Athletics at the 1960 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metres

The men's 100 metres was an event at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy. The competition was held at the Olympic Stadium on 31 August and 1 September. Sixty-five competitors from 48 nations entered, but 61 competitors from 45 nations participated.[1] Nations were limited to three athletes each under rules set at the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Armin Hary of the United Team of Germany, breaking the United States's streak of five straight wins and earning the first Olympic title by a German runner in the event (Fritz Hofmann had taken second in 1896).

Men's 100 metres
at the Games of the XVII Olympiad
VenueStadio Olimpico
Rome, Italy
Dates31 August (heats, quarterfinals)
1 September 1960 (semifinals, final)
Competitors61 from 45 nations
Winning time10.2 seconds
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Armin Hary  United Team of Germany
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Dave Sime  United States
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Peter Radford  Great Britain
← 1956
1964 →
Official Video Highlights

Summary edit

Since winning the 1958 European Championship, Armin Hary was a known commodity. His incredible reaction time supposedly had been clocked using high speed cameras at .03 of a second,[2] while normal humans react from .15 upward. Some of his competitors thought he was using some sort of trickery.

Along with Enrique Figuerola asking for a pause, the proceedings to start this 10 second race took 20 minutes. Hary's incredible reaction to the gun and sprint form through the acceleration phase has been studied for generations,[3][4] needless to say it put him in the lead, on the outside of the track in lane 6, putting nearly a 2-metre gap on Peter Radford to his inside. Dave Sime was the slowest out of the blocks with a deficit to make up across the track from Hary in lane 1. But make up the deficit he did, gaining with every step, passing the field by 70 metres and gaining until he was virtually running stride for stride against Hary at the line. Hary held Sime off, leaning at the tape to take the gold. With the fastest closing speed over the last 20 metres, Radford made up a big gap, to take the slight edge over Figueola and Frank Budd all finishing together.

Later, as a professor of sports science, Radford said he thinks he figured out the "tell" Hary used to anticipate the gun.

"He'd wait until we were all on our fingertips in the set position. Then he'd take up his place, pause momentarily – and run. He might get caught with a false start, but he might also get away with it."[5]

Hary ran representing the United Team of Germany, a combined team of German athletes from East and West Germany.

Background edit

This was the fourteenth time the event was held, having appeared at every Olympics since the first in 1896. Manfred Germar, 5th place in 1956, was the only finalist from the Melbourne Games to return in 1960. Notable entrants, along with Hary and Germar, were Americans Ray Norton (U.S. Olympic trial champion), Dave Sime, and Frank Budd, and Canada's Harry Jerome (who shared the world record with Hary at 10 seconds flat).[6]

The British West Indies, Fiji, Kenya, Morocco, South Korea, and Sudan were represented in the event for the first time. The United States was the only nation to have appeared at each of the first fourteen Olympic men's 100 metres events.

Competition format edit

The event retained the same basic four round format from 1920–1956: heats, quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. However, the format was tweaked for the first time since 1936. The number of heats was reduced from 12 to 9 (with six or seven athletes per heat), with the number of runners advancing from each heat increased from 2 to 3. This led to 27 quarterfinalists (up from 24), so the 4 quarterfinal heats were now unbalanced: one had 6 athletes while the other three had 7. As before, however, the top 3 in each quarterfinal advanced to the semifinals. There were 2 heats of 6 semifinalists, once again with the top 3 advancing to the 6-man final.[6]

Records edit

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
Olympic record 10.3   Eddie Tolan Los Angeles, USA 1 August 1932
10.3   Ralph Metcalfe Los Angeles, USA 1 August 1932
10.3   Jesse Owens Berlin, Germany 2 August 1936
10.3   Harrison Dillard London, United Kingdom 31 July, 1948
10.3   Bobby Morrow Melbourne, Australia 23 November 1956
10.3   Ira Murchison Melbourne, Australia 23 November 1956
10.3   Bobby Morrow Melbourne, Australia 24 November 1956

Armin Hary broke the 28-year-old Olympic record with a 10.2 second run in the quarterfinals. He (along with Dave Sime) matched that 10.2 second result in the final.

Results edit

Heats edit

The top three runners in each of the 9 heats advanced.

Heat 1 edit

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Enrique Figuerola   Cuba 10.4 Q
2 Carl Fredrik Bunæs   Norway 10.7 Q
3 Yuriy Konovalov   Soviet Union 10.7 Q
4 Suthi Manyakass   Thailand 10.8
5 Mikhail Bachvarov   Bulgaria 11.0
6 Amos Grodzinowsky   Israel 11.1
7 Raj Joshi Tilak   India 11.3

Heat 2 edit

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Seraphino Antao   Kenya 10.5 Q
2 Armin Hary   United Team of Germany 10.6 Q
3 Heinz Müller   Switzerland 10.8 Q
4 Gustav Ntiforo   Ghana 11.0
5 Isaac Gómez   Philippines 11.0
6 Dennis Tipping   Australia 11.2
7 Abdul Khaliq   Pakistan 11.2

Heat 3 edit

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Horacio Esteves   Venezuela 10.4 Q
2 Dennis Johnson   British West Indies 10.4 Q
3 Dave Sime   United States 10.5 Q
4 Lynn Eves   Canada 10.8
5 Aggrey Awori   Uganda 10.9
6 Patrick Lowry   Ireland 10.9
7 Roba Negousse   Ethiopia 11.3

Heat 4 edit

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Harry Jerome   Canada 10.5 Q
2 Jocelyn Delecour   France 10.5 Q
3 Erasmus Amukun   Uganda 10.6 Q
4 Affonso da Silva   Brazil 10.8
5 Bouchaib El-Maachi   Morocco 10.9
6 Shahrudin Mohamed Ali   Malaya 10.9
- James Omagbemi   Nigeria DNS

Heat 5 edit

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Tom Robinson   Bahamas 10.5 Q
2 Lloyd Murad   Venezuela 10.7 Q
3 Sitiveni Moceidreke   Fiji 10.8 Q
4 George Short   Canada 10.9
5 Emmanuel Putu   Liberia 11.2
6 Kim Jong-cheol   South Korea 11.5

Heat 6 edit

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Ray Norton   United States 10.7 Q
2 Gusman Kosanov   Soviet Union 10.7 Q
3 Santiago Plaza   Mexico 10.8 Q
4 Walter Mahlendorf   United Team of Germany 10.8
5 Romain Poté   Belgium 11.0
6 Aydin Onur   Turkey 11.3
7 Abdul Hadi Shekaib   Afghanistan 11.6

Heat 7 edit

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 David Jones   Great Britain 10.5 Q
2 Abdoulaye Seye   France 10.6 Q
3 Rafael Romero   Venezuela 10.7 Q
4 Elmar Kunauer   Austria 11.0
5 Huang Suh-chuang   Formosa 11.2
6 Khudhir Zalata   Iraq 11.3
- Iftikhar Shah   Pakistan DNF

Heat 8 edit

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Marian Foik   Poland 10.5 Q
2 Edward Jefferys   South Africa 10.6 Q
3 Claude Piquemal   France 10.7 Q
4 Jalal Gozal   Indonesia 10.9
5 Manfred Germar   United Team of Germany 11.0
6 Hamdan El-Tayeb   Sudan 11.1
7 José Albarrán   Spain 11.2

Heat 9 edit

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Peter Radford   Great Britain 10.4 Q
2 Frank Budd   United States 10.4 Q
3 Edvin Ozolin   Soviet Union 10.7 Q
4 Hilmar Thorbjörnsson   Iceland 10.9
5 Nikolaos Georgopoulos   Greece 11.0
6 Moustafa Abdel Kader   Egypt 11.2
7 James Roberts   Liberia 11.2

Quarterfinal edit

The top three runners in each of the four heats advanced to the semifinals.

Quarterfinal 1 edit

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Horacio Esteves   Venezuela 10.5 Q
2 Tom Robinson   Bahamas 10.6 Q
3 Ray Norton   United States 10.6 Q
4 Jocelyn Delecour   France 10.7
5 Edward Jefferys   South Africa 10.7
6 Edvīns Ozoliņš   Soviet Union 10.7
7 Heinz Müller   Switzerland 10.8

Quarterfinal 2 edit

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Armin Hary   United Team of Germany 10.2 Q, OR
2 Dave Sime   United States 10.3 Q
3 Marian Foik   Poland 10.4 Q
4 Dennis Johnson   British West Indies 10.4
5 Carl Fredrik Bunæs   Norway 10.5
6 Yuriy Konovalov   Soviet Union 10.5
7 Sitiveni Moceidreke   Fiji 10.7

Quarterfinal 3 edit

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Frank Budd   United States 10.4 Q
2 Enrique Figuerola   Cuba 10.4 Q
3 David Jones   Great Britain 10.5 Q
4 Erasmus Amukun   Uganda 10.6
5 Claude Piquemal   France 10.6
6 Gusman Kosanov   Soviet Union 10.7
7 Santiago Plaza   Mexico 10.8

Quarterfinal 4 edit

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Harry Jerome   Canada 10.4 Q
2 Peter Radford   Great Britain 10.4 Q
3 Seraphino Antao   Kenya 10.4 Q
4 Abdoulaye Seye   France 10.4
5 Lloyd Murad   Venezuela 10.8
6 Rafael Romero   Venezuela 11.1

Semifinals edit

The top three runners in each of the two semifinals advanced to the final.

Semifinal 1 edit

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Peter Radford   Great Britain 10.4 Q
2 Enrique Figuerola   Cuba 10.4 Q
3 Frank Budd   United States 10.5 Q
4 Marian Foik   Poland 10.5
5 Tom Robinson   Bahamas 10.5
- Harry Jerome   Canada DNF

Semifinal 2 edit

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Armin Hary   United Team of Germany 10.3 Q
2 Dave Sime   United States 10.4 Q
3 Ray Norton   United States 10.4 Q
4 David Jones   Great Britain 10.4
5 Horacio Esteves   Venezuela 10.5
6 Seraphino Antao   Kenya 10.6

Final edit

 
100 m final, left-right: Armin Hary, Peter Radford, Enrique Figuerola, Ray Norton, Frank Budd, Dave Sime

Armin Hary and Dave Sime tied the Olympic record.

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
  Armin Hary   United Team of Germany 10.2 =OR
  Dave Sime   United States 10.2 =OR
  Peter Radford   Great Britain 10.3
4 Enrique Figuerola   Cuba 10.3
5 Frank Budd   United States 10.3
6 Ray Norton   United States 10.4
  • Wind speed = -0.0 m/s

References edit

  1. ^ "Athletics at the 1960 Rome Summer Games: Men's 100 metres". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 17 June 2017.
  2. ^ Phillips, Ellen (1997). The XVII Olympiad: Rome 1960, Innsbruck 1964. World Sport Research & Publications. ISBN 978-1-888383-00-3.
  3. ^ Congress, Library of (1978). "Library of Congress Catalogs: Films and Other Materials for Projection".
  4. ^ "The Rocket Sprint Start, 2011 Edition, now Available!". 2011-11-30.
  5. ^ Lamont, Tom (2010-01-10). "Frozen in time: Armin Hary wins 100m Olympic Gold, Rome, 1960". The Guardian.
  6. ^ a b "100 metres, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 22 July 2020.

External links edit