The men's 110 metres hurdles event at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games took place on August 5 and August 6. Thirty-one athletes from 20 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The final was won by American Forrest Towns. It was the second of nine consecutive American victories, and the eighth overall gold medal for the United States in the 110 metres hurdles. Don Finlay of Great Britain became the second man to win two medals in the event.
Background
This was the tenth appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Two finalists from 1932 returned: bronze medalist Don Finlay of Great Britain and Willi Welscher of Germany, who had been disqualified in the final in Los Angeles. Forrest Towns and Fritz Pollard, Jr. of the United States were the favorites; Towns had set the world record at 14.1 seconds.
The Republic of China, the Philippines, and Yugoslavia each made their first appearance in the event. The United States made its tenth appearance, the only nation to have competed in the 110 metres hurdles in each Games to that point.
Competition format
The competition used the three-round basic format introduced in 1908. The first round consisted of six heats, with 5 or 6 hurdlers each. The top two hurdlers in each heat advanced to the semifinals. The 12 semifinalists were divided into two semifinals of 6 hurdlers each; the top three hurdlers in each advanced to the 6-man final.Official Report, vol. 2, pp. 651–52.
Records
These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1936 Summer Olympics.
Forrest Towns matched his own world record in the first semifinal, lowering the Olympic record by 0.3 seconds in doing so.
Schedule
The semifinals were held on the day of the final instead of the day of the first round.
Date Time Round Wednesday, 5 August 1936 16:30 Round 1 Thursday, 6 August 1936 15:0017:45 SemifinalsFinal
Results
Heats
The fastest two runners in each of the six heats advanced to the semifinal round.
Heat 1
Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Tom Lavery 15.0 2 Larry O'Connor 15.1 3 Khristos Mantikas 15.2 4 Svend Aage Thomsen 15.3 5 Juul Bosmans Unknown 6 Yasuharu Furuta Unknown
Heat 2
Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Fritz Pollard, Jr. 14.7 2 John Thornton 15.0 3 Johann Langmayr 15.1 4 Willi Welscher 15.2 5 Huang Yingjie 16.9
Heat 3
Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Don Finlay 14.7 2 Tadashi Murakami 15.3 3 Jim Worrall 15.6 4 Darcy Guimarães Unknown 5 Ludvík Kománek Unknown
Heat 4
Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Roy Staley 15.0 2 Juan Lavenás 15.1 3 Ashleigh Pilbrow 15.5 4 Ioannis Skiadas Unknown 5 Lin Shaozhou 15.7
Heat 5
Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Forrest Towns 14.5 2 Erwin Wegner 15.1 3 Ernst Leitner 15.3 4 René Kunz Unknown 5 Kotaro Shimizu Unknown
Heat 6
Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Håkan Lidman 14.9 2 Vane Ivanović 15.1 3 Gianni Caldana 15.1 4 Alf Watson 15.1 5 Miguel White Unknown
Semifinals
The fastest three runners in each of the two heats advanced to the final round.
Semifinal 1
Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Forrest Towns 14.1 , , 2 Håkan Lidman 14.5 3 John Thornton 14.7 4 Roy Staley 14.8 5 Tadashi Murakami 15.1 6 Juan Lavenás 15.6
Heat 2 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Don Finlay 14.5 2 Fritz Pollard, Jr. 14.6 3 Larry O'Connor 15.0 4 Vane Ivanović 15.2 5 Erwin Wegner 15.3 6 Tom Lavery 15.6
Final
Pollard led early. Towns caught him at the third hurdle, going on to win "quite easily." Finlay finished strong, just passing Pollard at the end.
Rank Athlete Nation Time Forrest Towns 14.2 Don Finlay 14.4 Fritz Pollard, Jr. 14.4 4 Håkan Lidman 14.4 5 John Thornton 14.7 6 Larry O'Connor 14.8
References