Athletics at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metres

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Men's 200 metres
at the Games of the XIV Olympiad
Mel Patton (left)
VenueEmpire Stadium
Dates2 August (heats and quarterfinals)
3 August (semifinals and final)
Competitors51 from 28 nations
Winning time21.1
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Mel Patton
 United States
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Barney Ewell
 United States
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Lloyd La Beach
 Panama
← 1936
1952 →

The men's 200 metres sprint event at the 1948 Summer Olympics took place between 2 August and 3 August. There were 51 competitors from 28 nations.[1] The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The final was won by American Mel Patton.[2] His countryman Barney Ewell earned silver, making this the third consecutive Games the United States took the top two spots in the event. Lloyd La Beach's bronze gave Panama a medal in its debut in the event.

Background

This was the 10th appearance of the event, which was not held at the first Olympics in 1896 but has been on the program ever since. None of the six finalists from the pre-war 1936 Games returned. The Americans were favored. Barney Ewell was the 1946 and 1947 AAU champion. Mel Patton was a short sprint specialist who had been disappointed by a fifth-place finish in the 100 metres earlier in the Games; he had never won an American title at the longer sprint distance. European champion Nikolay Karakulov did not compete because the Soviet Union did not yet participate in the Olympics.[1]

Bermuda, Burma, Ceylon, Cuba, Iceland, Iraq, Jamaica, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay each made their debut in the event. The United States made its 10th appearance, the only nation to have competed at each edition of the 200 metres to date.

Competition format

The competition used the four round format introduced in 1920: heats, quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. There were 12 heats of between 3 and 6 runners each, with the top 2 men in each advancing to the quarterfinals. The quarterfinals consisted of 4 heats of 6 athletes each; the 3 fastest men in each heat advanced to the semifinals. There were 2 semifinals, each with 6 runners. Again, the top 3 athletes advanced. The final had 6 runners. The races were run on a now-standard 400 metre track.[1]

Records

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

World record  Jesse Owens (USA) 20.3 Michigan, United States 1935
Olympic record  Jesse Owens (USA) 20.7 Berlin, Germany 5 August 1936

No new world or Olympic records were set during the competition.

Schedule

All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1)

Date Time Round
Monday, 2 August 1948 14:30
16:15
Heats
Quarterfinals
Tuesday, 3 August 1948 15:30
17:15
Semifinals
Final

Results

Heats

The fastest two runners in each of the twelve heats advanced to the quarterfinals.

Heat 1

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Herb McKenley  Jamaica 21.3 Q
2 Ted Haggis  Canada 22.2 Q
3 Haukur Clausen  Iceland 22.2
4 Stanley Lines  Bermuda Unknown

Heat 2

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Paul Vallé  Great Britain 22.3 Q
2 John De Saram  Ceylon 23.1 Q
3 Bernabe Lovina  Philippines 23.2
4 Stefanos Petrakis  Greece Unknown

Heat 3

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Rafael Fortún  Cuba 21.9 Q
2 Dennis Shore  South Africa 22.1 Q
3 António Morais  Portugal 22.6

Heat 4

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Barney Ewell  United States 21.6 Q
2 Abram van Heerden  South Africa 21.8 Q
3 Angel García  Cuba 22.2
4 Fernand Linssen  Belgium Unknown
5 Hazzard Dill  Bermuda Unknown
6 Ali Salman  Iraq Unknown

Heat 5

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Julien Lebas  France 22.0 Q
2 Rosalvo Ramos  Brazil 22.2 Q
3 Basil McKenzie  Jamaica 22.4

Heat 6

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Mel Patton  United States 21.6 Q
2 Leslie Laing  Jamaica 21.8 Q
3 Guillermo Geary  Argentina 23.0
4 Duncan White  Ceylon Unknown

Heat 7

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Gerardo Bönnhoff  Argentina 22.2 Q
2 John Fairgrieve  Great Britain 22.2 Q
3 Raúl Mazorra  Cuba 23.0
4 Kemal Aksur  Turkey Unknown
5 Gonzalo Rodríguez  Mexico Unknown

Heat 8

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Cliff Bourland  United States 21.3 Q
2 Haroldo da Silva  Brazil 21.9 Q
3 Georgie Lewis  Trinidad and Tobago 22.4
4 Walter Pérez  Uruguay Unknown
5 Peter Bloch  Norway Unknown

Heat 9

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 John Treloar  Australia 21.7 Q
2 Muhammad Sharif Butt  Pakistan 22.8 Q
3 Raşit Öztaş  Turkey 23.0
4 Perry Johnson  Bermuda Unknown

Heat 10

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Alastair McCorquodale  Great Britain 22.3 Q
2 Santiago Ferrando  Peru 22.5 Q
3 Fernand Bourgaux  Belgium 22.9
4 Étienne Bally  France Unknown

Heat 11

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Juan López  Uruguay 22.1 Q
2 Ivan Hausen  Brazil 22.2 Q
3 Gabe Scholten  Netherlands 22.2
4 Maung Sein Pe  Burma Unknown

Heat 12

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Lloyd La Beach  Panama 21.4 Q
2 Jan Lammers  Netherlands 22.0 Q
3 Don Pettie  Canada 22.0
4 Mario Fayos  Uruguay Unknown
5 Joseph Stéphan  France Unknown

Quarterfinals

The fastest three runners in each of the four heats advanced to the semifinal round.

Quarterfinal 1

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Herb McKenley  Jamaica 21.3 Q
2 Barney Ewell  United States 21.8 Q
3 Paul Vallé  Great Britain 22.1 Q
4 Jan Lammers  Netherlands Unknown
5 Julien Lebas  France Unknown
6 Rosalvo Ramos  Brazil Unknown

Quarterfinal 2

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Cliff Bourland  United States 21.3 Q
2 John Treloar  Australia 21.5 Q
3 Haroldo da Silva  Brazil 22.0 Q
4 Gerardo Bönnhoff  Argentina Unknown
5 Dennis Shore  South Africa Unknown
6 John De Saram  Ceylon Unknown

Quarterfinal 3

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Lloyd La Beach  Panama 21.7 Q
2 Leslie Laing  Jamaica 21.8 Q
3 Abram van Heerden  South Africa 22.9 Q
4 John Fairgrieve  Great Britain Unknown
5 Santiago Ferrando  Peru Unknown
Juan López  Uruguay DNS

Quarterfinal 4

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Mel Patton  United States 21.4 Q
2 Alastair McCorquodale  Great Britain 21.8 Q
3 Rafael Fortún  Cuba 22.0 Q
4 Ivan Hausen  Brazil 22.3
5 Ted Haggis  Canada Unknown
6 Muhammad Sharif Butt  Pakistan Unknown

Semifinals

The fastest three runners in each of the two heats advanced to the final round.

Semifinal 1

Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Notes
1 Herb McKenley  Jamaica 21.4 Q
2 Mel Patton  United States 21.6 Q
3 Barney Ewell  United States 21.8 Q
4 Haroldo da Silva  Brazil Unknown
5 Abram van Heerden  South Africa Unknown
6 Paul Vallé  Great Britain Unknown

Semifinal 2

Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Notes
1 Cliff Bourland  United States 21.5 Q
2 Lloyd La Beach  Panama 21.6 Q
3 Leslie Laing  Jamaica 21.6 Q
4 John Treloar  Australia Unknown
5 Alastair McCorquodale  Great Britain Unknown
6 Rafael Fortún  Cuba Unknown

Final

Rank Athlete Nation Time (hand) Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s) Mel Patton  United States 21.1
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Barney Ewell  United States 21.1
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Lloyd La Beach  Panama 21.2
4 Herb McKenley  Jamaica 21.3 *
5 Cliff Bourland  United States 21.3 *
6 Leslie Laing  Jamaica 21.8 *

Key: * = Time is an estimate

References

  1. ^ a b c "200 metres, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  2. ^ "Athletics at the 1948 London Summer Games: Men's 200 metres". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 9 July 2017.

External links