Athletics at the 1936 Summer Olympics – Men's 800 metres


The men's 800 metres event at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games took place between August 2 and August 4. The final was won by American John Woodruff.

Summary

With all runners starting from a crouch position, in the middle of the straightaway, the only returning medalist from 1932, Phil Edwards rushed to the lead. Down the backstretch he was joined by John Woodruff. For the second day in a row, the Nazi home crowd was seeing two black North Americans leading a final after Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalfe winning the 100 metres. Along the home stretch, Kazimierz Kucharski came along the outside, with Brian MacCabe in tow, effectively boxing Woodruff on the rail. Sensing the danger, Woodruff slowed, dropping to sixth place but giving himself free running room. With a long relaxed stride, the tall Woodruff ran around the outside and past Edwards into the lead. Heading into the final turn, Edwards again accelerated into the lead, but Woodruff stayed with him as both separated from Kucharski and Chuck Hornbostel. With the trailers struggling, a path down the rail opened up for Mario Lanzi to run past them on the inside. Through the turn, Edwards was unable to break Woodruff. Coming off the turn, it was Woodruff's long stride that took the advantage over the smaller Edwards. Now it was Edwards who was struggling as Woodruff pulled away with only half the straightaway to the finish. Lanzi seized the opportunity to run past Edwards on the outside, but there was no time to run after Woodruff.

Results

Heats

The fastest four runners in each of the six heats advanced to the semifinal round.
Heat one
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Phil Edwards1:53.7
2Chuck Hornbostel1:53.7
3Jean Verhaert1:54.3
4Ferenc Temesvári1:55.0
5Pierre Hemmer1:56.3
6Rudolf Harbig1:56.8
7Francisco Váldez
8Stavros Velkopoulos

Heat two
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Harry Williamson1:56.2
2Ab Conway1:56.2
3Pat Boot1:56.6
4Emil Hübscher1:57.3
5Emil Goršek1:59.5
6Carlos Marcenaro2:00.8

Heat three
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Brian MacCabe1:54.5
2Raymond Petit1:54.8
3Hjalmar Johannessen1:54.9
4Ewald Mertens1:55.1
5Clarke Scholtz1:57.6
6Toshinao Tomie1:59.9
7Stanislav Otáhal
8Gyan Bhalla

Heat four
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Gerald Backhouse1:57.7
2Miklós Szabó1:57.8
3John Woodruff1:58.7
4Frank Handley1:58.9
5Evžen Rošický1:59.5
6Paul Martin2:00.0
7Charles Stein

Heat five
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Jack Powell1:56.0
2Mario Lanzi1:56.1
3Franz Eichberger1:56.3
4József Vadas1:56.5
5Willie Botha1:57.0
6Grigorios Georgakopoulos1:57.3
7Jack Liddle

Heat six
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Juan Carlos Anderson1:55.1
2Kazimierz Kucharski1:55.7
3Wolfgang Dessecker1:56.0
4René Soulier1:56.1
5William Lindeque1:56.4
6Kumao Aochi1:56.8

Semifinals

The fastest three runners in each of the three heats advanced to the final round.
Heat one
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1John Woodruff1:52.7
2Kazimierz Kucharski1:54.7
3Juan Carlos Anderson1:54.8
4Miklós Szabó1:55.1
5Wolfgang Dessecker1:55.3
6Franz Eichberger1:56.2
7Pat Boot
8Frank Handley

Heat two
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Harry Williamson1:53.1
2Gerald Backhouse1:53.2
3Phil Edwards1:53.2
4Jack Powell1:54.8
5Ewald Mertens1:54.9
6René Soulier1:56.8
7Emil Hübscher
8József Vadas

Heat three
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Chuck Hornbostel1:53.2
2Mario Lanzi1:54.1
3Brian MacCabe1:55.4
4Raymond Petit1:55.7
5Ab Conway1:55.9
6Hjalmar Johannessen1:56.0
7Ferenc Temesvári
8Jean Verhaert

Final

RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
John Woodruff1:52.9
Mario Lanzi1:53.3
Phil Edwards1:53.6
4Kazimierz Kucharski1:53.8
5Chuck Hornbostel1:54.6
6Harry Williamson1:55.8
7Juan Carlos Anderson
8Gerald Backhouse
9Brian MacCabe