Athletics at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metres

The men's 1500 metres event at the 1952 Olympics took place between July 24 and July 26. Fifty-two athletes from 26 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Josy Barthel of Luxembourg; to date, this is the only Olympic gold medal won by a Luxembourger, though Luxembourg-born Michel Théato is credited for winning the 1900 Marathon for France. Germany won its first medal in the 1500 metres with Werner Lueg's bronze.

Men's 1500 metres at the Games of the XV Olympiad
Olympic Athletics
Venue	Helsinki Olympic Stadium
Dates	July 24 (heats) July 25 (semifinals) July 26 (final)
Competitors	52 from 26 nations
Winning time	3:45.2 OR
Medalists
Josy Barthel  Luxembourg Bob McMillen  United States Werner Lueg  Germany

Video on YouTube amateur film

Summary

The early leaders of the final were Audun Boysen followed by Warren Druetzler. Towards the end of the first lap, Werner Lueg began to move up to take the lead, with Rolf Lamers on his shoulder to place a wall to control the pack. Patrick El Mabrouk was next in line but unable to get by. On the third lap Lamers was unable to maintain the pace as Josy Barthel and Roger Bannister exchanging elbows with El Mabrouk lined up behind Leug. With 300 metres to go, Leug accelerated, opening up a 5-metre gap down the backstretch but through the final turn, Leug was unable to hold the pace allowing Barthel to catch back up. Bob McMillen moved up from eighth place to catch the group of leaders at the head of the final straight. Barthel went around Leug and sprinted to victory. McMillen ran the long way around El Mabrouk and Bannister and was chasing Barthel down the straight. Leug maintained his gap on Bannister and El Mabrouk, but looked helplessly as McMillen sprinted past, but he didn't have enough race left to catch Barthel, finishing half a metre behind but also being credited with the same time, a new Olympic record.

Background

This was the 12th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Six of the finalists from the 1948 Games returned: bronze medalist Willem Slijkhuis of the Netherlands, fourth-place finisher Václav Čevona of Czechoslovakia, fifth-place finisher Bill Nankeville of Great Britain, and later places (the 1948 final's places after sixth are disputed) Sándor Garay of Hungary, Josy Barthel of Luxembourg, and Denis Johansson of Finland. Werner Lueg of Germany had tied the world record a month before the Games. "There was no favorite for the 1952 1,500 [metres], but the field had outstanding depth."

The Soviet Union, Thailand, and Venezuela each made their first appearance in the event. The United States made its 12th appearance, the only nation to have competed in the men's 1500 metres at each Games to that point.

Competition format

For the first time, the competition expanded to three rounds. There were six heats of between 7 and 10 runners each, with the top four runners in each advancing to the semifinals. This allowed the number of semifinals to be reduced to two and the number of runners in each to be standardized at 12. The top six runners in each semifinal advanced to the final, resulting in the typical 12-man final race.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records prior to the 1952 Summer Olympics.

World record	Gunder Hägg (SWE)	3:43.0	Gothenburg, Sweden	7 July 1944
Olympic record	Jack Lovelock (NZL)	3:47.8	Berlin, Germany	6 August 1936

During the final, Josy Barthel set a new Olympic record at 3:45.2. The top eight men in the final all surpassed the old (pre-World War II) Olympic record.

Schedule

All times are Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3)

Date	Time	Round
Thursday, 24 July 1952	17:10	Round 1
Friday, 25 July 1952	17:40	Semifinals
Saturday, 26 July 1952	16:30	Final

Results

Round 1

The first round was held on July 24. The fastest four runners in each heat advanced to the final round.

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Josy Barthel	Luxembourg	3:51.6	Q
2	Günter Dohrow	Germany	3:51.8	Q
3	Ingvar Ericsson	Sweden	3:52.0	Q
4	Don MacMillan	Australia	3:52.0	Q
5	Sándor Iharos	Hungary	3:56.0
6	Mieczysław Długoborski	Poland	3:57.8
7	Filemón Camacho	Venezuela	4:18.0
8	Pierre Gillet	France	4:26.6
—	Hans Harting	Netherlands	DNF

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Warren Druetzler	United States	3:51.4	Q
2	Sture Landqvist	Sweden	3:52.2	Q
3	Stanislav Jungwirth	Czechoslovakia	3:52.4	Q
4	Mihail Velsvebel	Soviet Union	3:52.6	Q
5	Aulis Pystynen	Finland	3:53.0
6	Len Eyre	Great Britain	3:53.2
7	Fred Lüthi	Switzerland	3:56.4
8	Turhan Göker	Turkey	4:00.6

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Olle Åberg	Sweden	3:51.0	Q
2	Denis Johansson	Finland	3:51.2	Q
3	Rolf Lamers	Germany	3:52.4	Q
4	Bill Parnell	Canada	3:53.4	Q
5	Fritz Prossinagg	Austria	3:54.2
6	Athol Jennings	South Africa	3:55.4
7	Daniel Janssens	Belgium	3:55.8
8	Cahit Önel	Turkey	3:58.4
—	Willem Slijkhuis	Netherlands	DNF

Heat 4

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Patrick El Mabrouk	France	3:55.8	Q
2	Bob McMillen	United States	3:55.8	Q
3	Roger Bannister	Great Britain	3:56.0	Q
4	Vilmos Tölgyesi	Hungary	3:56.0	Q
5	John Landy	Australia	3:57.0
6	Andrija Otenhajmer	Yugoslavia	3:57.8
7	Maurice Marshall	New Zealand	4:01.0
8	Nikolay Kuchurin	Soviet Union	4:03.6
9	Vasilios Mavroidis	Greece	4:07.8

Heat 5

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	George Hoskins	New Zealand	3:56.2	Q
2	Frans Herman	Belgium	3:56.2	Q
3	Bill Nankeville	Great Britain	3:56.4	Q
4	Mykola Belokurov	Soviet Union	3:56.4	Q
5	Urpo Vähäranta	Finland	3:56.8
6	Javier Montez	United States	3:58.2
7	Stefan Lewandowski	Poland	4:00.8

Heat 6

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Werner Lueg	Germany	3:52.0	Q
2	Václav Čevona	Czechoslovakia	3:53.4	Q
3	Audun Boysen	Norway	3:55.0	Q
4	John Ross	Canada	3:55.2	Q
5	Jean Vernier	France	3:56.8
6	Edmund Potrzebowski	Poland	3:56.8
7	Sándor Garay	Hungary	4:01.2
8	Ekrem Koçak	Turkey	4:01.4
9	William Fahmy Hanna	Egypt	4:11.2
10	Satid Leangtanom	Thailand	4:32.6

Semifinals

The fastest six runners in each heat advanced to the final round.

Semifinal 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Denis Johansson	Finland	3:49.4	Q
2	Werner Lueg	Germany	3:49.8	Q
3	Don MacMillan	Australia	3:50.8	Q
4	Warren Druetzler	United States	3:50.8	Q
5	Patrick El Mabrouk	France	3:51.0	Q
6	Audun Boysen	Norway	3:51.0	Q
7	Václav Čevona	Czechoslovakia	3:51.4
8	Sture Landqvist	Sweden	3:51.4
9	Bill Nankeville	Great Britain	3:52.0
10	Bill Parnell	Canada	3:52.4
11	Mihail Velsvebel	Soviet Union	3:52.6
12	George Hoskins	New Zealand	3:53.0

Semifinal 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Josy Barthel	Luxembourg	3:50.4	Q
2	Olle Åberg	Sweden	3:50.6	Q
3	Ingvar Ericsson	Sweden	3:50.6	Q
4	Bob McMillen	United States	3:50.6	Q
5	Roger Bannister	Great Britain	3:50.6	Q
6	Rolf Lamers	Germany	3:50.8	Q
7	Stanislav Jungwirth	Czechoslovakia	3:51.0
8	Vilmos Tölgyesi	Hungary	3:53.2
9	Frans Herman	Belgium	3:53.8
10	Günter Dohrow	Germany	3:55.2
11	Mykola Belokurov	Soviet Union	3:55.6
12	John Ross	Canada	4:00.6

Final

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
	Josy Barthel	Luxembourg	3:45.2	OR
	Bob McMillen	United States	3:45.2
	Werner Lueg	Germany	3:45.4
4	Roger Bannister	Great Britain	3:46.0	NR
5	Patrick El Mabrouk	France	3:46.0
6	Rolf Lamers	Germany	3:46.8
7	Olle Åberg	Sweden	3:47.0
8	Ingvar Ericsson	Sweden	3:47.6
9	Don MacMillan	Australia	3:49.6
10	Denis Johansson	Finland	3:49.8
11	Audun Boysen	Norway	3:51.4
12	Warren Druetzler	United States	3:56.0