Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metres explained

Event:	Men's 100 metres
Games:	1972 Summer
Venue:	Olympiastadion Munich, West Germany
Dates:	31 August (heats, quarterfinals) 1 September 1972 (semifinals, final)
Competitors:	85
Nations:	55
Win Value:	10.14 seconds
Longnames:	yes
Gold:	Valeriy Borzov
Goldnoc:	URS
Silver:	Robert Taylor
Silvernoc:	USA
Bronze:	Lennox Miller
Bronzenoc:	JAM
Prev:	1968
Next:	1976

The men's 100 metres sprint event at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, West Germany, was held at Olympiastadion on 31 August and 1 September.^[1] Eighty-five athletes from 55 nations competed.^[2] Each nation was limited to 3 athletes per rules in force since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Valeriy Borzov of the Soviet Union, the first medal in the men's 100 metres for that nation. Jamaican Lennox Miller, silver medalist four years earlier, became the second man to make the podium twice in the event by taking bronze (after Ralph Metcalfe in 1932 and 1936).

This event is notable for the absence of favourites and world record holders Eddie Hart and Rey Robinson from their quarterfinal heats due to American sprint coach Stan Wright being given the wrong starting time. The three qualified American athletes, Robinson, Hart and Robert Taylor, were at the ABC television headquarters watching what they believed were replays of their morning preliminary races before being informed they were watching live coverage of the races they were scheduled to run in. The athletes rushed to the stadium, but Hart and Robinson, scheduled in the first two races, missed their heats, while Robert Taylor hurried to take off his warm up uniform before running his heat. An appeal by American officials to have Robinson and Hart run in another heat was rejected.

Background

This was the seventeenth time the event was held, having appeared at every Olympics since the first in 1896. Two finalists from 1968 returned: Lennox Miller of Jamaica and Jean-Louis Ravelomanantsoa of Madagascar. The favourite was Soviet Valeriy Borzov, the European champion. The American team was missing John Carlos, who had turned to professional football, but still had strong runners in Eddie Hart and Rey Robinson, who had matched the world record of 9.9 seconds in the U.S. Olympic trials, and Robert Taylor.^[2]

Thirteen nations appeared in the event for the first time: Bolivia, Cambodia (then Khmer Republic), Chad, Kuwait, Lesotho, Malawi, Mongolia, Paraguay, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Upper Volta, the Virgin Islands, and Zambia (though Northern Rhodesia had competed previously). The United States was the only nation to have appeared at each of the first seventeen Olympic men's 100 metres events.

Competition format

The event retained the same basic four round format introduced in 1920: heats, quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. It also expanded the "fastest loser" system, introduced in 1968, to include the quarterfinals as well as the preliminary heats.

The first round consisted of 12 heats, each with 6–8 athletes. The top three runners in each heat advanced, along with the next four fastest runners overall. This made 40 quarterfinalists, who were divided into five heats of 8 runners. The top three runners in each quarterfinal advanced, along with the single fastest fourth-place finisher. The 16 semifinalists competed in two heats of 8, with the top four in each semifinal advancing to the eight-man final.^[2] ^[3]

Records

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

World record	9.9	Jim Hines	Sacramento, United States	20 June 1968
	9.9	Ronnie Ray Smith	Sacramento, United States	20 June 1968
	9.9	Charles Greene	Sacramento, United States	20 June 1968
	9.9	Jim Hines	Mexico City, Mexico	14 October 1968
	9.9	Eddie Hart	Eugene, United States	1 July 1972
	9.9	Rey Robinson	Eugene, United States	1 July 1972
Olympic record	9.9	Jim Hines	Mexico City, Mexico	14 October 1968

No records were set in the event at the 1972 Games.

Results

Heats

The top three runners in each of the twelve heats, and the next fastest four, advanced to the quarterfinal round.

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Time
1		10.45
2	Amadou Meïté	10.51
3	Hans-Jürgen Bombach	10.66
4	Rudy Reid	10.74
5	Dan Amuke	10.76
6	Byambajavyn Enkhbaatar	10.93
7	Samphon Mao	10.95
8	Luis Alers	11.09

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Time
1		10.47
2	Mike Sands	10.67
3	Luděk Bohman	10.72
4	Gerhard Wucherer	10.82
5	Tadeusz Cuch	10.89
6	Yeo Kian Chye	10.92
7	Alphonse Yanghat	10.95
8	Andrew Sartee	11.09

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time
1			10.49
2	Sandy Osei-Agyemang		10.52
3	Les Piggot		10.54
4	John Mwebi		10.60
5	Luís da Silva		10.63
6	Kevin Johnson		10.91
7	Mansour Al-Juaid		11.23
data-sort-value=8	–	align=left data-sort-value="Arega, Robert"	Robert Arega

Heat 4

The tailwind of 2.3 m/s made this heat ineligible for records purposes.

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time
1			10.37
2	Brian Green		10.41
3	Kouakou Komenan		10.50
4	Walter Callander		10.78
5	George Calhern		10.90
6	Farhad Navab		11.02
7	Angel Guerreros		11.12
data-sort-value=8	–	align=left data-sort-value="Ratanapol, Anat"	Anat Ratanapol

Heat 5

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time
1			10.38
2	Kola Abdulai		10.57
3	Stanisław Wagner		10.62
4	Juraj Demeč		10.66
5	Félix Mata		10.73
6	Bjarni Stefánsson		10.99
7	Younis Abdallah		11.20
data-sort-value=8	–	align=left data-sort-value="Kone, Gaoussou"	Gaoussou Kone

Heat 6

Rank	Athlete	Time
1		10.56
2	Philippe Clerc	10.58
3	Sammy Monsels	10.61
4	George Daniels	10.65
5	André Bicaba	10.71
6	Motsapi Moorosi	10.74
7	William Dralu	10.92

Heat 7

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time
1			10.50
2	Don Halliday		10.58
3	Erik Gustafsson		10.68
4	Guillermo González		10.73
5	Norman Chihota		10.79
6	Egzi Gebre-Gebre		10.89
7	Pierre-Richard Gaetjens		11.50
data-sort-value=8	–	align=left data-sort-value="Montes, Pablo"	Pablo Montes

Heat 8

The tailwind of 2.10 m/s made this heat ineligible for records purposes.

Rank	Athlete	Time
1		10.30
2	Bernd Borth	10.48
3	Audun Garshol	10.49
4	Su Wen-Ho	10.59
5	Gana Abba Kimet	10.89
6	Raimo Vilén	11.00
7	Lionel Caero	11.19

Heat 9

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time
1			10.42
2	Saleh Alah-Djaba		10.65
3	Charlie Francis		10.68
4	Andrés Calonge		10.73
5	Laurie D'Arcy		10.77
6	Larmeck Mukonde		11.16
data-sort-value=7	–	align=left data-sort-value="Ramirez, Hermes"	Hermes Ramirez

Heat 10

Rank	Athlete	Time
1		10.24
2	Jean-Louis Ravelomanantsoa	10.29
3	Michael Fray	10.47
4	Antti Rajamäki	10.52
5	Ainsley Armstrong	10.56
6	Jorge Vizcarrondo	10.79
7	Zain-ud-Din bin Abdul Wahab	10.80

Heat 11

Rank	Athlete	Time
1		10.47
2	Dominique Chauvelot	10.66
3	Klaus Ehl	10.67
4	Benedict Majekodunmi	10.70
5	Gaston Malam	10.88
6	Sunil Gunawardene	11.00
7	Tukal Mokalam	11.02

Heat 12

Rank	Athlete	Time
1		10.32
2	Jobst Hirscht	10.36
3	Zenon Nowosz	10.36
4	Volodymyr Atamas	10.51
5	Axel Nepraunik	10.61
6	André Byrame	10.64
7	Moustafa Matola	11.31

Quarterfinals

The top three runners in each of the five heats and the next fastest one, advanced to the semifinal round.

Quarterfinal 1

Hart failed to appear due to a scheduling change and coaching error.

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time
1			10.25
2	Jaroslav Matoušek		10.35
3	Bernd Borth		10.44
4	Philippe Clerc		10.45
5	Ainsley Armstrong		10.47
6	Mike Sands		10.50
7	Audun Garshol		10.55
data-sort-value=8	-	Eddie Hart

Quarterfinal 2

Robinson failed to appear due to a scheduling change and coaching error.

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time
1			10.47
2	Brian Green		10.58
3	Kouakou Komenan		10.60
4	Stanisław Wagner		10.61
5	Sandy Osei-Agyemang		10.66
6	Erik Gustafsson		10.78
7	Su Wen-Ho		10.82
data-sort-value=8	-	Rey Robinson

Quarterfinal 3

Rank	Athlete	Time	Notes
1		10.07	,
2	Robert Taylor	10.16
3	Hasely Crawford	10.18
4	Zenon Nowosz	10.40
5	Klaus Ehl	10.44
6	Les Piggot	10.53
7	Dominique Chauvelot	10.54
8	Hans-Jürgen Bombach	10.64

Quarterfinal 4

The tailwind of 3.40 m/s made this heat ineligible for records purposes.

Rank	Athlete	Time
1		10.23
2	Barka Sy	10.27
3	Michael Fray	10.28
4	Kola Abdulai	10.41
5	Antti Rajamäki	10.43
6	Manfred Kokot	10.44
7	Saleh Alah-Djaba	10.51
8	Charlie Francis	10.51

Quarterfinal 5

Rank	Athlete	Time
1		10.33
2	Alain Sarteur	10.40
3	Vasilios Papageorgopoulos	10.45
4	Amadou Meïté	10.52
5	Luděk Bohman	10.52
6	Don Halliday	10.60
7	Sammy Monsels	10.64
8	Vladimir Atamas	10.83

Semifinals

The top four runners in each of the two heats advanced to the final round.

Semifinal 1

Papageorgopoulos was forced to scratch after he pulled a groin muscle in the quarter-finals.

Rank	Athlete	Time
1		10.21
2	Hasely Crawford	10.36
3	Jobst Hirscht	10.36
4	Michael Fray	10.48
5	Alain Sarteur	10.51
6	Kouakou Komenan	10.57
7	Bernd Borth	10.60
data-sort-value=8	-

Semifinal 2

Rank	Athlete	Time
1		10.30
2	Lennox Miller	10.31
3	Aleksandr Kornelyuk	10.35
4	Zenon Nowosz	10.42
5	Barka Sy	10.42
6	Jean-Louis Ravelomanantsoa	10.46
7	Jaroslav Matoušek	10.40
8	Brian Green	10.40

Final

Borzov "won fairly easily."^[2]

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Time
	2		10.14
	4		10.24
	5		10.33
4	6		10.36
5	8		10.40
6	7		10.40
7	1		10.46
data-sort-value=8	–	3

Wind speed = 0.3m/s

References

3. Die Spiele, The official report of the Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXth Olympiad Munich 1972, Volume 3 The competitions, page 49. http://library.la84.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1972/1972s3.pdf

Notes and References

Web site: Athletics at the 1972 Munich Summer Games: Men's 100 metres . https://web.archive.org/web/20200417094254/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1972/ATH/mens-100-metres.html . dead . 17 April 2020 . 1 July 2017 . Sports Reference.
Web site: 100 metres, Men . Olympedia . 24 July 2020.
Official Report, vol. 3, p. 48.