The men's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 1948 Olympic Games took place between 5 and 7 August at the Empire Pool. This swimming event used the breaststroke. Because an Olympic-size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of four lengths of the pool.
John Davies' time was recorded by the timekeepers to be 0.2s faster than the bronze medallist Bob Sohl of the United States. However, the judges believed that Sohl had touched first and awarded him the bronze.
Results
Heats Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Joe Verdeur 2:40.0 2 Bob Sohl 2:44.9 3 Ahmed Kandil 2:45.5 4 Keith Carter 2:46.3 5 Tone Cerer 2:46.3 6 Willy Otto Jordan 2:46.4 7 Sándor Németh 2:48.2 8 John Davies 2:48.3 9 Bob Bonte 2:48.7 10 Roy Romain 2:49.4 11 Maurice Lusien 2:49.5 12 Artem Nakache 2:50.4 13 Walter Pavlicek 2:50.6 14 Sigurður Jónsson 2:50.6 15 Apolonio Castillo 2:50.7 16 René Amabuyok 2:52.6 17 Jiří Linhart 2:53.8 18 Jacinto Cayco 2:54.0 19 Carlos Espejo 2:55.0 20 Sigurður Th. Jónsson 2:56.4 21 Hans Widmer 2:56.7 22 Goldup Davies 2:56.6 23 Walter Kunz 2:57.6 24 Nicolas Wildhaber 2:59.2 25 John Service 3:00.4 26 César Benetti 3:00.6 27 Peter Salmon 3:01.5 28 Kevin Hallett 3:02.0 29 Atli Steinarsson 3:02.3 30 Des Cohen 3:03.3 31 Prafulla Mullick 3:14.9 32 Iftikhar Ahmed Shah 3:28.1
Semifinals Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Joe Verdeur 2:40.7 Q 2 Keith Carter 2:43.0 Q 3 Ahmed Kandil 2:43.7 Q 4 Willy Otto Jordan 2:43.9 Q 5 Bob Sohl 2:44.4 Q 6 John Davies 2:44.8 q 7 Bob Bonte 2:47.0 Q 8 Tone Cerer 2:47.3 q 9 Sándor Németh 2:48.1 10 Roy Romain 2:49.6 11 Walter Pavlicek 2:50.1 12 Maurice Lusien 2:51.4 13 René Amabuyok 2:51.8 14 Sigurður Jónsson 2:52.4 15 Apolonio Castillo 2:53.5 16 Artem Nakache 2:59.1
Final
Rank Athlete Country Time Notes Joe Verdeur 2:39.3 OR Keith Carter 2:40.2 Bob Sohl 2:43.9 4 John Davies 2:43.7 5 Antun Cerer 2:46.1 6 Willy Otto Jordan 2:46.4 7 Ahmed Kandil 2:47.5 8 Bob Bonte 2:47.6
Key: OR = Olympic record
References