Athletics at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metres hurdles

The men's 400 metres hurdles event at the 1952 Summer Olympics took place July 20–21, 1952 at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium. There were 40 competitors from 24 nations. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The final was won by American Charles Moore. It was the nation's third consecutive and eighth overall victory in the event. The Soviet Union, in its debut, and New Zealand each earned their first medal in the men's 400 metres hurdles, with Yuriy Lituyev's silver and John Holland's bronze, respectively.

Men's 400 metres hurdles at the Games of the XV Olympiad
Charles Moore
Venue	Helsinki Olympic Stadium
Dates	July 20, 1952 (heats, quarterfinals) July 21, 1952 (semifinals, final)
Competitors	40 from 24 nations
Winning time	50.8 =OR
Medalists
Charles Moore  United States Yuriy Lituyev  Soviet Union John Holland  New Zealand

Video on YouTube amateur film

Background

This was the 10th time the event was held. It had been introduced along with the men's 200 metres hurdles in 1900, with the 200 being dropped after 1904 and the 400 being held through 1908 before being left off the 1912 programme. However, when the Olympics returned in 1920 after World War I, the men's 400 metres hurdles was back and would continue to be contested at every Games thereafter.

One of the six finalists from the 1948 Games returned: bronze medalist Rune Larsson of Sweden. The favorite was Charles Moore of the United States, the four-time AAU champion and the second man to run the race under 51 seconds. His biggest competition was expected to be Yuriy Lituyev of the Soviet Union.

Iceland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Puerto Rico, the Soviet Union, and Venezuela each made their debut in the event. The United States made its 10th appearance, the only nation to have competed at every edition of the event to that point.

Competition format

The competition expanded to a four-round format from the three-round format used since 1908: heats, quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. Ten sets of hurdles were set on the course. The hurdles were 3 feet (91.5 centimetres) tall and were placed 35 metres apart beginning 45 metres from the starting line, resulting in a 40 metres home stretch after the last hurdle. The 400 metres track was standard.

There were 8 first-round heats of between 4 and 6 athletes each, with the top 3 hurdlers in each heat advancing to the quarterfinals. There were 4 quarterfinal heats with 6 athletes each. The top 3 men in each quarterfinal advanced to the semifinals. The 12 semifinalists were divided into 2 semifinals of 6 athletes each, with the top 3 in each semifinal advancing to the 6-man final.

Records

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

World record	Glenn Hardin (USA)	50.6	Stockholm, Sweden	26 July 1934
Olympic record	Roy Cochran (USA)	51.1	London, United Kingdom	31 July 1948

Charles Moore bettered the Olympic record with a time of 50.8 seconds in the first quarterfinal, then matched his own new record in the final.

Schedule

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

Date	Time	Round
Sunday, 20 July 1952	16:10 19:25	Heats Quarterfinals
Monday, 21 July 1952	15:00 17:40	Semifinals Final

Results

Heats

The first round was held on July 20. The three fastest runners from each heat qualified for the quarterfinals.

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Charles Moore	United States	51.8	Q
2	Lars Ylander	Sweden	53.7	Q
3	Eitaro Okano	Japan	54.2	Q
4	Rudolf Haidegger	Austria	54.8
5	Johny Fonck	Luxembourg	57.8

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Timofey Lunev	Soviet Union	54.3	Q
2	Dewey Lee Yoder Jr	United States	55.2	Q
3	Ken Doubleday	Australia	55.4	Q
4	Muhammad Shafi	Pakistan	56.1
5	Ingi Þorsteinsson	Iceland	56.5

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Anatoly Yulin	Soviet Union	53.6	Q
2	Fotios Kosmas	Greece	53.9	Q
3	Roland Blackman	United States	54.8	Q
4	Ragnar Graeffe	Finland	55.0
5	Jörn Gevert	Chile	56.1
6	Emin Doybak	Turkey	56.6

Heat 4

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Yuriy Lituyev	Soviet Union	53.5	Q
2	Rainer Pelkonen	Finland	54.2	Q
3	Robert Bart	France	54.5	Q
4	Pedro Yoma	Chile	56.8
5	Paulino Ferrer	Venezuela	1:02.1

Heat 5

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Ron Wilke	South Africa	54.5	Q
2	Arvo Hilli	Finland	54.6	Q
3	Rune Larsson	Sweden	55.9	Q
4	Mirza Khan	Pakistan	56.3

Heat 6

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	John Holland	New Zealand	53.3	Q
2	Sven-Olov Eriksson	Sweden	54.3	Q
3	Angus Scott	Great Britain	54.9	Q
4	Kemal Horulu	Turkey	55.2
5	Karl Schmid	Switzerland	57.5

Heat 7

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	David Gracie	Great Britain	54.2	Q
2	Wilson Carneiro	Brazil	56.0	Q
3	Hans Schwarz	Switzerland	56.3	Q
4	Fernando Fernandes	Portugal	56.8
5	Doğan Acarbay	Turkey	1:02.8

Heat 8

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Armando Filiput	Italy	53.8	Q
2	Harry Whittle	Great Britain	53.9	Q
3	Antal Lippay	Hungary	54.0	Q
4	Amadeo Francis	Puerto Rico	54.0
5	Jean Thureau	France	56.7

Quarterfinals

The quarterfinals were held on July 20. The three fastest runners from each heat qualified for the semifinals.

Quarterfinal 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Charles Moore	United States	50.8	Q, OR
2	Anatoly Yulin	Soviet Union	52.4	Q
3	Armando Filiput	Italy	53.0	Q
4	Robert Bart	France	53.0
5	Sven-Olov Eriksson	Sweden	53.8
6	Hans Schwarz	Switzerland	54.0

Quarterfinal 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	John Holland	New Zealand	52.2	Q
2	Dewey Lee Yoder Jr	United States	53.3	Q
3	David Gracie	Great Britain	53.9	Q
4	Arvo Hilli	Finland	54.0
5	Fotios Kosmas	Greece	55.3
6	Wilson Carneiro	Brazil	59.4

Quarterfinal 3

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Yuriy Lituyev	Soviet Union	52.2	Q
2	Antal Lippay	Hungary	52.7	Q
3	Harry Whittle	Great Britain	52.8	Q
4	Lars Ylander	Sweden	53.1
5	Ron Wilke	South Africa	54.5
6	Ken Doubleday	Australia	1:00.2

Quarterfinal 4

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Timofey Lunev	Soviet Union	52.7	Q
2	Roland Blackman	United States	52.7	Q
3	Rune Larsson	Sweden	53.3	Q
4	Angus Scott	Great Britain	53.4
5	Rainer Pelkonen	Finland	53.9
6	Eitaro Okano	Japan	54.4

Semifinals

The semifinals were held on July 21. The three fastest runners from each heat qualified for the final.

Semifinal 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Yuriy Lituyev	Soviet Union	51.8	Q
2	John Holland	New Zealand	52.0	Q
3	Anatoly Yulin	Soviet Union	52.1	Q
4	David Gracie	Great Britain	52.4
5	Roland Blackman	United States	52.7
6	Rune Larsson	Sweden	53.9

Semifinal 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Charles Moore	United States	52.0	Q
2	Harri Whittle	Great Britain	52.9	Q
3	Armando Filiput	Italy	53.0	Q
4	Dewey Lee Yoder Jr	United States	53.0
5	Antal Lippay	Hungary	53.0
6	Timofey Lunev	Soviet Union	53.1

Final

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time (hand)	Notes
	Charles Moore	United States	50.8	=OR
	Yuriy Lituyev	Soviet Union	51.3
	John Holland	New Zealand	52.2
4	Anatoliy Yulin	Soviet Union	52.8
5	Harry Whittle	Great Britain	53.1
6	Armando Filiput	Italy	54.4

Results summary

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Heats	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final	Notes
	Charles Moore	United States	51.8	50.8	52.0	50.8	OR
	Yuriy Lituyev	Soviet Union	53.5	52.2	51.8	51.3
	John Holland	New Zealand	53.3	52.2	52.0	52.2
4	Anatoliy Yulin	Soviet Union	53.6	52.4	52.1	52.8
5	Harry Whittle	Great Britain	53.9	52.8	52.9	53.1
6	Armando Filiput	Italy	53.8	53.0	53.0	54.4
7	David Gracie	Great Britain	54.2	53.9	52.4	Did not advance
8	Roland Blackman	United States	54.8	52.7	52.7
9	Dewey Lee Yoder Jr	United States	55.2	53.3	53.0
10	Antal Lippay	Hungary	54.0	52.7	53.0
11	Timofey Lunev	Soviet Union	54.3	52.7	53.1
12	Rune Larsson	Sweden	55.9	53.3	53.9
13	Robert Bart	France	54.5	53.0	Did not advance
14	Lars Ylander	Sweden	53.7	53.1
15	Angus Scott	Great Britain	54.9	53.4
16	Sven-Olov Eriksson	Sweden	54.3	53.8
17	Rainer Pelkonen	Finland	54.2	53.9
18	Arvo Hilli	Finland	54.6	54.0
	Hans Schwarz	Switzerland	56.3	54.0
20	Eitaro Okano	Japan	54.2	54.4
21	Ron Wilke	South Africa	54.5	54.5
22	Fotios Kosmas	Greece	53.9	55.3
23	Wilson Carneiro	Brazil	56.0	59.4
24	Ken Doubleday	Australia	55.4	1:00.2
25	Amadeo Francis	Puerto Rico	54.0	Did not advance
26	Rudolf Haidegger	Austria	54.8
27	Ragnar Graeffe	Finland	55.0
28	Kemal Horulu	Turkey	55.2
29	Jörn Gevert	Chile	56.1
	Muhammad Shafi	Pakistan	56.1
31	Mirza Khan	Pakistan	56.3
32	Ingi Þorsteinsson	Iceland	56.5
33	Emin Doybak	Turkey	56.6
34	Jean Thureau	France	56.7
35	Fernando Fernandes	Portugal	56.8
	Pedro Yoma	Chile	56.8
37	Karl Schmid	Switzerland	57.5
38	Johny Fonck	Luxembourg	57.8
39	Paulino Ferrer	Venezuela	1:02.1
40	Doğan Acarbay	Turkey	1:02.8