Athletics at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Men's 800 metres

The men's 800 metres event at the 1952 Olympics took place between July 20 and July 22. Fifty athletes from 32 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The final was won by the American Mal Whitfield.

Whitfield's win was his second (making him the second man to repeat in the 800 metres), as well as the third consecutive (in a streak that would reach four) and sixth overall victory for the United States. Only 0.2 seconds after Whitfield, Arthur Wint became the fifth man to earn a second medal of any color in the 800 metres, repeating his 1948 silver. Heinz Ulzheimer was the third German man to win an 800 metres medal, with the nation taking bronze in 1908 and 1928 as well as Ulzheimer's in 1952.

Summary

Starting from a waterfall start, most competitors were allowed to and chose to use a crouch start. Returning silver medalist Arthur Wint sprinted to the lead with Heinz Ulzheimer moving into a tight marking position with Gunnar Nielsen and Günther Steines sprinting to keep up. On the home stretch for the first time, defending champion Mal Whitfield moved forward, past the other chasers into a marking position on Ulzheimer. Wint continued to lead down the backstretch, then Whitfield accelerated past Ulzheimer, who turned to look, then at the beginning of the turn, Wint. It was a deja vu for Wint, seeing Whitfield ahead of him on the final turn of the Olympics. The first five were separated from the rest of the pack, Whitfield pulling away to defend his championship. Wint couldn't make any progress on Whitfield but held off the battle behind him. Steines lost ground, getting passed by a big rush by Albert Webster, but Nielsen pressed Ulzheimer to the line, Ulzheimer taking bronze with a lean then in the next step doing a face plant to the track.

Whitfield equalled the Olympic record he had set in London four years earlier, meaning he ran exactly the same time 1:49.2 in both races. Wint was a tenth of a second faster. Whitfield became the second man after Douglas Lowe to defend the 800 metres title. Peter Snell and David Rudisha have since equalled the feat.

Background

This was the 12th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Only two of the finalists from the 1948 Games returned, but they were the top two: gold medalist Mal Whitfield of the United States and silver medalist Arthur Wint of Jamaica.

Cuba, Ghana, Guatemala, Israel, Pakistan, Puerto Rico, the Soviet Union, Thailand, and Venezuela appeared in the event for the first time. Great Britain and the United States each made their 11th appearance, tied for the most among all nations.

Competition format

The event used the three-round format introduced in 1912. There were eight first-round heats, each with between 5 and 7 athletes; the top three runners in each heat advanced to the semifinals. There were three semifinals with 8 athletes each; the top three runners in each semifinal advanced to the nine-man final.Official Report, pp. 278–79.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1948 Summer Olympics.

Mal Whitfield repeated his own Olympic record with a time of 1:49.2 in the final.

Schedule

All times are Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3)

Date Time Round Sunday, 20 July 1952 16:55 Round 1 Monday, 21 July 1952 16:40 Semifinals Tuesday, 22 July 1952 16:50 Final

Results

Round 1

The first round was held on July 20. The first three runners from each heat advanced to the semifinals.

Heat 1 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Lars Wolfbrandt 1:55.3 2 Albert Webster 1:55.5 3Gennady Modoy 1:55.8 4Maurice Marshall 1:56.2 5Johannes Baumgartner 1:57.1 6Mohamed Sanni-Thomas 2:05.8 – Hugo Nutini

Heat 2 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Mal Whitfield 1:52.5 2 Edmund Potrzebowski 1:52.6 3Tom White 1:52.7 4Olavi Talja 1:52.9 5Turhan Göker 1:55.9 6Evelio Planas 1:57.6 – Josy Barthel

Heat 3 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Jack Hutchins 1:54.5 2 John Barnes 1:54.5 3Jenő Bakos 1:54.5 4Roman Korban 1:54.7 5Alam Zeb 1:56.3 6Vasilios Mavrodis 1:58.7 – Augusto Robles

Heat 4 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Reggie Pearman 1:51.6 2 Petro Chevhun 1:51.8 3Günther Steines 1:52.7 4Louis Desmet 1:52.9 5René Djian 1:54.3 – Frank Prince – William Fahmy Hanna

Heat 5 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Hans Ring 1:53.6 2 Arthur Wint 1:54.2 3 Don MacMillan 1:55.0 4 Oscar Soetewey 1:55.4 5 Georgy Ivakin 1:56.4 6 Frank Rivera 1:57.6 7 Víctorio Solares 2:01.4 – Hiroshi Yamamoto

Heat 6 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Heinz Ulzheimer 1:51.4 2 Sohan Singh 1:52.0 3 Ludvík Liška 1:52.3 4 John Ross 1:52.5 5 Arqemiro Roque 1:54.1 6 Lucien Demuynck 1:57.4 7 Boonpak Kwancharoen 2:12.6 – John Landy

Heat 7 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Audun Boysen 1:53.2 2 Urban Cleve 1:53.4 3 Frank Evans 1:53.8 4 Ekrem Koçak 1:54.5 5 Filemón Camacho 2:00.0 6 Arie Gill-Glick 2:00.9 – Rainer Pelkonen – Jimmy Reardon

Heat 8 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Patrick El Mabrouk 1:52.0 2 Gunnar Nielsen 1:53.0 3 Bill Parnell 1:53.1 4 Yoshitaka Muroya 1:54.0 5 Fred Lüthi 1:55.0 6 Erkki Rönnholm 1:55.7 7 Guðmundur Lárusson 1:56.5 – Vasilios Sillis

Semifinals

The fastest three runners in each of the three heats advanced to the final round.

Semifinal 1 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Gunnar Nielsen 1:50.0 1:50.02 2 Mal Whitfield 1:50.1 1:50.15 3 Albert Webster 1:50.1 1:50.26 4Audun Boysen 1:50.4 1:50.57 5Urban Cleve 1:51.6 1:51.77 6Bill Parnell 1:52.7 1:52.92 7Pyotr Chevgun 1:52.8 1:53.25 8Don MacMillan 1:58.4 –

Semifinal 2 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Arthur Wint 1:52.7 1:52.88 2 Günther Steines 1:52.9 1:52.99 3 Hans Ring 1:53.0 1:53.27 4John Barnes 1:53.4 1:53.54 5Tom White 1:53.6 1:53.79 6Ludvík Liška 1:54.8 1:55.04 7Gennady Modoy 1:55.7 1:56.12 – Patrick El Mabrouk –

Semifinal 3 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Heinz Ulzheimer 1:51.9 1:52.07 2 Lars Wolfbrandt 1:52.4 1:52.59 3 Reggie Pearman 1:52.5 1:52.70 4Jack Hutchins 1:52.8 1:52.81 5Edmund Potrzebowski 1:53.7 1:54.03 6Sohan Singh 1:54.9 1:54.84 7Jenő Bakos 1:55.5 1:55.70 8Frank Evans 1:56.8 1:56.99

Final

Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes Mal Whitfield 1:49.2 1:49.34 Arthur Wint 1:49.4 1:49.63 Heinz Ulzheimer 1:49.7 1:49.78 4 Gunnar Nielsen 1:49.7 1:49.84 5 Albert Webster 1:50.2 1:50.47 6 Günther Steines 1:50.6 1:50.81 7 Reggie Pearman 1:52.1 1:52.31 8 Lars Wolfbrandt 1:52.1 1:52.38 9 Hans Ring 1:54.0 1:54.23

References