ( Memento of the original from September 17, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 523f, English / French. (PDF), accessed on November 5, 2017 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Official Report of the 1968 Olympic Games ( Memento of the original from September 17, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 524, English / French (PDF), accessed on November 5, 2017 
5. ↑ SportsReference , accessed November 5, 2017