Cycling at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's individual pursuit

These are the official results of the Men's individual pursuit at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, held on 31 August and 1 September 1972. There were 28 participants from 28 nations.

Men's cycling individual pursuit at the Games of the XX Olympiad
Venue	Munich, West Germany
Date	31 August to 1 September 1972
Competitors	28 from 28 nations
Medalists
Knut Knudsen  Norway Xaver Kurmann  Switzerland Hans Lutz  West Germany

Competition format

The individual pursuit competition consisted of a qualifying round and a 3-round knockout tournament, including a bronze medal race. Each race, in both the qualifying round and the knock-out rounds, consisted of a pair of cyclists starting from opposite sides of the track. The cyclists raced for 4,000 metres, attempting to finish with the fastest time and, if possible, catch the other cyclist. For the qualifying round, the eight fastest times overall (regardless of whether the cyclist finished first or second in his heat, though any cyclist who was overtaken was eliminated) earned advancement to the knockout rounds. In the knockout rounds, the winner of each heat advanced to the next round.

Results

Qualifying round

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Knut Knudsen	Norway	4:49.06	Q
2	John Bylsma	Australia	4:50.06	Q
3	Hans Lutz	West Germany	4:51.33	Q
4	Luciano Borgognoni	Italy	4:52.37	Q
5	Xaver Kurmann	Switzerland	4:54.50	Q
6	Carlos Miguel Álvarez	Argentina	4:55.46	Q
7	Roy Schuiten	Netherlands	4:56.10	Q
8	Luis Díaz	Colombia	4:56.32	Q
9	Thomas Huschke	East Germany	4:57.95
10	Ian Hallam	Great Britain	4:59.43
11	Francisco Huerta	Mexico	5:00.93
12	John Vande Velde	United States	5:01.75
13	Reno Olsen	Denmark	5:02.00
14	Mieczysław Nowicki	Poland	5:02.28
15	Ivan Tsvetkov	Bulgaria	5:02.39
16	Milan Puzrla	Czechoslovakia	5:02.55
17	Miguel Espinós	Spain	5:03.26
18	Wilfried Wesemael	Belgium	5:04.67
19	Raimo Suikkanen	Finland	5:06.77
20	Michel Zucarelli	France	5:07.17
21	Roberto Heredero	Cuba	5:07.70
22	Ron Hayman	Canada	5:17.51
23	Vernon Stauble	Trinidad and Tobago	5:17.87
24	Orlando Bates	Barbados	5:19.68
25	Khosro Haghgosha	Iran	5:22.98
26	Michael Lecky	Jamaica	5:29.90
27	Tarek Abou Al Dahab	Lebanon	5:41.19
28	Maximo Junta	Philippines	5:53.19

Quarterfinals

Quarterfinal 1

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Xaver Kurmann	Switzerland	4:50.54	Q
2	Luciano Borgognoni	Italy	4:52.31

Quarterfinal 2

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Hans Lutz	West Germany	4:56.17	Q
2	Carlos Miguel Álvarez	Argentina	4:57.09

Quarterfinal 3

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	John Bylsma	Australia	4:50.47	Q
2	Roy Schuiten	Netherlands	4:52.16

Quarterfinal 4

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Knut Knudsen	Norway	4:47.43	Q
2	Luis Díaz	Colombia	Overtaken

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Xaver Kurmann	Switzerland	4:47.04	Q
2	John Bylsma	Australia	4:47.41	B

Semifinal 2

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Knut Knudsen	Norway	4:45.57	Q
2	Hans Lutz	West Germany	Overtaken	B

Finals

Bronze medal match

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time
	Hans Lutz	West Germany	4:50.80
4	John Bylsma	Australia	4:54.93

Final

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time
	Knut Knudsen	Norway	4:45.74
	Xaver Kurmann	Switzerland	4:51.96

Final classification

Rank	Name	Nationality
	Knut Knudsen	Norway
	Xaver Kurmann	Switzerland
	Hans Lutz	West Germany
4	John Bylsma	Australia
5	Carlos Miguel Álvarez	Argentina
	Luciano Borgognoni	Italy
	Luis Díaz	Colombia
	Roy Schuiten	Netherlands
9	Thomas Huschke	East Germany
10	Ian Hallam	Great Britain
11	Francisco Huerta	Mexico
12	John Vande Velde	United States
13	Reno Olsen	Denmark
14	Mieczysław Nowicki	Poland
15	Ivan Tsvetkov	Bulgaria
16	Milan Puzrla	Czechoslovakia
17	Miguel Espinós	Spain
18	Wilfried Wesemael	Belgium
19	Raimo Suikkanen	Finland
20	Michel Zucarelli	France
21	Roberto Heredero	Cuba
22	Ron Hayman	Canada
23	Vernon Stauble	Trinidad and Tobago
24	Orlando Bates	Barbados
25	Khosro Haghgosha	Iran
26	Michael Lecky	Jamaica
27	Tarek Abou Al Dahab	Lebanon
28	Maximo Junta	Philippines