The women's 100 metres competition at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia was held at the Olympic Stadium on November 29–30.
In the final, Betty Cuthbert clearly beat her teammate Marlene Mathews-Willard out of the blocks, with Heather Armitage and Isabelle Daniels out quickly in close contention. Christa Stubnick had a burst of acceleration to quickly draw even with Daniels as Armitage was unable to hold her speed. Cuthbert expanded upon her slight advantage to pull away to a clear win. Stubnick was able to separate slightly from Daniels with Mathews-Willard steadily gaining from the back. Mathews-Willard caught Daniels and almost nipped Stubnick, clearly the fastest moving athlete at the finish.
Competition format The women's 100 metres competition started with six heats, where the fastest two from each heat qualified to one of the two semifinals groups. The three fastest runners from each semifinals group advanced to the final.
Records Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.
World record11.3Warsaw, PolandAugust 4, 1955Olympic record11.5Berlin, GermanyAugust 4, 1936
Results
Heats Heat 1 Wind: +1.3 m/s Rank Athlete Country Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Giuseppina Leone 11.8 12.00 2 Vira Kalashnykova-Krepkina 11.9 12.08 3 Mae Faggs 12.2 12.36 4 Micheline Fluchot 12.4 12.55 5 Janet Jesudason 13.2 13.41 — Mary Rao –
Heat 2 Wind: +0.6 m/s Rank Athlete Country Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Marlene Mathews-Willard 11.5 11.81 , 2 Galina Rezchikova 11.8 12.11 3 Lucinda Williams 12.0 12.14 4 Maria Kusion-Bibro 12.2 12.34 5 Maureen Rever 12.2 12.36 6 Franca Peggion 12.4 12.55 7 Mary Klass 12.6 12.57
Heat 3 Wind: -1.2 m/s Rank Athlete Country Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Betty Cuthbert 11.4 11.72 , 2 Isabelle Daniels 11.6 11.91 3 Anne Pashley 11.7 11.94 4 Barbara Janiszewska 12.2 12.37 5 Maria Musso 12.2 12.40 6 Diane Matheson 12.4 12.59
Heat 4 Wind: +2.4 m/s Rank Athlete Country Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Heather Armitage 11.5 11.81 2 Gisela Birkemeyer 11.7 11.85 3 Shirley Strickland 11.7 11.86 4 Eleanor Haslam 11.8 11.98 5 Halina Górecka 12.2 12.38 6 Maeve Kyle 12.3 12.48
Heat 5 Wind: +3.5 m/s Rank Athlete Country Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Galina Popova 11.6 11.86 2 Catherine Capdevielle 11.7 12.10 3 Inge Fuhrmann 12.2 12.31 4 Annie Choong 12.5 12.73 — Bertha Díaz – — Francisca Sañopal –
Heat 6 Wind: -4.0 m/s Rank Athlete Country Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Christa Stubnick 11.7 11.89 2 June Foulds 11.9 12.15 3 Margaret Stuart 12.3 12.38 4 Elaine Winter 12.5 12.59 5 Claudette Masdammer 12.7 12.87 — Manolita Cinco –
Semifinals
Semifinal 1 Wind: -4.0 m/s Rank Athlete Country Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Christa Stubnick 11.9 12.05 2 Betty Cuthbert 12.0 12.08 3 Giuseppina Leone 12.1 12.22 4 June Foulds 12.1 12.24 5 Galina Popova 12.2 12.34 6 Catherine Capdevielle 12.4 12.53
Semifinal 2 Wind: 0.0 m/s Rank Athlete Country Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Marlene Mathews-Willard 11.6 11.80 2 Heather Armitage 11.6 11.87 3 Isabelle Daniels 11.7 11.94 4 Gisela Birkemeyer 11.9 12.07 5 Vira Kalashnykova-Krepkina 11.9 12.07 6 Galina Reshchikova 12.1 12.23
Final
Wind: -2.3 m/s Rank Athlete Country Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes Betty Cuthbert 11.5 11.82 Christa Stubnick 11.7 11.92 Marlene Mathews-Willard 11.7 11.94 4 Isabelle Daniels 11.8 11.98 5 Giuseppina Leone 11.9 12.07 6 Heather Armitage 12.0 12.10
References