The men's 1500 metres event at the 1952 Olympics took place between July 24 and July 26. Fifty-two athletes from 26 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Josy Barthel of Luxembourg; to date, this is the only Olympic gold medal won by a Luxembourger, though Luxembourg-born Michel Théato is credited for winning the 1900 Marathon for France. Germany won its first medal in the 1500 metres with Werner Lueg's bronze.
Summary
The early leaders of the final were Audun Boysen followed by Warren Druetzler. Towards the end of the first lap, Werner Lueg began to move up to take the lead, with Rolf Lamers on his shoulder to place a wall to control the pack. Patrick El Mabrouk was next in line but unable to get by. On the third lap Lamers was unable to maintain the pace as Josy Barthel and Roger Bannister exchanging elbows with El Mabrouk lined up behind Leug. With 300 metres to go, Leug accelerated, opening up a 5-metre gap down the backstretch but through the final turn, Leug was unable to hold the pace allowing Barthel to catch back up. Bob McMillen moved up from eighth place to catch the group of leaders at the head of the final straight. Barthel went around Leug and sprinted to victory. McMillen ran the long way around El Mabrouk and Bannister and was chasing Barthel down the straight. Leug maintained his gap on Bannister and El Mabrouk, but looked helplessly as McMillen sprinted past, but he did not have enough race left to catch Barthel, finishing half a metre behind but also being credited with the same time, a new Olympic record.
It has been retrospectively asserted that Barthel's win was so unexpected that the band playing the winner's national anthem had not prepared the sheet music for Luxembourg's Ons Heemecht, and instead improvised a tune. However, contemporary accounts in the Luxembourgish press suggest the correct anthem was played; the wrong anthem incident actually took place in a dream Barthel had the night before, which he recalled in an radio interview given immediately after his win.
Background
This was the 12th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Six of the finalists from the 1948 Games returned: bronze medalist Willem Slijkhuis of the Netherlands, fourth-place finisher Václav Čevona of Czechoslovakia, fifth-place finisher Bill Nankeville of Great Britain, and later places (the 1948 final's places after sixth are disputed) Sándor Garay of Hungary, Josy Barthel of Luxembourg, and Denis Johansson of Finland. Werner Lueg of Germany had tied the world record a month before the Games. "There was no favorite for the 1952 1,500 [metres], but the field had outstanding depth."
The Soviet Union, Thailand, and Venezuela each made their first appearance in the event. The United States made its 12th appearance, the only nation to have competed in the men's 1500 metres at each Games to that point.
Competition format
For the first time, the competition expanded to three rounds. There were six heats of between 7 and 10 runners each, with the top four runners in each advancing to the semifinals. This allowed the number of semifinals to be reduced to two and the number of runners in each to be standardized at 12. The top six runners in each semifinal advanced to the final, resulting in the typical 12-man final race.Official Report, pp. 281–82.
Records
These were the standing world and Olympic records prior to the 1952 Summer Olympics.
During the final, Josy Barthel set a new Olympic record at 3:45.2. The top eight men in the final all surpassed the old (pre-World War II) Olympic record.
Schedule
All times are Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3)
Date Time Round Thursday, 24 July 1952 17:10 Round 1 Friday, 25 July 1952 17:40 Semifinals Saturday, 26 July 1952 16:30 Final
Results
Round 1 The first round was held on July 24. The fastest four runners in each heat advanced to the final round.
Heat 1 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Josy Barthel 3:51.6 3:51.75 2 Günter Dohrow 3:51.8 3:51.90 3 Ingvar Ericsson 3:52.0 3:52.14 4Don MacMillan 3:52.0 3:52.30 5Sándor Iharos 3:56.0 3:56.85 6Mieczysław Długoborski 3:57.8 3:57.70 7Filemón Camacho 4:18.0 – 8Pierre Gillet 4:26.6 – — Hans Harting – — Hugo Nutini – — Jack Hutchins –
Heat 2 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Warren Druetzler 3:51.4 3:51.66 2 Sture Landqvist 3:52.2 3:52.31 3 Stanislav Jungwirth 3:52.4 3:52.58 4Mihail Velsvebel 3:52.6 3:52.72 5Aulis Pystynen 3:53.0 3:53.33 6Len Eyre 3:53.2 3:53.34 7Fred Lüthi 3:56.4 3:56.52 8Turhan Göker 4:00.6 4:01.02 — Gaston Reiff – — Víctor Solares –
Heat 3 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Olle Åberg 3:51.0 3:51.14 2 Denis Johansson 3:51.2 3:51.22 3 Rolf Lamers 3:52.4 3:52.72 4Bill Parnell 3:53.4 3:53.75 5Fritz Prossinagg 3:54.2 3:54.76 6Athol Jennings 3:55.4 3:55.69 7Daniel Janssens 3:55.8 3:55.98 8Cahit Önel 3:58.4 3:58.42 — Willem Slijkhuis – — Les Perry –
Heat 4 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Patrick El Mabrouk 3:55.8 3:55.77 2 Bob McMillen 3:55.8 3:55.82 3 Roger Bannister 3:56.0 3:56.13 4Vilmos Tölgyesi 3:56.0 3:56.20 5John Landy 3:57.0 3:57.14 6Andrija Otenhajmer 3:57.8 3:58.20 7Maurice Marshall 4:01.0 4:01.03 8Nikolay Kuchurin 4:03.6 4:01.80 9Vasilios Mavroidis 4:07.8 – — Augusto Robles –
Heat 5 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 George Hoskins 3:56.2 3:56.33 2 Frans Herman 3:56.2 3:56.37 3 Bill Nankeville 3:56.4 3:56.48 4Mykola Belokurov 3:56.4 3:56.47 5Urpo Vähäranta 3:56.8 3:56.85 6Javier Montez 3:58.2 3:58.10 7Stefan Lewandowski 4:00.8 4:00.87 — Frank Prince – — Guillermo Solá – — Gunnar Nielsen –
Heat 6 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Werner Lueg 3:52.0 3:52.31 2 Václav Cevona 3:53.4 3:53.45 3 Audun Boysen 3:55.0 3:55.15 4John Ross 3:55.2 3:55.60 5Jean Vernier 3:56.8 3:56.61 6Edmund Potrzebowski 3:56.8 3:56.91 7Sándor Garay 4:01.2 4:01.53 8Ekrem Koçak 4:01.4 4:01.77 9William Fahmy Hanna 4:11.2 – 10Satid Leangtanom 4:32.6 – — Yoshitaka Muroya –
Semifinals
The fastest six runners in each heat advanced to the final round.
Semifinal 1 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Denis Johansson 3:49.4 3:49.60 2 Werner Lueg 3:49.8 3:50.06 3 Don MacMillan 3:50.8 3:50.81 4Warren Druetzler 3:50.8 3:51.16 5Patrick El Mabrouk 3:51.0 3:51.25 6Audun Boysen 3:51.0 3:51.33 7Václav Cevona 3:51.4 3:51.37 8Sture Landqvist 3:51.4 3:51.45 9Bill Nankeville 3:52.0 3:51.93 10Bill Parnell 3:52.4 3:52.91 11Mihail Velsvebel 3:52.6 3:52.58 12George Hoskins 3:53.0 3:52.72
Semifinal 2 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Josy Barthel 3:50.4 3:50.51 2 Olle Åberg 3:50.6 3:50.71 3 Ingvar Ericsson 3:50.6 3:50.77 4Bob McMillen 3:50.6 3:50.84 5Roger Bannister 3:50.6 3:50.92 6Rolf Lamers 3:50.8 3:51.30 7Stanislav Jungwirth 3:51.0 3:51.72 8Vilmos Tölgyesi 3:53.2 3:53.56 9Frans Herman 3:53.8 3:54.04 10Günter Dohrow 3:55.2 3:55.27 11Mykola Belokurov 3:55.6 3:55.49 12John Ross 4:00.6 –
Final
Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes Josy Barthel 3:45.2 3:45.28 Bob McMillen 3:45.2 3:45.39 Werner Lueg 3:45.4 3:45.67 4 Roger Bannister 3:46.0 3:46.30 5 Patrick El Mabrouk 3:46.0 3:46.35 6 Rolf Lamers 3:46.8 3:47.18 7 Olle Åberg 3:47.0 3:47.20 8 Ingvar Ericsson 3:47.6 3:47.70 9 Don MacMillan 3:49.6 3:49.77 10 Denis Johansson 3:49.8 3:50.24 11 Audun Boysen 3:51.4 3:51.75 12 Warren Druetzler 3:56.0 –
References