The men's 400 metres was an event at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. The competition was held between 16–18 of October. Times are listed as both hand timing and automatic timing. Hand timing was the official time used in the 1968 Olympics. Fifty-five athletes from 36 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Lee Evans of the United States, the fourth consecutive and 11th overall title in the event by an American. The Americans swept the podium, the second time a podium sweep occurred in the men's 400 metres (the United States had previously done it in 1904, when the nation had 10 of the 12 competitors).

Background

This was the sixteenth appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Andrzej Badeński of Poland, who had won bronze in 1964, was the only finalist from the Tokyo Games to compete again in 1968. The United States team was "dominant in this event in 1968"; Larry James held the world record at 44.1 seconds, Lee Evans was the AAU and NCAA champion, and even the third member of the team, Ron Freeman, ran well below Olympic record time at the U.S. trials.

Barbados, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Morocco, Nicaragua, and Sudan appeared in this event for the first time. The federation of Malaysia also competed for the first time, though Malaya had previously appeared. East and West Germany competed separately for the first time. The United States made its sixteenth 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. The "fastest loser" system, introduced in 1964, was available but not used in 1968 because there was no need to balance quarterfinals as there were 8 heats in the first round. Those heats each had between 6 and 8 athletes, with the top four advancing. The 4 quarterfinals each had 8 runners; the top four athletes in each quarterfinal heat advanced to the semifinals. The semifinals featured 2 heats of 8 runners each. The top four runners in each semifinal heat advanced, making an eight-man final.Official Report, vol. 3, p. 522.

Records

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

Lee Evans broke the Olympic record with a 44.8 second run in the second semifinal; both Larry James and Martin Jellinghaus matched the old record in that same semifinal. All three Americans broke the new record in the final, with Evans (43.8 seconds) and James (43.9 seconds) also coming in under the world record time. Evans' auto-timed result of 43.86 seconds was not official under the rules at that point (which used hand-timed results) but was later recognized as the initial world record upon the switch to automatic timing as official in 1977.

Schedule

The quarterfinals were held on the second day (with the semifinals) rather than the first day (with the first round heats), a change from previous years.

All times are Central Standard Time (UTC-6)

Date Time Round Wednesday, 16 October 1968 15:40 Round 1 Thursday, 17 October 1968 15:2018:00 QuarterfinalsSemifinals Friday, 18 October 1968 15:50 Final

Results

Round 1

The top four runners in each of the eight heats advanced to the quarterfinal round.

Heat 1

Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Lee Evans 45.3 45.40 2 Claver Kamanya 45.7 45.74 3 Christian Nicolau 45.7 45.77 4 Sam Bugri 45.8 45.88 5 Manfred Kinder 46.9 46.95 6 Ezra Burnham 47.9 47.94

Heat 2 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Andrzej Badeński 45.5 45.52 2 Clifton Forbes 45.7 45.75 3 Larry James 45.8 45.83 4 Daniel Rudisha 46.9 46.96 5 Angelo Hussein 47.7 47.80 6 Victor Asirvatham 48.0 48.02

Heat 3 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Amadou Gakou 45.3 45.39 2 Tegegne Bezabeh 45.5 45.60 3 Ron Freeman 45.6 45.67 4 Rodobaldo Díaz 46.4 46.48 5 Ramon Magariños 46.9 46.92 6 Anthony Egwunyenga 47.3 47.37 7 Francisco Menocal 49.1 49.14

Heat 4 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Martin Jellinghaus 46.4 46.50 2 Pedro Grajales 46.7 46.73 3 Michael Zerbes 46.8 46.84 4 Ross MacKenzie 47.0 47.05 5 Howard Davies 47.2 47.30 6 Jacques Pennewaert 48.5 48.55 7 José Astacio 52.9 52.92

Heat 5 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Amos Omolo 45.8 45.85 2 Munyoro Nyamau 45.9 45.91 3 Jean-Claude Nallet 45.9 45.93 4 Helmar Müller 45.9 45.98 5 José Jacinto Hidalgo 46.3 46.32 6 Carlos Martínez 47.2 47.28 7 Tony Harper 49.1 49.18

Heat 6 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Jan Werner 45.9 45.97 2 Martin Winbolt-Lewis 46.2 46.27 3 Mamman Makama 46.4 46.49 4 Sergio Bello 46.5 46.54 5 Eddy Téllez 46.7 46.80 6 Noel Carroll 46.8 46.83 7 José L'Oficial 47.9 47.93

Heat 7 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Naftali Bon 46.2 46.21 2 Jan Balachowski 46.2 46.23 3 Musa Dogon Yaro 46.2 46.24 4 Gilles Bertould 46.3 46.31 5 Don Domansky 46.4 46.46 6 Melesio Piña 46.8 46.81 7 Leslie Miller 46.9 46.99 8 Yoyaga Dit Coulibaly 50.0 50.11

Heat 8 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Wolfgang Müller 46.6 46.66 2 Colin Campbell 46.6 46.66 3 Sergio Ottolina 46.7 46.78 4 Juan Carlos Dyrzka 47.0 47.02 5 George Simon 47.9 47.95 6 Omar Ghizlat 48.2 48.23 7 Kun Min-Mu 49.0 49.07

Quarterfinals

The top four runners in each of the four heats advanced to the semifinal round.

Quarterfinal 1 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Amadou Gakou 45.5 45.56 2 Larry James 45.7 45.77 3 Claver Kamanya 46.0 46.03 4 Ross MacKenzie 46.1 46.15 5 Musa Dogon Yaro 46.1 46.19 6 Colin Campbell 46.3 46.35 7 Naftali Bon 46.3 46.39 8 Sergio Bello 46.8 46.84

Quarterfinal 2 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Amos Omolo 45.3 45.33 2 Lee Evans 45.5 45.54 3 Munyoro Nyamau 46.1 46.12 4 Wolfgang Müller 46.2 46.32 5 Jan Balachowski 46.3 46.33 6 Rodobaldo Díaz 46.3 46.38 7 Juan Carlos Dyrzka 46.8 46.85 — Christian Nicolau

Quarterfinal 3 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Jan Werner 45.6 45.63 2 Martin Jellinghaus 45.9 46.00 3 Tegegne Bezabeh 46.0 46.02 4 Sam Bugri 46.0 46.08 5 Clifton Forbes 46.2 46.29 6 Daniel Rudisha 47.6 47.68 7 Gilles Bertould 48.9 48.91 — Sergio Ottolina

Quarterfinal 4 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Ron Freeman 45.3 45.31 2 Andrzej Badeński 45.6 45.60 3 Helmar Müller 45.7 45.78 4 Jean-Claude Nallet 45.7 45.80 5 Martin Winbolt-Lewis 45.9 45.91 6 Michael Zerbes 46.1 46.19 7 Mamman Makama 46.4 46.41 8 Pedro Grajales 46.5 46.53

Semifinals

Top four in each of the two heats advanced to the final round.

Semifinal 1 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Amadou Gakou 45.1 45.17 2 Ron Freeman 45.4 45.47 3 Andrzej Badeński 45.4 45.50 4 Tegegne Bezabeh 45.5 45.60 5 Sam Burgi 45.9 45.92 6 Helmar Müller 46.2 46.22 7 Claver Kamanya 46.2 46.22 8 Wolfgang Müller 48.3 48.37

Semifinal 2 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Lee Evans 44.8 44.83 , 2 Larry James 44.9 44.88 3 Martin Jellinghaus 44.9 45.06 4 Amos Omolo 45.445.52 5 Jan Werner 45.7 45.75 6 Munyoro Nyamau 46.3 46.37 7 Jean-Claude Nallet 49.0 49.01 8 Ross MacKenzie 49.2 49.28

Final

Evans nearly withdrew from the final in protest of the expulsion of his college teammates Tommie Smith and John Carlos from the Games after their Black Power salute. Smith and Carlos, however, convinced him to compete. Evans and James were the first runners to achieve times below 44 seconds in the 400 metres.

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 6 Lee Evans 43.8 43.86 2 Larry James 43.9 43.97 1 Ron Freeman 44.4 44.41 4 5 Amadou Gakou 45.0 45.01 5 3 Martin Jellinghaus 45.3 45.33 6 4 Tegegne Bezabeh 45.4 45.42 7 7 Andrzej Badeński 45.4 45.42 8 8 Amos Omolo 47.6 47.61

References

External links Official report