The men's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 1960 Olympic Games took place between 26 and 30 August.

Results

Heats

Six heats were held; the swimmers with the sixteen fastest times advanced to the Semifinals. Because there were three swimmers with a time of 2:42.4, a swim-off was held to determine the two that would advance.

Key Advanced to Semifinal See Swim-Off Did Not Advance

Heat One Rank Athlete Country Time 1 Bill Mulliken United States 2:38.0 2 Georgy Prokopenko Soviet Union 2:39.2 3 Gerard Rowlinson Great Britain 2:45.0 4 Engin Ünal Turkey 2:49.0 5 Antonio Saloso Philippines 2:53.3 – László Felkai Hungary DQ – Gerald Brauner Austria DQ

Heat Two Rank Athlete Country Time 1 Arkadiy Holovchenko Soviet Union 2:41.0 2 Đorđe Perišić Yugoslavia 2:41.1 3 Christopher Walkden Great Britain 2:41.5 4 Mihai Mitrofan Romania 2:41.8 5 Farid Zablith Filho Brazil 2:48.6 6 Roland Boullanger France 2:54.4 7 Nicolas Wildhaber Switzerland 2:58.7

Heat Three Rank Athlete Country Time 1 Wieger Mensonides Netherlands 2:39.0 2 Roberto Lazzari Italy 2:41.2 3 Konrad Enke Germany 2:44.6 4 Richard Audoly France 2:46.5 5 Pierpaolo Spangaro Italy 2:53.8 6 Tony Williams Sri Lanka 2:59.8

Heat Four Rank Athlete Country Time 1 Isao Masuda Japan 2:41.2 2 Terry Gathercole Australia 2:41.7 3 Pekka Lairola Finland 2:43.3 4 Bernt Nilsson Sweden 2:45.7 5 Steve Rabinovitch Canada 2:47.2 6 Laurel Lee Chinese Taipei 2:52.8 7 Werner Risi Switzerland 2:56.6

Heat Five Rank Athlete Country Time 1 Paul Hait United States 2:40.8 2 Andrzej Kłopotowski Poland 2:41.4 3 György Kunsági Hungary 2:42.2 4 Egon Henninger Germany 2:42.4 5 Vítězslav Svozil Czechoslovakia 2:42.4 6 Emilio Díaz Spain 2:52.9 7 Trương Ke Nhon South Vietnam 2:53.0 – Erny Schweitzer Luxembourg DQ

Heat Six Rank Athlete Country Time 1 Yoshihiko Osaki Japan 2:39.1 2 Gilbert Desmit Belgium 2:42.4 3 Tommie Lindström Sweden 2:42.8 4 William Burton Australia 2:43.9 5 Guillermo Alsina Spain 2:51.4 6 Gershon Shefa Israel 2:51.7 7 Nikolaos Zakharopoulos Greece 2:56.4

Swim-Off Rank Athlete Country Time 1 Egon Henninger Germany 2:39.5 2 Gilbert Desmit Belgium 2:41.1 3 Vítězslav Svozil Czechoslovakia 2:41.7

Semifinals

Two heats were held; the fastest eight swimmers advanced to the Finals. Those that advanced are highlighted.

Semifinal One Rank Athlete Country Time 1 Bill Mulliken United States 2:37.2 2 Yoshihiko Osaki Japan 2:38.2 3 Egon Henninger Germany 2:38.5 4 Roberto Lazzari Italy 2:40.3 5 Arkady Golovchenko Soviet Union 2:40.9 6 Mihai Mitrofan Romania 2:41.6 7 Christopher Walkden Great Britain 2:41.7 8 Đorđe Perišić Yugoslavia 2:44.2

Semifinal Two Rank Athlete Country Time 1 Terry Gathercole Australia 2:39.1 2 Wieger Mensonides Netherlands 2:39.3 3 Paul Hait United States 2:39.6 4 Andrzej Kłopotowski Poland 2:40.8 5 Georgy Prokopenko Soviet Union 2:41.0 6 Gilbert Desmit Belgium 2:41.8 7 Isao Masuda Japan 2:42.3 8 György Kunsági Hungary 2:42.4

Final

Rank Athlete Country Time Notes Bill Mulliken 2:37.4 Yoshihiko Osaki 2:38.0 Wieger Mensonides 2:39.7 4 Egon Henninger 2:40.1 5 Roberto Lazzari 2:40.1 6 Terry Gathercole 2:40.2 7 Andrzej Kłopotowski 2:41.2 8 Paul Hait 2:41.4

References