Athletics at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Men's 800 metres explained

Event:Men's 800 metres
Games:1948 Summer
Venue:Wembley Stadium
Dates:July 30 (heats)
July 31 (semifinals)
August 2 (final)
Competitors:41
Nations:24
Win Value:1:49.2
Longnames:yes
Gold:Mal Whitfield
Goldnoc:USA
Silver:Arthur Wint
Silvernoc:JAM
Bronze:Marcel Hansenne
Bronzenoc:FRA
Prev:1936
Next:1952

The men's 800 metres event at the 1948 Olympic Games took place July 30, July 31 and August 2. Forty-one athletes from 24 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The final was won by the American Mal Whitfield.[1] It was the first of Whitfield's two wins in the event, the second of four consecutive American victories, and the fifth overall United States win in the 800 metres. Arthur Wint earned Jamaica's first Olympic medal in their debut games with silver; he would take gold in the 400 metres a few days later. Marcel Hansenne took France's first 800 metres medal with bronze.

Summary

The competitors all started from a crouch start. In the final, Marcel Hansenne bolted from the blocks to take the lead. The tall Arthur Wint worked his way through the crowd and moved into the marking position by the end of the turn. Mal Whitfield smoothly ran around the crowd, past Wint and Hansenne into the lead. Whitfield kept going, extending his lead to five metres uncontested. Ingvar Bengtsson moved forward to challenge Hansenne, holding the edge through the final turn. Coming off the final turn, Wint ran around both of them and set off in chase of Whitfield. He was able to close down a couple of meters but the gap was too much, Whitfield winning easily. Behind them, Herb Barten ran around the outside of Bengtsson and challenged Hansenne to the line, but Hansenne took the bronze.

Background

This was the 11th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. None of the finalists from the pre-war 1936 Games returned. Noted contenders included Mal Whitfield of the United States, Arthur Wint of Jamaica, Doug Harris of New Zealand, and Marcel Hansenne of France.[2]

Egypt, Iceland, Jamaica, South Korea, and Trinidad and Tobago appeared in the event for the first time. Great Britain and the United States each made their 10th appearance, tied for the most among all nations.

Competition format

The event used the three-round format introduced in 1912. There were six first-round heats, each with 7 and 8 athletes (before withdrawals); the top four runners in each heat advanced to the semifinals. There were three semifinals with 8 athletes each; the top three runners in each semifinal advanced to the nine-man final.[2] [3]

Records

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

Mal Whitfield broke the Olympic record with a time of 1:49.2 in the final.

Schedule

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

DateTimeRound
Friday, 30 July 1948 16:00 Round 1
Saturday, 31 July 1948 15:15 Semifinals
Monday, 2 August 1948 16:00 Final

Results

Round 1

The first four in each heat qualified for the semifinals.[4]

Heat 1

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 1:54.6
2 1:55.0
3 1:55.0
4 1:55.3
5 1:56.7
6 2:01.4
7 data-sort-value=3:00.0Unknown

Heat 2

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 1:55.6
2 1:56.6
2 1:56.6
4 1:56.7
5 1:57.4
6 1:58.7
7 data-sort-value=2:00.0Unknown
data-sort-value=8

Heat 3

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 1:54.2
2 1:54.2
3 1:54.3
4 1:55.4
5 1:55.4
6 1:55.7
7 data-sort-value=2:00.0Unknown
data-sort-value=8Joe Kelly

Heat 4

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 1:53.9
2 1:54.4
3 1:54.8
4 1:55.1
5 1:55.4
6 1:55.7
7 data-sort-value=2:00.0Unknown

Heat 5

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 1:56.1
2 1:56.2
3 1:56.5
4 1:56.6
5 1:56.6
6 2:01.1
7 data-sort-value=3:00.0Unknown

Heat 6

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 1:52.8
2 1:52.9
3 1:55.5
4 1:55.7
5 2:02.2
Bruno Schneider
Dermot McDermott

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 1:50.5
2 1:50.7
3 1:50.9
4 1:52.6
5 1:53.2
6 1:54.6
7 1:55.39 [5]
data-sort-value=8

Semifinal 2

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 1:51.2
2 1:52.7
3 1:52.9
4 1:54.3
5 1:54.9
6 1:57.7

Semifinal 3

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 1:51.7
2 1:52.0
3 1:52.4
4 1:52.5
5 1:53.0
6 1:54.6
7 data-sort-value=2:00.0Unknown
data-sort-value=8

Final

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1:49.2
1:49.5
1:49.8
4 1:50.1
5 1:50.5
6 1:52.1
7 1:53.0
8 1:53.4
9 1:54.0

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Athletics at the 1948 London Summer Games: Men's 800 metres . https://web.archive.org/web/20200417171032/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1948/ATH/mens-800-metres.html . dead . 17 April 2020 . 13 October 2017 . sports-reference.com.
  2. Web site: 800 metres, Men . Olympedia . 6 August 2020.
  3. Official Report, p. 248.
  4. Book: THE OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE ORGANISING COMMITTEE FOR THE XIV OLYMPIAD . 1948 . THE ORGANISING COMMITTEE FOR THE XIV OLYMPIAD . LONDON . 248 . 24 February 2015 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150827050018/http://olympic-museum.de/o-reports/report1948.htm . 27 August 2015 .
  5. Unofficial auto-timed result, per Olympedia. No official hand time is available.