Athletics at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metres explained

Event:	Men's 100 metres
Games:	1948 Summer
Venue:	Wembley Stadium London, England
Dates:	30 July 1948 (heats, quarterfinals) 31 July 1948 (semifinals, final)
Competitors:	63
Nations:	33
Win Value:	10.3 seconds
Gold:	Harrison Dillard
Goldnoc:	USA
Silver:	Barney Ewell
Silvernoc:	USA
Bronze:	Lloyd LaBeach
Bronzenoc:	PAN
Prev:	1936
Next:	1952

The men's 100 metres sprint event at the 1948 Olympic Games in London, England, we held at Wembley Stadium on 30 and 31 July.^[1] Sixty-three athletes from 33 nations competed; each nation was limited to 3 runners by rules set at the 1930 Olympic Congress. The final was won by American Harrison Dillard, in a photo finish. Lloyd LaBeach of Panama won his nation's first medal in the men's 100 metres, a bronze. This was the first time a photo finish camera was used at an Olympic Games.^[2] The photo finish equipment consisted of a photoelectric cell, called the Magic Eye, produced by Swiss watchmaker Omega and a slit photography camera produced by the British Race Finish Recording Company.^[3]

Background

This was the eleventh time the event was held, having appeared at every Olympics since the first in 1896. With a 12 year gap due to World War II, none of the athletes from the 1936 edition returned. Notable entrants and favorites were American Mel Patton and Panamanian Lloyd LaBeach. American Barney Ewell was a "top sprinter" but "felt to be slightly past his prime." The third member of the United States team was Harrison Dillard, a hurdles specialist who had also entered the 100 metres and came in third at the U.S. Olympic trials.^[4]

Bermuda, Burma, Guyana, Iraq, Jamaica, Pakistan, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay were represented in the event for the first time. The United States was the only nation to have appeared at each of the first eleven Olympic men's 100 metres events.

Competition format

The event retained the four round format from 1920–1936: heats, quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. There were 12 heats, of 4–7 athletes each, with the top 2 in each heat advancing to the quarterfinals. The 24 quarterfinalists were placed into 4 heats of 6 athletes. The top 3 in each quarterfinal advanced to the semifinals. There were 2 heats of 6 semifinalists, once again with the top 3 advancing to the 6-man final.^[4]

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	10.2		Chicago, United States	20 June 1936
	10.2		Compton, United States	6 June 1941
Olympic record	10.3	Eddie Tolan	Los Angeles, USA	August 1, 1932
	10.3	Ralph Metcalfe	Los Angeles, USA	August 1, 1932
	10.3		Jesse Owens	Berlin, Germany	August 2, 1936

Harrison Dillard of the United States matched the Olympic record in the final.

Schedule

All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1).

Date	Time
Friday, 30 July 1948	15:00 17:30	Round 1 Round 2
style=background:lemonchiffon	Saturday, 31 July 1948	style=background:lemonchiffon	14:30 15:45	style=background:lemonchiffon	Semifinals Finals

Results

Round 1

The fastest two runners in each of the twelve heats advanced to the second round. Official hand-timed results are known (and provided in the Official Report) only for the top three in each heat; unofficial auto-timed results are shown in parentheses.^[4]

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1			10.5
2	Alastair McCorquodale		10.5
3	Leslie Laing		11.0
4	Angel García		(11.25)
5	Nestor Jacono		(11.54)
data-sort-value=6	–	align=left data-sort-value="Lipski, Bogdan"	Bogdan Lipski

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1			10.6
2	Ivan Hausen		10.9
3	James O'Brien		10.9
4	Fernando Lapuente		(11.16)
5	Hector Gosset		(11.50)
6	Gonzalo Rodríguez		(11.97)

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1			10.5
2	Béla Goldoványi		11.0
3	Frank Mahoney		11.8
data-sort-value=4	–	align=left data-sort-value="Rhoden, George"	George Rhoden
data-sort-value=4	–	align=left data-sort-value="Paquete, Tomás"	Tomás Paquete
data-sort-value=4	–	align=left data-sort-value="Saram, John De"	John De Saram

Heat 4

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1			10.5
2	Ken Jones		10.6
3	Jan Meijer		11.0
4	Máximo Reyes		(11.04)
5	Finnbjörn Þorvaldsson		(11.23)
data-sort-value=6	–	align=left data-sort-value="Marinis, Kyros"	Kyros Marinis

Heat 5

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1			10.4
2	Haroldo da Silva		10.6
3	Peter Bloch		11.1
4	Pol Braekman		(11.30)
data-sort-value=5	–	align=left data-sort-value="Sáenz, Ricardo"	Ricardo Sáenz
data-sort-value=5	–	align=left data-sort-value="O'Donnell, John"	John O'Donnell

Heat 6

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1			10.5
2	Haukur Clausen		11.0
3	Abram van Heerden		11.1
4	Carlos Silva		(11.08)
5	Bernabe Lovina		(11.32)
6	Stanley Lines		(11.69)

Heat 7

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1			10.5
2	René Valmy		10.8
3	György Csányi		11.1
4	Carlos Isaac		(11.24)
5	Sayed Moukhtar		(11.71)
6	Ali Salman		(11.90)
data-sort-value=7	–	align=left data-sort-value="Parry, Jack"	Jack Parry

Heat 8

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1			10.7
2	John Bartram		10.8
3	Basil McKenzie		10.8
4	Hélio da Silva		(11.09)
5	Jo Zwaan		(11.09)
data-sort-value=6	–	align=left data-sort-value="White, Duncan"	Duncan White

Heat 9

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1			10.7
2	Gerardo Bönnhoff		10.8
3	Raúl Mazorra		11.1
4	Örn Clausen		(11.22)
5	Raşit Öztaş		(11.35)
data-sort-value=6	-	Perry Johnson

Heat 10

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1			10.8
2	Ted Haggis		10.9
3	Walter Pérez		11.0
4	Santiago Ferrando		(11.19)
5	Stefanos Petrakis		(11.62)
data-sort-value=6	–	align=left data-sort-value="Stéphan, Joseph"	Joseph Stéphan

Heat 11

The tailwind of 3.3 m/s made this heat ineligible for records purposes.

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1			10.8
2	Nuno Morais		10.9
3	Alberto Labarthe		11.0
4	Muhammad Sharif Butt		(11.23)
5	Charles Thompson		Unknown
data-sort-value=6	–	align=left data-sort-value="Kelly, Joe"	Joe Kelly
data-sort-value=6	–	align=left data-sort-value="Shore, Dennis"	Dennis Shore

Heat 12

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1			11.0
2	Eric Prabhakar		11.0
3	László Bartha		11.1
4	Jan Kleyn		(11.36)
5	Kemal Aksur		(11.45)
6	Maung Sein Pe		(11.78)
data-sort-value=7	-	Étienne Bally

Quarterfinals

The fastest three runners in each of the four heats advanced to the semifinal round. Official hand-timed results are known (and provided in the Official Report) only for the top three in each heat; unofficial auto-timed results are shown in parentheses.^[4]

Quarterfinal 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1			10.4
2	Juan López		10.6
3	Ken Jones		10.7
4	Ivan Hausen		(10.93)
5	Ted Haggis		(10.97)
6	António Morais		(11.32)

Quarterfinal 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1			10.5
2	McDonald Bailey		10.6
3	Morris Curotta		10.8
4	George Lewis		(11.04)
5	Béla Goldoványi		(11.11)
6	Haukur Clausen		(11.18)

Quarterfinal 3

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1			10.4
2	Alastair McCorquodale		10.5
3	John Bartram		10.6
4	René Valmy		(10.82)
5	Mario Fayos		(11.08)
6	Isidoor Van De Wiele		(11.10)

Quarterfinal 4

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1			10.5
2	John Treloar		10.5
3	Rafael Fortún		10.6
4	Haroldo da Silva		(11.04)
5	Gerardo Bönnhoff		(11.09)
6	Eric Prabhakar		(11.26)

Semifinals

The fastest three runners in each of the two heats advanced to the final round. Official hand-timed results are known (and provided in the Official Report) only for the top three in each heat; unofficial auto-timed results are shown in parentheses.^[4]

Semifinal 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1			10.5
2	Barney Ewell		10.5
3	Alastair McCorquodale		10.7
4	John Bartram		(10.98)
5	Juan López		(11.05)
6	Morris Curotta		(11.15)

Semifinal 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1			10.4
2	Lloyd LaBeach		10.5
3	McDonald Bailey		10.6
4	John Treloar		(10.74)
5	Rafael Fortún		(10.82)
6	Ken Jones		(11.01)

Final

Patton "got off to a disastrous start and was not a factor." Dillard led the entire way. Official hand-timed results are known (and provided in the Official Report) only for the top three in each heat; unofficial auto-timed results are shown in parentheses.^[4]

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time (hand)	Notes
			10.3
			10.4
			10.6
4			(10.61)
5			(10.67)
6			(10.81)

External links

• Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad, The (1948). The Official Report of the Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad. LA84 Foundation. Retrieved 4 September 2016.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Athletics at the 1948 London Summer Games: Men's 100 metres . https://web.archive.org/web/20200417093752/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1948/ATH/mens-100-metres.html . dead . 17 April 2020 . 6 June 2017 . Sports Reference.
2. Jackson, Peter (24 July 2012). "London's three Olympic Games compared", BBC News.
3. Web site: Omega, the Olympics, and the innovations required to time the Earth's Best.
4. Web site: 100 metres, Men . Olympedia . 21 July 2020.