The men's 400 metres was an event at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. The competition was held between September 3 and September 6, 1960. 59 competitors from 44 nations entered, but 54 competitors from 41 nations participated. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by 0.01 seconds by Otis Davis of the United States, the second consecutive and ninth overall title in the event for an American. Carl Kaufmann's silver was the second straight silver for a German in the event, while Malcolm Spence's bronze was the first medal for South Africa in the 400 metres since 1920.

Summary

This race was settled via photo finish using one of the first experimental attempts at fully automatic timing. Carl Kaufmann made a diving lunge at the finish line, his head crossing the line first. But it is the torso that counts and Otis Davis, running upright had his body ahead of Kaufmann. After a suspenseful pause, Davis was ruled the winner. The photo was made further famous after being published in Life Magazine. In fourth place, Milkha Singh ran the Indian national record that lasted 44 years until the 2004 Olympics.

There is potential confusion with two athletes in the competition named Malcolm Spence, both qualifying to the second semifinal. The (one year) younger Malcolm Spence representing South Africa eventually netted the bronze medal, while the senior Malcolm Spence from Jamaica, shortened his name to "Mal" while representing the British West Indies, achieved a bronze as part of their 4x400 metres relay, one second ahead of the 4th place South African team.

In the final, South African Malcolm Spence took off hard from the gun, making up the stagger and passing Milkha Singh to his outside before the second turn. Through the second turn, Otis Davis gained ground strongly, passing Spence to his outside halfway through the turn, emerging onto the home straight with the lead, two lanes inside of him Carl Kaufmann also gained on the turn and emerged slightly ahead of Spence. Kaufmann gained steadily on Davis but never caught him, desperately diving at the finish line from a half meter back but unable to get more than his head ahead of Davis. Singh was the best of the rest, holding his own the second half of the race against the initial lead of Spence, but unable to gain much ground. Ultimately Spence held on for bronze.

Background

This was the fourteenth appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Of the finalists from 1956, bronze medalist Voitto Hellstén of Finland and sixth-place finisher Malcolm Spence returned in 1960. The field was relatively open, with no clear favorite.

Afghanistan, the Bahamas, the British West Indies, Ghana, Guyana, Tunisia, and Uganda appeared in this event for the first time. The United States made its fourteenth appearance in the event, the only nation to compete in it at every Olympic Games to that point.

Competition format

The competition retained the basic four-round format from 1920. There were 9 heats in the first round, each scheduled to have 6 or 7 athletes but with some dropping to as low as 4 after withdrawals. The top three runners in each heat advanced to the quarterfinals. There were 4 quarterfinals of 6 or 7 runners each; the top three athletes in each quarterfinal heat advanced to the semifinals. The semifinals featured 2 heats of 6 runners each. The top three runners in each semifinal heat advanced, making a six-man final.Official Report, vol. 2, pp. 75–79.

Records

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

Otis Davis matched the Olympic record of 45.9 seconds in the quarterfinals. In the first semifinal, he set a new Olympic record at 45.5 seconds; by the end of the semifinals, four men had matched (Milkha Singh) or beaten (Malcolm Spence at 45.8 seconds, Carl Kaufmann at 45.7 seconds, and Otis at 45.5 seconds) the old record. In the final, the fifth- and sixth-place finishers (Manfred Kinder and Earl Young matched the old record—but still finished a full second behind the leaders, as Otis and Kaufmann broke the world record with 44.9 second finishes to take gold and silver. Singh's 45.6 seconds in the final set a national record that stood for 44 years.

Schedule

The semifinals and final were on different days for the first time since 1912.

All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Date Time Round Saturday, 3 September 1960 09:5016:10 Round 1Quarterfinals Monday, 5 September 1960 16:15 Semifinals Tuesday, 6 September 1960 15:45Finals

Results

First round

The top three runners in each of the 9 heats advanced.

Heat 1

Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Manfred Kinder 46.7 46.84 2 Edgar Davis 47.2 47.31 3 Malcolm Yardley 47.3 47.38 4 Josef Trousil 47.4 47.53 5 John Asare-Antwi 47.7 47.81 6 Kimitada Hayase 49.1 49.13 7 Habib Sayed 53.8 53.91

Heat 2

Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Alf Pettersson 48.3 48.44 2 Robbie Brightwell 48.4 48.58 3 Konstantin Grachev 49.3 49.44 4 Felix Heuertz 50.2 50.34 — George Kerr Rafael Romero

Heat 3

Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Carl Kaufmann 47.3 47.42 2 Barry Robinson 47.6 47.70 3 Lodewijk De Clerck 47.9 48.00 4 Anubes da Silva 48.0 48.10 5 Csaba Csutorás 48.2 48.31 6 Hugh Bullard 51.1 51.20

Heat 4

Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Malcolm Spence 46.7 46.79 2 Kevan Gosper 47.1 47.20 3 Terry Tobacco 47.4 48.52 4 Gadi Ado 49.0 49.12 5 Marcel Lambrechts 49.5 49.66 6 Jorge Terán 49.6 49.75 7 Brahim Karabi 52.0 52.12

Heat 5

Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 German Guenard 47.3 47.39 2 Jerzy Kowalski 48.3 48.49 3 Giuseppe Bommarito 48.6 48.79 4 Li Po-ting 49.5 49.69 5 Clayton Glasgow 50.7 50.84 6 George Johnson 51.4 51.54

Heat 6

Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Jack Yerman 47.2 47.37 2 Milkha Singh 47.6 47.72 3 Stanislaw Swatowski 48.1 48.23 4 Manikavasagam Jegathesan 48.4 48.56 5 Iván Rodríguez 49.6 49.74 6 Claro Pellosis 51.4 51.51

Heat 7

Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Mal Spence 47.6 47.77 2 Earl Young 47.6 47.79 3 Bartonjo Rotich 47.7 47.89 4 Zdenek Vána 48.3 48.48 5 Vasilios Sillis 48.4 48.56 6 Manum Bumroongpruck 49.6 49.85

Heat 8

Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Abdul Karim Amu 46.8 46.93 2 Gordon Day 47.1 47.22 3 Hans-Joachim Reske 47.2 47.38 4 Voitto Hellstén 48.4 48.52 5 Jassim Karim Kuraishi 49.2 49.35 6 Fahir Özgüden 50.7 50.87

Heat 9

Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Otis Davis 46.8 46.91 2 Jim Wedderburn 47.4 47.56 3 John Wrighton 47.4 47.60 4 René Weber 47.6 47.73 5 Moussa Said 48.2 48.30 6 Amos Grodzinowsky 48.9 49.03

Quarterfinal round

The top three in each of the 4 heats advanced.

Quarterfinal 1

Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Carl Kaufmann 46.5 46.67 2 Milkha Singh 46.5 46.71 3 Malcolm Spence 46.9 47.00 4 Terry Tobacco 47.5 47.61 5 Edgar Davis 48.0 48.18 6 Malcolm Yardley 48.8 48.93 — Alf Pettersson

Quarterfinal 2

Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Jack Yerman 46.4 46.54 2 Kevan Gosper 46.5 46.64 3 Manfred Kinder 46.7 46.82 4 Jim Wedderburn 47.0 47.22 5 German Guenard 47.2 47.39 6 John Wrighton 48.4 48.09

Quarterfinal 3

Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Earl Young 46.1 46.25 2 Robbie Brightwell 46.2 46.31 3 Gordon Day 46.3 46.47 4 Hans-Joachim Reske 47.3 47.43 5 Stanisław Swatowski 47.4 47.56 6 Konstantin Grachov 47.6 47.78 7 Bartonjo Rotich 47.8 47.97

Quarterfinal 4

Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Otis Davis 45.9 46.02 , 2 Malcolm Spence 46.1 46.21 3 Abdel Karim Amu 46.6 46.76 4 Jerzy Kowalski 46.7 46.82 5 Giuseppe Bommarito 47.5 47.71 6 Barry Robinson 48.3 48.44 7 Lodewijk De Clerck 48.4 48.51

Semifinal round

The top three in each of the 4 heats advanced.

Semifinal 1

Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Otis Davis 45.5 45.62 2 Milkha Singh 45.9 46.08 3 Manfred Kinder 46.0 46.13 4 Robbie Brightwell 46.1 46.25 5 Gordon Day 46.7 46.84 6 Kevan Gosper 47.1 47.28

Semifinal 2

Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Carl Kaufmann 45.7 45.88 2 Malcolm Spence 45.8 46.01 3 Earl Young 46.1 46.29 4 Abdul Karim Amu 46.6 46.74 5 Mal Spence 46.8 46.99 6 Jack Yerman 48.9 48.96

Final

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 3 Otis Davis 44.9 45.07 1 Carl Kaufmann 44.9 45.08 4 Malcolm Spence 45.5 45.60 4 5 Milkha Singh 45.6 45.73 NR 5 6 Manfred Kinder 45.9 46.04 6 2 Earl Young 45.9 46.07

References