The men's 100 metres event was one of the events in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. The competition was held on July 24, 1980, and on July 25, 1980. Sixty-five athletes from 40 nations competed. Each nation was limited to 3 athletes per rules in force since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Allan Wells of Great Britain, that nation's first title in the men's 100 metres since 1924. Cuba took its first medal in the event since 1964, with Silvio Leonard's silver matching the nation's best result. Petar Petrov's bronze was Bulgaria's first Olympic medal in the men's 100 metres.

Allan Wells and Silvio Leonard both clocked the same time in the final (10.25 seconds) which was the first time this had happened in the men's Olympic 100 metres final since the introduction of fully automatic timing.

Background

This was the nineteenth time the event was held, having appeared at every Olympics since the first in 1896. Four finalists from 1976 returned: defending gold medal winner Hasely Crawford of Trinidad and Tobago, silver medalist Don Quarrie of Jamaica, seventh-place finisher Klaus-Dieter Kurrat of East Germany, and eighth-place finisher Petar Petrov of Bulgaria, while the American team, including 1977 IAAF World Cup winner and world record holder Steve Williams, were absent as they boycotted the Games. Other notable entrants included Silvio Leonard of Cuba (1975 and 1979 Pan-American Games champion, 1976 Olympic quarterfinalist, 1977 World Cup bronze medal), Eugen Ray of East Germany (1977 World Cup silver medalist), and Allan Wells of Great Britain (second to Quarrie at the 1978 Commonwealth Games).

Eleven nations appeared in the event for the first time: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Guinea, Laos, Lebanon, Mozambique, Nepal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, and Syria, while the United States missed this event for the first (and so far only) time in Olympic history. France and Great Britain made their 16th appearances in the event, tied with Canada (also absent due to the boycott) for second-most, after the United States, with 18.

Competition format

The event retained the same basic four-round format introduced in 1920: heats, quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. The "fastest loser" system, introduced in 1968, was used again to ensure that the quarterfinals and subsequent rounds had exactly 8 runners per heat; this time, that system applied only in the preliminary heats. With only two more runners than in 1976, the format was held very static, including the number of heats.

The first round consisted of nine heats, each with six to eight athletes. The top three runners in each heat advanced, along with the next five fastest runners overall. This made 32 quarterfinalists, who were divided into four heats of eight runners. The top four runners in each quarterfinal advanced, with no "fastest loser" places. The sixteen semifinalists competed in two heats of eight, with the top four in each semifinal advancing to the eight-man final.Official Report, vol. 3, p. 25.

Records

These are the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1980 Summer Olympics.

World record 9.95 Jim Hines Mexico City (MEX) October 14, 1968 Olympic record 9.95 Jim Hines Mexico City (MEX) October 14, 1968

Results

Heats Held on July 24, 1980

Heat 1 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Silvio Leonard 10.33 2 Peter Okodogbe 10.39 3 Christopher Brathwaite 10.44 4 Klaus-Dieter Kurrat 10.53 5 Charles Kachenjela 11.03 6 John Carew 11.11 7 Marc Larose 11.27

Heat 2 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Pietro Mennea 10.56 2 Lambros Kefalas 10.70 3 Katsuhiko Nakaya 10.72 4 Momar N'Dao 10.73 5 Eduardo Costa 11.02 6 Lucien Josiah 11.15 7 Soutsakhone Somninhom 11.69

Heat 3 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Aleksandr Aksinin 10.26 2 Leszek Dunecki 10.42 3 Nelson dos Santos 10.51 4 Hammed Adio 10.58 5 Nabil Nahri 10.67 6 Mwalimu Ally 10.86 7 Rudolph George 11.37

Heat 4 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Petar Petrov 10.32 2 Vladimir Muravyov 10.37 3 Osvaldo Lara 10.39 4 Antoine Richard 10.51 5 Pascal Aho 11.01 6 Joseph Letseka 11.21 7 Ilídio Coelho 11.42 8 Besha Tuffa 11.55

Heat 5 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Eugen Ray 10.38 2 Hasely Crawford 10.42 3 Drew McMaster 10.43 4 Gerardo Suero 10.53 5 Roland Dagher 11.01 6 Sheku Boima 11.08 7 Raghu Raj Onta 11.61

Heat 6 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Sören Schlegel 10.44 2 Hermann Panzo 10.53 3 Tomás González 10.65 4 Antoine Kiakouama 10.69 5 Milton de Castro 10.74 6 Boubacar Diallo 10.75 7 Adille Sumariwalla 11.04

Heat 7 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Allan Wells 10.35 2 Don Quarrie 10.37 3 Krzysztof Zwoliński 10.60 4 Ivaylo Karanyotov 10.66 5 István Tatár 10.69 6 Mario Westbroek 10.91 7 Oddur Sigurðsson 10.94

Heat 8 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 James Gilkes 10.34 2 Cameron Sharp 10.38 3 Théophile Nkounkou 10.53 4 István Nagy 10.68 5 David Lukuba 10.74 6 Paul Haba 11.19 7 Abdul Majeed Al-Mosawi 11.28

Heat 9 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Grégoire Illorson 10.34 2 Marian Woronin 10.35 3 Andrey Shlyapnikov 10.43 4 Samson Oyeledun 10.59 5 Francis Adams 10.80 6 Peter Mwita 11.07 7 Salif Koné 11.07 8 José Luis Elias 13.66

Quarterfinals Held on July 24, 1980

Quarterfinal 1 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Allan Wells 10.11 2 Petar Petrov 10.13 3 Osvaldo Lara 10.21 4 Pietro Mennea 10.27 5 Hasely Crawford 10.28 6 Sören Schlegel 10.28 7 Nelson dos Santos 10.45 8 Lambros Kefalas 10.62

Quarterfinal 2 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Aleksandr Aksinin 10.29 2 Don Quarrie 10.29 3 Hermann Panzo 10.29 4 Peter Okodogbe 10.34 5 Leszek Dunecki 10.40 6 Drew McMaster 10.42 7 Tomás González 10.44 8 Gerardo Suero 10.57

Quarterfinal 3 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Silvio Leonard 10.16 2 Marian Woronin 10.27 3 Eugen Ray 10.30 4 Christopher Brathwaite 10.37 5 Andrei Shlyapnikov 10.41 6 Théophile Nkounkou 10.59 7 Hammed Adio 10.67 8 Katsuhiko Nakaya 10.70

Quarterfinal 4 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 James Gilkes 10.26 2 Grégoire Illorson 10.29 3 Vladimir Muravyov 10.34 4 Cameron Sharp 10.38 5 Antoine Richard 10.45 6 Klaus-Dieter Kurrat 10.54 7 Krzysztof Zwoliński 10.54 8 Samson Oyeledun 10.73

Semifinals Held on July 25, 1980

Semifinal 1 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Petar Petrov 10.39 2 Silvio Leonard 10.40 3 Aleksandr Aksinin 10.45 4 Hermann Panzo 10.45 5 Don Quarrie 10.55 6 Pietro Mennea 10.58 7 Cameron Sharp 10.60 8 Grégoire Illorson 10.60

Semifinal 2 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Allan Wells 10.27 2 Osvaldo Lara 10.34 3 Vladimir Muravyov 10.42 4 Marian Woronin 10.43 5 James Gilkes 10.44 6 Eugen Ray 10.47 7 Peter Okodogbe 10.51 8 Christopher Brathwaite 10.54

Final Held on July 25, 1980 Rank Athlete Nation Time Allan Wells 10.25 Silvio Leonard 10.25 Petar Petrov 10.39 4 Aleksandr Aksinin 10.42 5 Osvaldo Lara 10.43 6 Vladimir Muravyov 10.44 7 Marian Woronin 10.46 8 Hermann Panzo 10.49

See also 100 metres at the Olympics 1976 Men's Olympic 100 metres (Montreal) 1978 Men's European Championships 100 metres (Prague) 1982 Men's European Championships 100 metres (Athens) 1983 Men's World Championships 100 metres (Helsinki) 1984 Men's Olympic 100 metres (Los Angeles)

References

External links IAAF.org 100m final results Results