Athletics at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metres hurdles

Men's 400 metres hurdles at the Games of the XVI Olympiad
Venue	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Date	November 23–24
Competitors	28 from 18 nations
Winning time	50.1 =OR
Medalists
Glenn Davis  United States Eddie Southern  United States Josh Culbreath  United States

Video on YouTube Official Video @11:15

The men's 400 metres hurdles competition at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia took place on November 23–24 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. There were 28 competitors from 18 nations. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Glenn Davis of the United States, the nation's fourth consecutive and ninth overall victory in the men's 400 metres hurdles. Eddie Southern (silver) and Josh Culbreath (bronze) completed the American sweep, the third time (after 1904 and 1920) that the United States had swept the medals in the event.

Background

This was the 11th 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.

Two of the six finalists from the 1952 Games returned: silver medalist Yuriy Lituyev and fourth-place finisher Anatoliy Yulin, both of the Soviet Union. Earlier in the year, at the U.S. trials, American Glenn Davis had demolished Lituyev's three year old world record, knocking almost a full second off the mark and taking the time under 50 seconds for the first time ever. Eddie Southern was also under 50 seconds in that race. The two young Americans joined Josh Culbreath, the 1953 to 1955 AAU and 1955 Pan American champion, on a strong United States team. Lituyev, as in 1952, was the strongest challenger to the Americans.

Romania made its debut in the event. The United States made its 11th appearance, the only nation to have competed at every edition of the event to that point.

Summary

During the final, the six lanes were fairly even, with Lituyev pushing the backstretch to gain a slight advantage going in to the final turn. That was swallowed up during the turn as Davis surged, leading Eddie Southern and Gert Potgieter off the turn. Davis expanded his lead over Southern from 2 meters to 5 meters down the home stretch for the win. Over the final barrier, Potgieter caught his trail leg on the hurdle which knocked him off balance. He was able to take two more strides then did a face plant in the middle of the track. On the inside, Josh Culbreath was able to cruise by for bronze, completing the American sweep.

Competition format

The competition returned to the three-round format used since 1908 (except the four-round competition in 1952): 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 6 quarterfinal heats with between 3 and 6 athletes each. The top 2 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 Davis (USA)	49.5	Los Angeles, United States	29 June 1956
Olympic record	Charles Moore (USA)	50.8	Helsinki, Finland	20 July 1952

Eddie Southern set a new Olympic record with 50.1 seconds in the first semifinal. Glenn Davis matched that time in the final.

Schedule

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

Date	Time	Round
Friday, 23 November 1956	14:30 17:40	Quarterfinals Semifinals
Saturday, 24 November 1956	17:10	Final

Results

Quarterfinals

Quarterfinal 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Glenn Davis	United States	51.3	Q
2	David Lean	Australia	51.4	Q
3	Keiji Ogushi	Japan	53.2
4	Ovidio de Jesús	Puerto Rico	54.0
5	Pablo Somblingo	Philippines	54.5

Quarterfinal 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Eddie Southern	United States	51.3	Q
2	Harry Kane	Great Britain	51.8	Q
3	Geoff Goodacre	Australia	52.5
4	Kalim Khawaja Ghani	Pakistan	55.1
5	Jagdev Singh	India	55.2

Quarterfinal 3

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Josh Culbreath	United States	50.9	Q
2	Guy Cury	France	51.6	Q
3	Jaime Aparicio	Colombia	52.0
4	Tom Farrell	Great Britain	52.7
5	Muhammad Yaqub	Pakistan	53.1
6	Tsai Cheng-Fu	Republic of China	54.6

Quarterfinal 4

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Ross Parker	Australia	53.5	Q
2	Ioannis Kambadelis	Greece	53.7	Q
3	Amadeo Francis	Puerto Rico	54.3

Quarterfinal 5

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Yuriy Lituyev	Soviet Union	51.6	Q
2	Gert Potgieter	South Africa	52.0	Q
3	Ossi Mildh	Finland	52.1
4	Alexandre Yankoff	France	53.1
5	Marcel Lambrechts	Belgium	54.0

Quarterfinal 6

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Anatoliy Yulin	Soviet Union	52.1	Q
2	Ilie Savel	Romania	52.2	Q
3	Bob Shaw	Great Britain	52.5
4	Ulisses dos Santos	Brazil	53.8

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Eddie Southern	United States	50.1	Q, OR
2	Glenn Davis	United States	50.7	Q
3	Gert Potgieter	South Africa	51.3	Q
4	Guy Cury	France	51.5
5	Anatoliy Yulin	Soviet Union	51.7
6	Ross Parker	Australia	52.6

Semifinal 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Josh Culbreath	United States	50.9	Q
2	David Lean	Australia	51.4	Q
3	Yuriy Lituyev	Soviet Union	51.8	Q
4	Ilie Savel	Romania	52.0
5	Harry Kane	Great Britain	52.7
6	Ioannis Kambadelis	Greece	53.8

Final

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
	Glenn Davis	United States	50.1	=OR
	Eddie Southern	United States	50.8
	Josh Culbreath	United States	51.6
4	Yuriy Lituyev	Soviet Union	51.7
5	David Lean	Australia	51.8
6	Gert Potgieter	South Africa	56.0

Results summary

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final	Notes
	Glenn Davis	United States	51.3	50.7	50.1	=OR
	Eddie Southern	United States	51.3	50.1	50.8	OR
	Josh Culbreath	United States	50.9	50.9	51.6
4	Yuriy Lituyev	Soviet Union	51.6	51.8	51.7
5	David Lean	Australia	51.4	51.4	51.8
6	Gert Potgieter	South Africa	52.0	51.3	56.0
7	Guy Cury	France	51.6	51.5	Did not advance
8	Anatoliy Yulin	Soviet Union	52.1	51.7
9	Ilie Savel	Romania	52.2	52.0
10	Ross Parker	Australia	53.5	52.6
11	Harry Kane	Great Britain	51.8	52.7
12	Ioannis Kambadelis	Greece	53.7	53.8
13	Jaime Aparicio	Colombia	52.0	Did not advance
14	Ossi Mildh	Finland	52.1
15	Geoff Goodacre	Australia	52.5
	Bob Shaw	Great Britain	52.5
17	Tom Farrell	Great Britain	52.7
18	Alexandre Yankoff	France	53.1
	Muhammad Yaqub	Pakistan	53.1
20	Keiji Ogushi	Japan	53.2
21	Ulisses dos Santos	Brazil	53.8
22	Ovidio de Jesús	Puerto Rico	54.0
	Marcel Lambrechts	Belgium	54.0
24	Amadeo Francis	Puerto Rico	54.3
25	Pablo Somblingo	Philippines	54.5
26	Tsai Cheng-Fu	Republic of China	54.6
27	Kalim Khawaja Ghani	Pakistan	55.1
28	Jagdev Singh	India	55.2