Cycling at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Men's sprint explained

Event:	Men's sprint
Games:	1948 Summer
Venue:	Herne Hill Velodrome, London
Dates:	7–9 August 1948
Competitors:	23
Nations:	23
Longnames:	yes
Gold:	Mario Ghella
Goldnoc:	ITA
Silver:	Reg Harris
Silvernoc:	GBR
Bronze:	Axel Schandorff
Bronzenoc:	DEN
Prev:	1936
Next:	1952

The men's sprint cycling event at the 1948 Summer Olympics took place between 7 and 9 August and was one of six events at the 1948 Olympics.^[1] There were 23 cyclists from 23 nations, with each nation limited to one competitor. The event was won by Mario Ghella of Italy, the nation's first victory in the men's sprint. Reg Harris of Great Britain, heavily favored coming into the event, finished with silver, the first medal for a British cyclist in the sprint since 1920. Axel Schandorff's bronze was Denmark's first medal in the event since 1928. The podium streaks of the Netherlands (five Games) and France (four Games) both ended, with neither nation's cyclist able to advance to the quarterfinals.

Background

This was the ninth appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1904 and 1912. None of the semifinalists from 1936 returned, but Howard Wing of China competed again after the 12-year break occasioned by World War II. The heavy favorite and host nation hero was 1947 World Champion Reg Harris; his biggest rival, Cor Bijster of the Netherlands, had turned professional and could not compete in the Games.^[2]

Cuba, Guyana, India, Pakistan, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, and Venezuela each made their debut in the men's sprint. France made its ninth appearance, the only nation to have competed at every appearance of the event.

Competition format

This track cycling event consisted of numerous rounds. Each race involved the riders starting simultaneously and next to each other, from a standing start. Because the early part of races tend to be slow-paced and highly tactical, only the time for the last 200 metres of the race is typically recorded (though the full time for these Games was recorded as well). The distance for the sprint in 1948 was actually 920 metres instead of the standard 1000 metres, to be exactly two laps of the track.

The first two rounds consisted of single races between pairs of cyclists. The berths in the second round were allocated to the winners from each of the races in the first round, and the winners from each race in the repechage round. Starting with the quarterfinals stage, cyclists were paired once again, this time racing against each other two times, with the winner advancing further in the competition. This was the first time that the best-of-three format was used for the quarterfinals and semifinals (having been introduced in 1932 for the final and expanded to the bronze medal match in 1936).^[2]

Records

The records for the sprint are 200 metre flying time trial records, kept for the qualifying round in later Games as well as for the finish of races.

• World records were not tracked by the UCI until 1954.

No new Olympic record was set during the competition.

Schedule

All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1)

Date	Time	Round
Saturday, 7 August 1948	10:30	Round 1 Repechage Round 2 Quarterfinals 1–3
Monday, 9 August 1948	16:00	Round 2 heat 2 re-run Quarterfinal 4 Semifinals Finals

Results

Round 1

Round 1 heat 1

Rocca won by two lengths.

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time total	Time 200 m	Notes
1			3:10.9	12.6
2

Round 1 heat 2

Van De Velde won by a wheel. Wing broke his collar bone after the race.

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time total	Time 200 m	Notes
1			2:48.2	13.6
2

Round 1 heat 3

Roth won by inches.

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time total	Time 200 m	Notes
1			2:31.5	13.0
2

Round 1 heat 4

Harris won by a length.

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time total	Time 200 m	Notes
1			2:17.0	14.4
2	Rusi Mulla Feroze

Round 1 heat 5

Hijzelendoorn won by half a length.

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time total	Time 200 m	Notes
1			1:42.7	13.3
2

Round 1 heat 6

Cortoni won by two lengths.

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time total	Time 200 m	Notes
1			1:58.0	12.4
2

Round 1 heat 7

Schandorff won by a length.

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time total	Time 200 m	Notes
1			1:49.8	12.5
2

Round 1 heat 8

Bellenger won by two lengths.

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time total	Time 200 m	Notes
1			2:09.1	12.5
2

Round 1 heat 9

Welt won by half a length.

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time total	Time 200 m	Notes
1			3:13.9	17.2
2

Round 1 heat 10

Heid won by two lengths.

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time total	Time 200 m	Notes
1			1:57.4	13.0
2

Round 1 heat 11

Ghella won easily.

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time total	Time 200 m	Notes
1			1:54.4	12.9
2

Repechage

Howard Wing from China broke his collar bone after finishing his first round race. Manthos Kaloudis from Greece, who had arrived late and missed the first round, took his place.^[3]

Repechage heat 1

Lacourse won by two lengths.^[3]

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time total	Time 200 m	Notes
1			1:48.1	13.7
2

Repechage heat 2

Paseiro won by two lengths.^[3]

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time total	Time 200 m	Notes
1			3:15.3	14.5
2	Rusi Mulla Feroze

Repechage heat 3

Bazzano won by two lengths.^[3]

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time total	Time 200 m	Notes
1			2:31.0	14.1
2

Repechage heat 4

León won by a length.^[3]

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time total	Time 200 m	Notes
1			2:04.7	12.6
2

Repechage heat 5

Masanés beat replacement rider Kaloudis by two lengths, with Lewis finishing third.^[3]

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time total	Time 200 m	Notes
1			1:55.3	13.3
2
3

Round 2

The race between Jan Hijzelendoorn from the Netherlands and Leonel Rocca from Uruguay was repeated following a protest from Uruguay after the disqualification of Rocca.

Round 2 heat 1

Ghella won by four lengths.^[4]

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time total	Time 200 m	Notes
1			1:48.1	12.0
2

Round 2 heat 2

There was a crash at the very end of the race, with Hijzelendoorn unable to finish and Rocca disqualified. The Uruguayan team protested the result, however, and the protest was successful. The heat was ordered to be re-run on the next day of competition (two days later). The delay for the appeal led to 40 minutes of inactivity on the track, which the spectators did not appreciate. The result also delayed the start of the later rounds from Saturday to Monday.^[5] In the re-run, Rocca won by two lengths.^[4]

Original

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time total	Time 200 m	Notes
1			data-sort-value=9:99:99.9			Re-run
2			data-sort-value=9:99:99.9		13.2	Re-run

Re-run

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time total	Time 200 m	Notes
1			1:35.9	13.5
2

Round 2 heat 3

Masanés won by inches.^[4]

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time total	Time 200 m	Notes
1			3:04.5	12.8
2

Round 2 heat 4

Schandorff won easily.^[4]

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time total	Time 200 m	Notes
1			1:49.6	12.5
2

Round 2 heat 5

Van De Velde won by half a wheel.^[4]

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time total	Time 200 m	Notes
1			3:46.5	13.0
2

Round 2 heat 6

Heid won by an inch.^[4]

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time total	Time 200 m	Notes
1			2:05.7	12.0
2

Round 2 heat 7

Bazzano won by one and a half lengths.^[4]

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time total	Time 200 m	Notes
1			3:51.6	14.3
2

Round 2 heat 8

Harris won by a length.^[4]

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time total	Time 200 m	Notes
1			1:31.7	15.1
2

Quarterfinals

Quarterfinal 1

Ghella won the first race by a length and the second by two lengths.^[4]

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Notes
1			1:47.7 12.1	2:37.4 12.6
2

Quarterfinal 2

Schandorff won the first race by a length and the second by two lengths.^[4]

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Notes
1			1:49.0 12.3	2:14.8 12.4
2

Quarterfinal 3

Harris won both races by a length.^[4]

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Notes
1			2:39.8 12.5	2:13.0 12.8
2

Quarterfinal 4

Bazzano won the first race by a wheel and the second by a length and a half.^[4]

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Notes
1			3:09.4 12.8	2:26.6 13.2
2

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Ghella won the first race by three-quarters of a length and the second by three lengths.

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Notes
1			3:53.0 12.1	1:55.7 11.9
2

Semifinal 2

Harris won the first race by a length and the second by three-quarters of a length.^[4]

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Notes
1			4:43.8 13.7	2:24.4 12.7
2

Finals

Bronze medal match

Schandorff won the first race by three-quarters of a length and the second by two lengths.^[6]

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3
			2:10.4 12.9	2:26.0 12.0
4

Final

Ghella won the first race by three lengths and the second by one and a half lengths.^[6] In the first, Ghella made his attack at the 300-yard mark, passing Harris on the inside (accorded a tactical error to leave space inside by the British cyclist). The final distance between the two was increased by Harris easing off to conserve energy for the second race. Doing so did him little good, however, as in the second race Ghella took the lead and fought off two challenges by Harris in the final two straights.^{[2] [7]}

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3
			4:01.2 12.2	4:13.4 12.0

Final standings

Rank	Cyclist	Nation
	Axel Schandorff
4
5
9
	Rusi Mulla Feroze

External links

• Cycling at the 1948 London Summer Games: Men's Sprint, sports-reference.com. Retrieved 18 September 2016.
• 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: Cycling at the 1948 London Summer Games: Men's Sprint . https://web.archive.org/web/20200418042525/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1948/CYC/mens-sprint.html . dead . 18 April 2020 . 16 July 2014 . sports-reference.com.
2. Web site: Sprint, Men . Olympedia . 13 November 2020.
3. Official Report, p. 322.
4. Official Report, p. 323.
5. Official Report, p. 317.
6. Official Report, p. 324.
7. Official Report, p. 317.