Athletics at the 1960 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metres hurdles explained

Event:	Men's 400 metres hurdles
Games:	1960 Summer
Venue:	Olympic Stadium
Dates:	August 31 (heats) September 1 (semifinals) September 2 (final)
Competitors:	34
Nations:	23
Longnames:	yes
Win Value:	49.3
Gold:	Glenn Davis
Goldnoc:	USA
Silver:	Cliff Cushman
Silvernoc:	USA
Bronze:	Dick Howard
Bronzenoc:	USA
Prev:	1956
Next:	1964

The men's 400 metres hurdles event at the 1960 Olympic Games took place between August 31 and September 2.^[1] There were 34 competitors from 23 nations. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Glenn Davis of the United States, the first man to successfully defend an Olympic title in the 400 metres hurdles. As of the 2016 Games, he remains the only man to do so; three others have won two gold medals in the event, but all three did so in nonconsecutive Games. It was the United States' fifth consecutive and 10th overall victory in the event. The Americans also completed their second consecutive (and fourth overall) medal sweep in the event, as Cliff Cushman took silver and Dick Howard took bronze.

Background

This was the 12th time the event was held. It had been introduced along with the men's 200 metres hurdles in 1900, with the 200 being dropped after 1904 and the 400 being held through 1908 before being left off the 1912 programme. However, when the Olympics returned in 1920 after World War I, the men's 400 metres hurdles was back and would continue to be contested at every Games thereafter.

One of the six finalists from the 1956 Games returned: gold medalist Glenn Davis of the United States. Davis was favored to repeat; he had lowered his own world record to 49.2 seconds in 1958 and taken four of the last five AAU titles (not competing in the 1959 event). He was joined on the American team by Dick Howard (Pan American runner-up, 1959 AAU champion) and Cliff Cushman (third at the PanAm Games). The biggest challenger to Davis was Gert Potgieter of South Africa, the 1958 Commonwealth Games champion and 440 yards hurdles world record holder who had been in medal contention in the 1956 Olympic final before hitting the last hurdle and finishing sixth. Potgieter, however, had been injured in an automobile accident and was unable to compete in Rome.^[2]

Iraq, Kenya, Morocco, Norway, and Tunisia each made their debut in the event; East and West Germany competed together as the United Team of Germany for the first time. The United States made its 12th appearance, the only nation to have competed at every edition of the event to that point.

Competition format

The competition used the three-round format used every Games since 1908 (except the four-round competition in 1952): quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. Ten sets of hurdles were set on the course. The hurdles were 3 feet (91.5 centimetres) tall and were placed 35 metres apart beginning 45 metres from the starting line, resulting in a 40 metres home stretch after the last hurdle. The 400 metres track was standard.

A significant change, however, was the introduction of the "fastest loser" system. Previously, advancement depended solely on the runners' place in their heat. The 1960 competition added advancement places to the fastest runners across the heats in the quarterfinals who did not advance based on place.

There were 6 quarterfinal heats with between 5 and 6 athletes each. The top 2 men in each quarterfinal advanced to the semifinals, along with the next 2 fastest overall. The 14 semifinalists were divided into 2 semifinals of 7 athletes each, with the top 3 in each semifinal advancing to the 6-man final.^[2]

Records

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

Four runners went under 50 seconds (hand-timed) in the final, the first time any had done so in the Olympics. Glenn Davis's time of 49.3 seconds was the new record.

Schedule

The competition used a three-day schedule, with each round on a separate day, for the first time.

All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Date	Time	Round
Wednesday, 31 August 1960	15:00	Quarterfinals
Thursday, 1 September 1960	16:15	Semifinals
Friday, 2 September 1960	16:00	Final

Results

Quarterfinals

The fastest two hurdlers in each of the six heats and the next two fastest advanced to the semifinal round.

Quarterfinal 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time (hand)	Time (auto) !	Notes
1	Bruno Galliker		51.0	51.20
2	Dick Howard		51.2	51.32
3	Anubes da Silva		52.1	52.25
4	Max Boyes		52.1	52.32
5	Wiesław Król		52.4	52.52
6	Mohamed Zouaki		55.2	55.65

Quarterfinal 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time (hand)	Time (auto) !	Notes
1	Jan Gulbrandsen		52.2	52.39
2	Glenn Davis		52.2	52.41
3	Arnold Matsulevich		52.9	53.00
4	George Shepherd		53.0	53.05
5	Marcel Lambrechts		53.5	53.67

Quarterfinal 3

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time (hand)	Time (auto) !	Notes
1	Cliff Cushman		51.8	51.98
2	Willi Matthias		52.1	52.23
3	Keiji Ogushi		52.4	52.58
4	Chris Goudge		52.6	52.75
5	Muhammad Yaqub		52.8	52.91
6	Mongi Soussi Zarrouki		54.3	54.34

Quarterfinal 4

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time (hand)	Time (auto) !	Notes
1	Georgy Chevychalov		51.8	51.97
2	Salvatore Morale		52.0	52.13
3	Per-Owe Trollsås		52.3	52.49
4	Wolfgang Fischer		53.2	53.35
5	Dimitrios Skourtis		53.7	53.85

Quarterfinal 5

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time (hand)	Time (auto) !	Notes
1	Helmut Janz		51.1	51.30
2	Bartonjo Rotich		51.2	51.39
3	Jussi Rintamäki		51.5	51.70
4	Elio Catola		51.8	51.94
5	Fahir Özgüden		55.3	55.43
6	Nazzar Al-Jamali		58.0	data-sort-value=58.00	Unknown

Quarterfinal 6

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time (hand)	Time (auto) !	Notes
1	John Metcalf		52.1	52.24
2	Moreno Martini		52.1	52.26
3	Boris Kriunov		52.5	52.66
4	Víctor Maldonado		52.6	52.79
5	Zdzisław Kumiszcze		53.3	53.47
6	Li Po-Ting		54.1	54.23

Semifinals

The fastest three hurdlers in each of the two heats advanced to the final round.

Semifinal 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time (hand)	Time (auto) !	Notes
1			51.1	51.20
2	Jussi Rintamäki		51.1	51.20
3	Helmut Janz		51.4	51.55
4	Georgy Chevychalov		52.0	52.14
5	Elio Catola		52.3	52.44
6	Jan Gulbrandsen		52.4	52.56
7	Moreno Martini		52.4	52.57

Semifinal 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time (hand)	Time (auto) !	Notes
1			50.8	50.89
2	Dick Howard		50.8	50.91
3	Bruno Galliker		51.3	51.47
4	Salvatore Morale		51.3	51.48
5	Bartonjo Rotich		51.8	51.97	^[3]
6	Willi Matthias		51.8	51.95
7	John Metcalf		52.5	52.72

Final

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time (hand)	Time (auto) !	Notes
			49.3	49.51
			49.6	49.77
			49.7	49.90
4			49.9	50.05
5			50.8	50.98
6			51.0	51.11
			Wind: +0.1 m/s

Results summary

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final !	Notes
			52.41	51.20	49.51
			51.98	50.89	49.77
			51.32	50.91	49.90
4			51.30	51.55	50.05
5			51.70	51.20	50.98
6			51.20	51.47	51.11
7	Salvatore Morale		52.13	51.48	Did not advance
8	Bartonjo Rotich		51.39	51.97
9	Willi Matthias		52.23	51.95
10	Georgy Chevychalov		51.97	52.14
11	Elio Catola		51.94	52.44
12	Jan Gulbrandsen		52.39	52.56
13	Moreno Martini		52.26	52.57
14	John Metcalf		52.24	52.72
15			52.25	Did not advance
16			52.32
17			52.49
18			52.52
19			52.58
20			52.66
21			52.75
22			52.79
23			52.91
24			53.00
25			53.05
26			53.35
27			53.47
28			53.67
29			53.85
30			54.23
31			54.34
32			55.43
33			55.65
34			58.0

Notes and References

Web site: Athletics at the 1960 Rome Summer Games: Men's 400 metres Hurdles . https://web.archive.org/web/20200417175308/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1960/ATH/mens-400-metres-hurdles.html . dead . 17 April 2020 . 3 October 2017 . sports-reference.com.
Web site: 400 metres Hurdles, Men . Olympedia . 13 January 2021.
Rotich was placed ahead of Matthias in the second semifinal despite the auto-time showing that Matthias finished faster.