The Women's 80 metres hurdles at the 1952 Summer Olympics took place on July 24 and July 25 at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium. Australian athlete Shirley Strickland de la Hunty earned the gold medal, setting new World and Olympic records.
Summary Suffering from skin boils, defending champion Fanny Blankers-Koen was dropping out of other events to save herself for this event. In the first heat, Shirley Strickland set the Olympic record at 11.0. Strickland improved upon that with a 10.8 in the semi-final round, joined by Maria Sander and Jean Desforges also running 10.9. It would have been a world record race but instead was wind aided.
In the final, Blankers-Koen blasted out to a clear early lead over the first hurdle. Still leading she hit the second hurdle hard and was knocked off stride. She quit after jumping the third hurdle, this was the last race of her career. Meanwhile Strickland was left with a metre lead on the closest chaser Sander. At the sixth hurdle, Sander lost her stride and struggled, leaving Maria Golubnichaya in silver position but more than 2 metres behind Strickland. And those positions held, Strickland well ahead of Golubnichaya, a slowing Sander leaning across the finish line to hold off her teammate Anneliese Seonbuchner for bronze.
Results
Heats The first round was held on July 23. The two fastest runners qualified for the semifinals.
Heat 1 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Shirley Strickland de la Hunty 11.0 11.24 , =OR 2 Milena Greppi 11.7 11.95 3 Miyo Miyashita 11.8 12.06 4 Colette Elloy 11.9 12.31 5 Jorun Askersrud Tangen 12.2 12.51 – Olga Gyarmati –
Heat 2 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Fanny Blankers-Koen 11.2 11.34 2 Edna Maskell 11.6 11.80 3 Klára Soós 11.9 11.98 4 Hilde Antes 12.0 12.31 5 Nilima Ghose 12.9 13.07 – Marion Huber – – Gertrud Pruschak –
Heat 3 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Elene Gokieli 11.5 11.59 2 Pam Seaborne 11.5 11.62 3 Wilhelmina Lust 11.6 11.69 4 Seija Pöntinen 11.8 12.22 5 Pui Wah Tang 12.8 13.09 – Shirley Eckel –
Heat 4 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Jean Desforges 11.4 11.51 2 Anneliese Seonbuchner 11.4 11.55 3 Luella Law 11.8 12.09 4 Helene Bielansky 11.8 12.10 5 Sylvi Keskinen 12.4 12.68 6 Leah Horowitz-Ravid 12.4 12.74
Heat 5 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Maria Sander 11.3 11.41 2 Claudie Flament 11.5 11.83 3 Anna Aleksandrova 11.5 11.86 4 Maria Musso 11.9 12.17 5 Constance Darnowski 12.1 12.29 6 Aino Autio 12.1 12.31 – Rosella Thorne –
Heat 6 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Maria Golubnichaya 11.1 11.29 2 Wanda dos Santos 11.3 11.58 3 Yvette Monginou 11.3 11.64 4 Elfriede Steurer 11.4 11.74 5 Pauline Threapleton 11.9 11.88 6 Gretel Bolliger 12.3 12.56
Semifinals The semifinals were held on July 23, the same day as the preliminary round. The first three runners from each heat qualified for the final.
Heat 1 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Shirley Strickland de la Hunty 10.8 11.16 , Due to excessive wind assistance during the race, this result did not count as a new World Record.Official Olympic Report , la84.org. 2 Maria Sander 10.9 11.19 3 Jean Desforges 10.9 11.37 4 Elene Gokieli 11.1 11.46 5 Edna Maskell 11.2 11.50 6 Milena Greppi 11.4 11.80
Heat 2 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Maria Golubnichaya 11.2 11.35 2 Fanny Blankers-Koen 11.3 11.42 3 Anneliese Seonbuchner 11.4 11.70 4 Pam Seaborne 11.4 11.71 5 Wanda dos Santos 11.4 11.74 6 Claudie Flament 11.6 11.89
Final The final was held on July 24.
Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes Shirley Strickland de la Hunty 10.9 11.01 Maria Golubnichaya 11.1 11.24 Maria Sander 11.1 11.38 4 Anneliese Seonbuchner 11.2 11.46 5 Jean Desforges 11.6 11.75 Fanny Blankers-Koen –
References