The men's 400 metres was an event at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. The competition was held on 28 & 29 of November. Times are listed as both hand timing and automatic timing. Hand timing was the official time used in the 1956 Olympics. Forty-two athletes from 23 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress.

The event was won by 0.26 seconds by Charles Jenkins Sr. of the United States, the nation's 8th title in the event and breaking a two-Games string of victories by Jamaican runners. Karl-Friedrich Haas's silver was the first medal in the event by the "United Team" of Germany, though Germany had medaled in 1912 and 1928. Finland and the Soviet Union each claimed their first men's 400 metres medals as well with a tie for bronze between Voitto Hellstén and Ardalion Ignatyev.

Summary Lou Jones entered the Olympics as the world record holder, having first set it in early 1955 in Mexico City, then improving his record at the 1956 United States Olympic Trials. He managed to get into the final expending the minimum effort, running just fast enough to qualify behind the South African Malcolm Spence and ahead of Jamaican Melville Spence, twin brother of the Jamaican Malcolm Spence who ran in the other semi-final. That's three M. Spences in the semi-final round, including two named Malcolm. Four years later, both Malcolms would again make it to the semi-final round and each would leave that Olympics with a bronze medal.

Jones took off from the start of the race, pulling away from the field on the backstretch and reaching the half way point with a 3 metre lead on Ardalion Ignatyev. But there is a reality to running the 400 meters, Jones' exuberance caught up with him, his movement strained. The lead began to shrink through the final turn, to barely a metre by the time he reached the home stretch. More importantly, he had nothing left in the tank for the final sprint. By that point, his American teammate, Charles Jenkins was only a metre behind Ignatyev and gaining. With more speed down the final straightaway, in the next 40 metres, Jenkins caught Jones at the same time as Ignatyev. Jones could only look helplessly while Ignatyev strained. Another two metres back, Karl-Friedrich Haas was in full flight with Voitto Hellstén another metre behind in his wake. As Jenkins ran away to gold, Hellstén closed rapidly, the next three runners hitting the finish line virtually at the same time. With a slight lean at the finish, the tall Haas was given silver, but the photo finish could not separate Hellstén and Ignatyev, both being given the bronze medal.

Background

This was the thirteenth appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Both the Jamaican team (which had gone 1-2 in both 1948 and 1952) and the American team (bronze both years) saw complete turnover; the only finalist left from Helsinki was the German Karl-Friedrich Haas (4th in 1948). Pan American champion and world record holder Lou Jones of the United States, 1955 AAU champion Charles Jenkins Sr. of the United States, and 1954 European champion Ardalion Ignatyev of the Soviet Union were among the favorites.

Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Malaya, Nigeria, and the Philippines appeared in this event for the first time; Germany made its first appearance as the United Team of Germany. The United States made its thirteenth 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. With a smaller field than in 1952, the number of heats was reduced. There were 8 heats in the first round, each with between 4 and 7 athletes. The top three runners in each heat advanced to the quarterfinals. There were 4 quarterfinals of 6 runners each; the top three athletes in each quarterfinal heat advanced to the semifinals. The semifinals featured 2 heats of 6 runners each. The top two runners in each semifinal heat advanced, making a six-man final.Official Report, pp. 290–91.

Records

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

No records were set during this event.

Schedule

All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10)

Date Time Round Wednesday, 28 November 1956 15:0017:35Round 1Quarterfinals Thursday, 29 November 1956 15:0017:30SemifinalsFinals

Results

Heats

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

Heat 1 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Lou Jones 48.1 48.30 2 Murray Cockburn 49.0 49.07 3 Abdullah Khan 49.0 49.19 4 Konstantin Grachev 49.4 49.58 5 Beyene Legesse 50.7 50.83 — Kanji Akagi — — Mike Agostini —

Heat 2 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Terry Tobacco 47.9 47.92 2 Jacques Degats 48.3 48.32 3 Jim Lea 48.3 48.41 4 Bartonjo Rotich 48.8 48.90 5 Jaime Aparicio 49.0 49.14 6 Pablo Somblingo 49.4 49.50 7 Kenneth Perera no time 51.96

Heat 3 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Malcolm Spence 47.7 47.77 2 Jürgen Kühl 48.7 48.74 3 Charles Jenkins Sr. 48.7 48.82 4 Abebe Hailou 49.0 49.18 5 Abdul Karim Amu 49.4 49.57 — Joseph Narmah — — Jaroslav Jirásek —

Heat 4 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Voitto Hellstén 48.4 48.52 2 Mike Wheeler 49.3 49.37 3 Kibet Boit 49.3 49.48 4 Laird Sloan 50.0 50.18 5 Somsak Thonf Ar-Ram 53.4 53.61 — Alfonso Muñoz — — Joe Goddard —

Heat 5 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Karl-Friedrich Haas 47.2 47.29 2 Graham Gipson 47.7 47.87 3 John Salisbury 47.7 47.95 4 Milkha Singh 48.9 49.07 — Ruben Guevara — — Yury Bashlikov — — Manikavagasam Harichandra —

Heat 6 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Ardalion Ignatyev 48.6 48.69 2 George Kerr 49.7 49.74 3 Pierre Haarhoff 49.8 49.99 4 Kamau Wanyoke 50.6 50.74 — Ilie Savel — — René Weber — — Václav Janeček —

Heat 7 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Kevan Gosper 48.0 48.07 2 Mal Spence 48.2 48.31 3 Iván Rodríuez 48.8 48.86 4 Gérard Rasquin 50.6 50.76 5 Abdul Rahim bin Ahmed 50.8 50.93 6 George Johnson 54.8 — — Josef Trousil —

Heat 8 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Peter Higgins 47.9 47.98 2 Mel Spence 47.9 48.00 3 Jean-Paul Martin du Gard 48.3 48.39 4 John Goodman 48.5 48.73 5 Ajanew Bayene 51.3 51.53 — Horst Mann — — Edmund Turton —

Quarterfinals

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

Quarterfinal 1 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Lou Jones 47.4 47.42 2 John Salisbury 47.4 47.60 3 Iván Rodríguez 47.5 47.64 4 Terry Tobacco 47.7 47.79 5 Jürgen Kühl 48.0 48.23 — Abdullah Khan —

Quarterfinal 2 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Ardalion Ignatyev 46.8 46.88 2 Mal Spence 47.4 47.42 3 Peter Higgins 47.4 47.43 4 Graham Gipson 47.4 47.45 5 Jacques Degats 48.7 48.79 6 Murray Cockburn 49.5 49.74

Quarterfinal 3 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Voitto Hellstén 46.8 46.85 2 Malcolm Spence 47.1 47.08 3 Mel Spence 47.3 47.38 4 Pierre Haarhoff 47.6 47.82 5 Jim Lea 48.1 48.33 6 Kibet Boit 49.1 49.18

Quarterfinal 4 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Kevan Gosper 46.7 46.83 2 Karl-Friedrich Haas 47.3 47.37 3 Charlie Jenkins 47.5 47.63 4 George Kerr 47.7 47.79 5 Mike Wheeler 47.9 48.05 6 Jean-Paul Martin du Gard 48.2 48.37

Semifinals

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

Semifinal 1 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Ardalion Ignatyev 46.8 46.93 2 Malcolm Spence 47.2 47.27 3 Lou Jones 47.3 47.32 4 Mel Spence 47.5 47.58 5 Peter Higgins 47.7 47.65 6 Iván Rodríguez 47.7 47.86

Semifinal 2 Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) Notes 1 Charles Jenkins Sr. 46.1 46.19 2 Voitto Hellstén 46.1 46.20 3 Karl-Friedrich Haas 46.2 46.29 4 Kevan Gosper 46.2 46.45 5 John Salisbury 47.3 47.47 6 Mal Spence 47.4 47.52

Final Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (auto) 4 Charles Jenkins Sr. 46.7 46.86 5 Karl-Friedrich Haas 46.8 47.12 3 Voitto Hellstén 47.0 47.15 2 Ardalion Ignatyev 47.0 47.15 5 6 Lou Jones 48.1 48.35 6 1 Malcolm Spence 48.3 48.40

References

External links Official report