Athletics at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's 800 metres

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Men's 800 metres
at the Games of the XVI Olympiad
VenueMelbourne Cricket Ground
DatesNovember 23 (heats)
November 24 (semifinals)
November 26 (final)
Competitors38 from 24 nations
Winning time1:47.7 OR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Tom Courtney
 United States
2nd place, silver medalist(s)
Derek Johnson
 Great Britain
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Audun Boysen
 Norway
← 1952
1960 →
YouTube
Official Video
Athletics at the
1956 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 mmenwomen
200 mmenwomen
400 mmen
800 mmen
1500 mmen
5000 mmen
10,000 mmen
80 m hurdleswomen
110 m hurdlesmen
400 m hurdlesmen
3000 m
steeplechase		men
4 × 100 m relaymenwomen
4 × 400 m relaymen
Road events
Marathonmen
20 km walkmen
50 km walkmen
Field events
Long jumpmenwomen
Triple jumpmen
High jumpmenwomen
Pole vaultmen
Shot putmenwomen
Discus throwmenwomen
Javelin throwmenwomen
Hammer throwmen
Combined events
Decathlonmen

The men's

Derek Johnson's silver put Great Britain back on the podium for the first time since that nation's own four-Games gold streak ended in 1932. Norway received its first men's 800 metres medal with Audun Boysen
's bronze.

Summary

This one Olympiad saw the use of

Derek Johnson
with him. Coming off the final turn it was the two Americans shoulder to shoulder, Sowell on the inside and Courtney on the outside looking like they would fight each other to the finish line like so many domestic races earlier in the season. Johnson had other ideas, squeezing between the two and into daylight. Again Courtney didn't go away, instead accelerating to keep pace, then with a final burst of speed, passing Johnson 20 metres before the tape to take the gold. Boysen followed Courtney past Sowell to narrowly capture bronze.

Background

This was the 13th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The only finalist from the 1952 Games to return was fourth-place finisher

Derek Johnson (Commonwealth champion).[2][3]

Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, and Malaya appeared in the event for the first time; German athletes competed as the Unified Team of Germany for the first time. Great Britain and the United States each made their 12th appearance, tied for the most among all nations.

Competition format

The event used the three-round format introduced in 1912. However, the number of semifinals was reduced from 3 to 2 and the final was shrunk from 9 men to 8. There were five first-round heats, each with between 6 and 9 athletes; the top three runners in each heat advanced to the semifinals. There were two semifinals with 7 or 8 athletes each; the top four runners in each semifinal advanced to the eight-man final.[3][4]

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1948 Summer Olympics.

World record  Roger Moens (BEL) 1:45.7 Oslo, Norway 3 August 1955
Olympic record  Mal Whitfield (USA) 1:49.2 London, United Kingdom 2 August 1948

Tom Courtney set a new Olympic record with a time of 1:47.7 in the final; the top four men in the final all broke the old record and the fifth-place finisher tied it.

Schedule

All times are

UTC+10
)

Date Time Round
Friday, 23 November 1956 16:15 Round 1
Saturday, 24 November 1956 16:00 Semifinals
Monday, 26 November 1956 15:30 Final

Results

Heats

Five heats were held, the fastest three of each would qualify for the semifinals.

Heat 1

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Audun Boysen  Norway 1:52.0 Q
2 Mike Rawson  Great Britain 1:52.1 Q
3 Yoshitaka Muroya  Japan 1:52.3 Q
4
Gerard Rasquin
  Luxembourg 1:52.7
5 Dimitrios Konstantinidis  Greece 1:52.7
6 Frank Rivera  Puerto Rico 1:56.4
7 Mamo Wolde  Ethiopia 1:58.0
— Murray Cockburn  Canada DNS
Olavi Salsola  Finland DNS
Dan Waern  Sweden DNS

Heat 2

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Tom Courtney  United States 1:52.7 Q
2 Mike Farrell  Great Britain 1:52.8 Q
3 Evangelos Depastas  Greece 1:53.1 Q
4
Donald MacMillan
  Australia 1:53.4
5 Shigeharu Suzuki  Japan 1:54.1
6
Paul Schmidt
  United Team of Germany 1:55.6
7 Manikavagasam Harichandra  Malaya 1:56.27 [5]
8
Douglas Clement
  Canada 1:56.92 [5]
9 Phoi Jaiswang  Thailand Unknown
— István Rózsavölgyi  Hungary DNS

Heat 3

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 James Bailey  Australia 1:51.1 Q
2 Arnie Sowell  United States 1:51.3 Q
3 Émile Leva  Belgium 1:52.0 Q
4
Sohan Singh
  India 1:52.4
5 Eduardo Fontecilla  Chile 1:52.8
6 Günter Dohrow  United Team of Germany 1:53.7
7
Arap Kiptalam Keter
  Kenya 1:56.13 [5]
8
Bayene Ayanew
  Ethiopia Unknown
9 Kenneth Perera  Malaya Unknown

Heat 4

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Gunnar Nielsen  Denmark 1:51.2 Q
2 Lonnie Spurrier  United States 1:51.5 Q
3 Bill Butchart  Australia 1:51.6 Q
4 Gianfranco Baraldi  Italy 1:51.9
5 Abdullah Khan  Pakistan 1:52.6
6 Sim Sang-ok  South Korea 1:55.5
7 George Johnson  Liberia Unknown
— Ronnie Delany  Ireland DNS
Stanislav Jungwirth  Czechoslovakia DNS

Heat 5

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1
Derek Johnson
  Great Britain 1:50.8 Q
2 René Djian  France 1:51.1 Q
3
Lajos Szentgali
  Hungary 1:51.8 Q
4 Ramón Sandoval  Chile 1:51.9
5 Klaus Richtzenhain  United Team of Germany 1:53.3
6 Mahmoud Jan  Pakistan 1:59.5
— Josy Barthel  Luxembourg DNS
George Kerr  Jamaica DNS
Joseph Narmath  Liberia DNS

Semifinals

Two semifinals were held, the fastest four of each would qualify for the final.

Semifinal 1

Nielsen withdrew, "reserving himself for the 1,500 metres."[2]

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1
Thomas Courtney
  United States 1:53.6 Q
2 Lonnie Spurrier  United States 1:53.6 Q
3 Mike Farrell  Great Britain 1:53.7 Q
4 Bill Butchart  Australia 1:53.8 Q
5
Lajos Szentgali
  Hungary 1:53.9
6 Yoshitaka Muroya  Japan 1:54.5
— Gunnar Nielsen  Denmark DNS

Semifinal 2

Bailey was "obviously unwell and later scratched from the 1,500 metres."[2]

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Arnie Sowell  United States 1:50.0 Q
2 Audun Boysen  Norway 1:50.0 Q
3
Derek Johnson
  Great Britain 1:50.2 Q
4
Emile Leva
  Belgium 1:50.4 Q
5 Mike Rawson  Great Britain 1:50.4
6 René Djian  France 1:50.7
7 James Bailey  Australia 1:51.4
8 Evangelos Depastas  Greece 1:52.0

Final

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s) Tom Courtney  United States 1:47.7 OR
2nd place, silver medalist(s)
Derek Johnson
  Great Britain 1:47.8
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Audun Boysen  Norway 1:48.1
4 Arnie Sowell  United States 1:48.3
5 Mike Farrell  Great Britain 1:49.2
6 Lonnie Spurrier  United States 1:49.3
7
Emile Leva
  Belgium 1:51.8
8 Bill Butchart  Australia 1:52.0

References

  1. ^ "Athletics at the 1956 Melbourne Summer Games: Men's 800 metres". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  2. ^ a b c Official Report, p. 270.
  3. ^ a b "800 metres, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  4. ^ Official Report, pp. 292–93.
  5. ^ a b c Unofficial auto-timed result. No hand-timed result is available.

External links

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