Cycling at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's sprint

The men's sprint or "scratch race" at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, was held from 3 to 6 December 1956. There were 18 participants representing 18 nations in competition, with one additional non-starter.[1] Each nation was limited to one cyclist. The event was won by Michel Rousseau of France, the nation's first victory in the men's sprint since 1928 and fifth overall. Guglielmo Pesenti of Italy earned silver and Dick Ploog of Australia finished third for bronze.

Men's sprint
at the Games of the XVI Olympiad
The medalists: Pesenti, Rousseau, Ploog
VenueMelbourne
Dates3–6 December 1956
Competitors18 from 18 nations
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Michel Rousseau
 France
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Guglielmo Pesenti
 Italy
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Dick Ploog
 Australia
← 1952
1960 →

Background

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This was the 11th appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1904 and 1912. None of the semifinalists from 1952 returned. The favorite was Michel Rousseau of France, the reigning world champion. His main competitor (the runner-up at the last two world championships), Jorge Batiz of Argentina, did not compete in Melbourne.[2]

Brazil, Colombia, and Vietnam each made their debut in the men's sprint. France made its 11th appearance, the only nation to have competed at every appearance of the event.

Competition format

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This track cycling event consisted of numerous rounds: four main rounds and a two-round repechage. Each race involved the riders starting simultaneously and next to each other, from a standing start. Because the early part of races tend to be slow-paced and highly tactical, only the time for the last 200 metres of the one-kilometre race is typically recorded.

The trend in the Olympic sprint competition was toward expansion of a best-of-three match format (beginning in 1932 for the final, expanding in 1936 and 1948 to more rounds). The 1952 edition had bucked that trend by returning to an entirely single-race format for the first time since 1928; the 1956 event returned to it, reversing many of the format changes made four years earlier.

The first round consisted of six heats of three cyclists each (one was scheduled to have four, but a withdrawal left it with only three). The winner of each heat advanced to the quarterfinals. The Official Report says that the eight fastest losers went to the repechage, but this is a very odd advancement rule for the sprint competition in which time is generally not relevant. Cycling Magazine provides results of repechage heats more consistent with all losers going to the repechage, which would be a much more common rule in a sprint event. In either case, there were four repechage semifinals; the winner of each moved on to the repechage finals while all others were eliminated. The repechage finals were two heats of two cyclists, with the winners rejoining the round 1 victors in the quarterfinals while the losers were eliminated.

The quarterfinals began the best-of-three rounds. The eight quarterfinalists were paired into four matches; the winner of a match was the first cyclist to win two races. The four winners moved on to the semifinals while the losers were eliminated. The semifinals again were best-of-three, with the winners moving on to the final and the losers going to a bronze medal match. Both of the medal matches were best-of-three as well.[2][3]

Records

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The records for the sprint are 200 metre flying time trial records, kept for the qualifying round in later Games as well as for the finish of races.

World record   Rotislav Vargachkin (URS) 11.4 Tula, Soviet Union 25 July 1955
Olympic record   Werner Potzernheim (GER) 11.6 Helsinki, Finland 29 July 1952

Dick Ploog broke the Olympic record and matched the world record in the first race of the competition, finishing the last 200 metres in 11.4 seconds. This time was not beaten, but was matched multiple times: Michel Rousseau in the second race of quarterfinal 1, Warren Johnston in the first race of quarterfinal 4, Rousseau again in the first race of semifinal 1, Ploog in the second race of the bronze medal match, and Rousseau in both in both races of the final.

Schedule

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All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10)

Date Time Round
Monday, 3 December 1956 14:30 Round 1
Repechage semifinals
Repechage finals
Tuesday, 4 December 1956 20:00 Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Thursday, 6 December 1956 20:00 Finals

Results

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Round 1

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Round 1 heat 1

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León Mejía is listed as third place in this heat in the Official Report (with Lê fourth), but the Official Report also has a photograph of heat 3 which shows Mejía in that heat. Cycling Magazine reported the results as below. Mejía was likely moved to heat 3 after Günther Ziegler's withdrawal.[3][4][2]

Rank Cyclist Nation Time
200 m
Notes
1 Dick Ploog   Australia 11.4 Q, =WR, OR
2 Evrard Godefroid   Belgium R
3 Lê Văn Phước   Vietnam R

Round 1 heat 2

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Rank Cyclist Nation Time
200 m
Notes
1 Michel Rousseau   France 11.6 Q
2 Hylton Mitchell   Trinidad and Tobago R
3 Shazada Muhammad Shah-Rukh   Pakistan R

Round 1 heat 3

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Ziegler is listed as third place in this heat in the Official Report, but the Official Report also has a photograph of the heat which shows León Mejía. Cycling Magazine reported the results as below. Mejía was likely moved to heat 3 after Ziegler's withdrawal.[3][4][2]

Rank Cyclist Nation Time
200 m
Notes
1 Jack Disney   United States 13.0 Q
2 Keith Harrison   Great Britain R
3 León Mejía   Colombia R
Günther Ziegler   Germany DNS

Round 1 heat 4

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Rank Cyclist Nation Time
200 m
Notes
1 Guglielmo Pesenti   Italy 11.8 Q
2 Hernán Masanés   Chile R
3 Fred Markus   Canada R

Round 1 heat 5

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Nyman is listed as third place in the heat in the Official Report, but Cycling Magazine indicates he did not start.[3][2]

Rank Cyclist Nation Time
200 m
Notes
1 Ladislav Fouček   Czechoslovakia 12.4 Q
2 Warren Johnston   New Zealand R
3 Paul Nyman   Finland R

Round 1 heat 6

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Rank Cyclist Nation Time
200 m
Notes
1 Boris Romanov   Soviet Union 12.4 Q
2 Thomas Shardelow   South Africa R
3 Anésio Argenton   Brazil R

Repechage semifinals

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Repechage semifinal 1

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The Official report lists only Godefroid and Shah-Rukh, but Cycling Magazine recorded Lê as third place in the first heat of the repechage.[3][2]

Rank Cyclist Nation Time
200 m
Notes
1 Evrard Godefroid   Belgium Unknown Q
2 Shazada Muhammad Shah-Rukh   Pakistan
3 Lê Văn Phước   Vietnam

Repechage semifinal 2

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The Official Report shows only Shardelow and Mejía, but Cycling Magazine indicates that all losers of the first round went to the repechage. It also identifies the cyclists in the other three heats, leaving Nyman. If Nyman did compete in the first round (which is unclear), he would have been assigned to this repechage heat; he did not start in it, however.[3][2]

Rank Cyclist Nation Time
200 m
Notes
1 Thomas Shardelow   South Africa 12.8 Q
2 León Mejía   Colombia
Paul Nyman   Finland

Repechage semifinal 3

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The Official Report lists only Argenton and Mitchell, but Cycling Magazine places Markus third in this heat.[3][2]

Rank Cyclist Nation Time
200 m
Notes
1 Anésio Argenton   Brazil 13.0 Q
2 Hylton Mitchell   Trinidad and Tobago
3 Fred Markus   Canada

Repechage semifinal 4

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The Official Report lists only Johnston and Masanés, but Cycling Magazine places Harrison third in this heat.[3][2]

Rank Cyclist Nation Time
200 m
Notes
1 Warren Johnston   New Zealand 12.4 Q
2 Hernán Masanés   Chile
3 Keith Harrison   Great Britain

Repechage finals

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Repechage final 1

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Johnston won by a length.[2]

Rank Cyclist Nation Time
200 m
Notes
1 Warren Johnston   New Zealand 12.0 Q
2 Evrard Godefroid   Belgium

Repechage final 2

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Shardelow won by inches.[2]

Rank Cyclist Nation Time
200 m
Notes
1 Thomas Shardelow   South Africa 12.6 Q
2 Anésio Argenton   Brazil

Quarterfinals

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Quarterfinal 1

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Rank Cyclist Nation Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Notes
1 Michel Rousseau   France 12.6 11.4 =WR Q
2 Thomas Shardelow   South Africa

Quarterfinal 2

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Ploog had a puncture on the first race, which was restarted.[2]

Rank Cyclist Nation Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Notes
1 Dick Ploog   Australia 12.4 11.6 Q
2 Jack Disney   United States

Quarterfinal 3

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Rank Cyclist Nation Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Notes
1 Guglielmo Pesenti   Italy 11.8 12.8 Q
2 Ladislav Fouček   Czechoslovakia

Quarterfinal 4

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Rank Cyclist Nation Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Notes
1 Warren Johnston   New Zealand 11.4 =WR 12.0 Q
2 Boris Romanov   Soviet Union 12.0

Semifinals

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Semifinal 1

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Rank Cyclist Nation Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Notes
1 Michel Rousseau   France 11.4 =WR 12.2 Q
2 Warren Johnston   New Zealand B

Semifinal 2

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Ploog had a puncture on the second race, which was restarted. In the third race, Ploog stopped, thinking he had been fouled; his protest was denied.[2]

Rank Cyclist Nation Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Notes
1 Guglielmo Pesenti   Italy 11.6 12.2 Q
2 Dick Ploog   Australia 12.2 B

Final

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Bronze medal match

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Rank Cyclist Nation Race 1 Race 2 Race 3
  Dick Ploog   Australia 11.6 11.4 =WR
4 Warren Johnston   New Zealand

Final

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Rank Cyclist Nation Race 1 Race 2 Race 3
  Michel Rousseau   France 11.4 =WR 11.4 =WR
  Guglielmo Pesenti   Italy

Final classification

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Rank Cyclist Nation
  Michel Rousseau   France
  Guglielmo Pesenti   Italy
  Dick Ploog   Australia
4 Warren Johnston   New Zealand
5 Jack Disney   United States
Ladislav Fouček   Czechoslovakia
Boris Romanov   Soviet Union
Thomas Shardelow   South Africa
9 Anésio Argenton   Brazil
Evrard Godefroid   Belgium
11 Hernán Masanés   Chile
León Mejía   Colombia
Hylton Mitchell   Trinidad and Tobago
Shazada Muhammad Shah-Rukh   Pakistan
15 Keith Harrison   Great Britain
Lê Văn Phước   Vietnam
Fred Markus   Canada
Paul Nyman   Finland
Günther Ziegler   Germany

References

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  1. ^ "Cycling at the 1948 Melbourne Summer Games: Men's Sprint". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Sprint, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Official Report, p. 417.
  4. ^ a b Official Report, p. 412.
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