The men's 100 metres was the shortest of the men's track races in the Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics program in Tokyo, Japan. It was held at the Olympic Stadium on 14 and 15 October 1964. 76 athletes from 49 nations entered, with three not starting in the first round. Nations were limited to three athletes each, per rules in force since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The first two rounds were held on Wednesday, 14 October, with the semifinals and final on the following day.

In the final, American Bob Hayes tied the world record of 10.0 seconds and won the gold medal. Enrique Figuerola of Cuba and Harry Jerome of Canada tied the previous Olympic record time (10.2 seconds). It was Cuba's first medal in the event; Canada earned its first men's 100 metres medal since 1928.

Background

This was the fifteenth time the event was held, having appeared at every Olympics since the first in 1896. Neither of the top two runners from 1960 returned, but Rome bronze medalist Brit Peter Radford and fourth-place finisher Cuban Enrique Figuerola did. Other notable entrants were American Bob Hayes (the favorite who was unbeaten in the event, including the 100 yards variant, since 1962) and Canadian Harry Jerome (a 1960 semifinalist who held a share of the world record). A muscle strain prevented Venezuelan Horacio Esteves (another 1960 semifinalist with a share of the world record) from competing.

Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo, the Dominican Republic, Iran, the Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mali, Northern Rhodesia, Rhodesia, Senegal, and Vietnam were represented in the event for the first time. The new federation of Malaysia also competed for the first time, though both Malaya and Singapore had previously appeared. The United States was the only nation to have appeared at each of the first fifteen Olympic men's 100 metres events.

Competition format

The event retained the same basic four round format from 1920–1960: heats, quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. However, after an extremely static format from 1936 to 1956, the format was modified for a second time in 1964 after 1960's tweaks. The changes generally increased the number of athletes in each race; for the first time in Olympic men's 100 metres history, 8 runners competed at a time.

1936–56 1960 1964 Heats Number of heats 12 9 10 Athletes per heat Up to 7 6–7 7–8 Qualifiers per heat 2 3 3 Quarterfinals Number of heats 4 4 4 Athletes per heat 6 6–7 7–8 Qualifiers per heat 3 3 4 Semifinals Number of heats 2 2 2 Athletes per heat 6 6 8 Qualifiers per heat 3 3 4 Finals Number of heats 1 1 1 Athletes per heat 6 6 8

Records

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

World record 10.0 Armin Hary Zürich, Switzerland 21 June 1960 10.0 Harry Jerome Saskatoon, Canada 15 July 1960 10.0 Horacio Esteves Caracas, Venezuela 15 August 1964 Olympic record 10.2 Armin Hary Rome, Italy 31 August 1960 10.3 Armin Hary Rome, Italy 31 August 1960 10.3 Dave Sime Rome, Italy 31 August 1960

Bob Hayes had an official time of 10.0 seconds in the final, breaking the Olympic record by 0.2 seconds and matching the world record. His official time of 9.9 seconds in the semifinals did not count for records purposes because of wind assistance.

Results

First round

The top three runners in each of the 10 heats advanced. The Official Report describes the weather for these heats as 'rainy'. The wind varied widely, between a 2.85 m/s headwind (in heat 3) and a 1.60 m/s tailwind (in heat 6).Official Report, vol. 2, pp. 19–20.

Heat 1 Wind: +0.6 m/s

Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Hideo Iijima 10.3 10.40 2 Bernard Laidebeur 10.5 10.51 3 Edvin Ozolin 10.5 10.52 4 Kenneth Powell 10.7 10.74 5 Zbigniew Syka 10.7 10.79 6 Jean-Louis Ravelomanantsoa 10.8 10.89 7 Sara Camara 11.3 –

Heat 2 Wind: -2.5 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Trenton Jackson 10.5 10.53 2 Peter Radford 10.6 10.69 3 B. El Maachi Bouchaib 10.6 10.70 4 Csaba Csutorás 10.7 10.72 5 Johan Du Preez 10.7 10.79 6 Jeong Gi-seon 11.0 11.08 7 Arnulfo Valles 11.1 11.21

Heat 3 Wind: -2.8 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Gaoussou Koné 10.5 10.50 2 Mel Pender 10.5 10.53 3 Michael Ahey 10.6 10.61 4 Franciscus Luitjes 10.6 10.69 5 Wilton Jackson 10.6 10.70 6 Lynn Davies 10.7 10.78 7 Gerardo di Tolla 10.9 10.99 8 Lee Ar-tu 11.2 –

Heat 4 Wind: -0.7 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Marian Dudziak 10.6 10.60 2 Stanley Fabian Allotey 10.6 10.62 3 John Owiti 10.6 10.64 4 Carlos Lorenzo 10.7 10.74 5 George Collie 10.9 10.90 6 Masaru Kamata 10.9 10.94 7 Ho Thành Chinh 11.9 – — Nikolay Politiko –

Heat 5 Wind: +0.3 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Harry Jerome 10.5 10.51 2 Claude Piquemal 10.5 10.58 3 Lloyd Murad 10.8 10.86 4 James Odongo 10.9 10.91 5 Gusman Kosanov 10.9 10.94 6 Abdoulaye N'Diaye 11.0 11.06 7 Levi Psavkin 11.1 11.13

Heat 6 Wind: +1.6 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Heinz Schumann 10.5 10.52 2 Dennis O. Johnson 10.6 10.61 3 William Earle 10.7 10.79 4 Serafino Antao 10.7 10.79 5 Huba Rozsnyai 10.8 10.84 6 Alf Meakin 10.8 10.91 7 David Njitock 11.1 11.13 8 Akbar Babakhanloo 11.1 11.14

Heat 7 Wind: -1.8 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Wiesław Maniak 10.5 10.57 2 Arquímedes Herrera 10.5 10.59 3 Mani Jegathesan 10.6 10.60 4 José de Rocha 11.0 11.02 5 Bassirou Doumbia 11.0 11.02 6 Francisco Gutiérrez 11.0 11.03 7 Iftikhar Shah 11.4 11.49

Heat 8 Wind: +0.2 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Bob Hayes 10.4 10.41 2 Tom Robinson 10.5 10.50 3 Bob Lay 10.5 10.53 4 Ito Jiani 10.6 10.69 5 Rogelio Onofre 10.7 10.78 6 Khudher Zalada 11.1 11.17 — David Ejoke –

Heat 9 Wind: +0.2 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Fritz Obersiebrasse 10.4 10.47 2 Iván Moreno 10.5 10.59 3 Pablo McNeil 10.5 10.60 4 László Mihályfi 10.6 10.65 5 Gary Holdsworth 10.6 10.69 6 Max Barandun 10.7 10.79 7 Jeffery Smith 10.8 10.86 – Wesley Johnson –

Heat 10 Wind: -0.5 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Enrique Figuerola 10.5 10.50 2 Lynn Headley 10.5 10.57 3 Roger Bambuck 10.6 10.62 4 Manfred Knickenberg 10.7 10.74 5 Léon Yombe 10.8 10.87 6 Alberto Torres 10.9 10.93 7 Suthi Manyakass 10.9 10.98 8 Rogelio Rivas 11.1 11.12

Quarterfinals

The top four runners in each of the four second round heats advanced to the semifinals. The weather was cloudy and winds were tailwinds throughout.Official Report, vol. 2, p. 20.

Quarterfinal 1 Wind: +1.9 m/s

Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Harry Jerome 10.3 10.32 2 Trenton Jackson 10.4 10.41 3 Fritz Obersiebrasse 10.4 10.44 4 Gaoussou Koné 10.4 10.45 5 Dennis O. Johnson 10.5 10.51 6 Marian Dudziak 10.5 10.52 7 Bernard Laidebeur 10.5 10.59 8 William Joseph Earle 10.6 10.60

Quarterfinal 2 Wind: +1.7 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Enrique Figuerola 10.3 10.31 2 Wiesław Maniak 10.3 10.35 3 Bob Lay 10.4 10.42 4 Claude Piquemal 10.4 10.48 5 Edvin Ozolin 10.4 10.48 6 B. El Maachi Bouchaib 10.5 10.57 7 John Owiti 10.6 10.64

Quarterfinal 3 Wind: +1.0 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Tom Robinson 10.3 10.38 2 Mel Pender 10.4 10.44 3 Iijima Hideo 10.5 10.50 4 Pablo McNeil 10.5 10.54 5 Mani Jegathesan 10.6 10.62 6 Iván Moreno 10.6 10.69 7 Stanley Fabian Allotey 10.7 10.73 8 Lloyd Murad 10.7 10.77

Quarterfinal 4 Wind: +1.7 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Bob Hayes 10.3 10.37 2 Arquimedes Herrera 10.4 10.43 3 Lynn Headley 10.4 10.50 4 Heinz Schumann 10.5 10.55 5 Peter Radford 10.5 10.59 6 Roger Bambuck 10.5 10.60 7 Michael Ahey 10.6 10.67

Semifinals

The top four runners in each of the two semifinals advanced to the final. The weather was described as "fine," with lower humidity than the first two rounds and a temperature of 23.8 degrees Celsius. There was a strong tailwind for the first semifinal and a moderate headwind for the second.Official Report, vol. 2, p. 21.

Semifinal 1

The tailwind speed of 5.28 m/s meant this semifinal was ineligible for record purposes.

Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Bob Hayes 9.9 9.91 2 Wiesław Maniak 10.1 10.15 3 Tom Robinson 10.2 10.22 4 Heinz Schumann 10.3 10.30 5 Robert William Lay 10.3 10.35 6 Pablo McNeil 10.3 10.39 7 Arquimedes Herrera 10.4 10.42 8 Trenton Jackson 10.6 10.66

Semifinal 2 Wind: -1.3 m/s

Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Harry Jerome 10.3 10.37 2 Gaoussou Koné 10.4 10.48 3 Enrique Figuerola 10.4 10.48 4 Mel Pender 10.4 10.49 5 Claude Piquemal 10.5 10.56 6 Lynn Headley 10.5 10.59 7 Iijima Hideo 10.6 10.63 8 Fritz Obersiebrasse 10.6 10.68

Final

Until the Tokyo Olympics world records were measured by officials with stopwatches, measured to the nearest tenth of a second. Although fully automatic timing was used in Tokyo, the times were given the appearance of manual timing. This was done by subtracting 0.05 seconds from the automatic time and rounding to the nearest tenth of a second, making Hayes' time of 10.06 seconds convert to 10.0 seconds (a new Olympic record and matching the existing world record), despite the fact that the officials with stopwatches had measured Hayes' time to be 9.9 seconds,revisionist history: men's 100 WR. trackandfieldnews.com. 1 November 2013 and the average difference between manual and automatic times was typically 0.15 to 0.20 seconds. This unique method of determining the official time therefore denied Hayes the record of being the first to officially record 9.9 seconds for the 100 meters. The first official times of 9.9 seconds were recorded at the "Night of Speed" in 1968.

The final was run in "fine" weather, with a tailwind of just over a metre per second. Hayes ran on lane one, which had been damaged by competitors in the men's 10,000 metres and the men's 20 km walk. Nevertheless, his "margin of victory was described by Track & Field News as 'insulting to an Olympic final field.'"

Wind: +1.0 m/s Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes Bob Hayes 10.0 10.06 Enrique Figuerola 10.2 10.25 Harry Jerome 10.2 10.27 4 Wiesław Maniak 10.4 10.42 5 Heinz Schumann 10.4 10.46 6 Gaoussou Koné 10.4 10.47 Mel Pender 10.4 10.47 8 Tom Robinson 10.5 10.57

References

Official Report