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


These are the official results of the Men's 400 metres event at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. The competition was held on 28 & 29 of November. Times are listed as both hand timing and automatic timing. Hand timing was the official time used in the 1956 Olympics.

Summary

entered the Olympics as the world record holder, having first set it in early 1955 in Mexico City, then improving his record at the 1956 United States Olympic Trials. He managed to get into the final expending the minimum effort, running just fast enough to qualify behind the South African Malcolm Spence and ahead of Jamaican Melville Spence, twin brother of the Jamaican Malcom Spence who ran in the other semi-final. That's three M. Spences in the semi-final round, including two named Malcom. Four years later, both Malcoms would again make it to the semi-final round and each would leave that Olympics with a bronze medal.
Jones took off from the start of the race, pulling away from the field on the backstretch and reaching the half way point with a 3 metre lead on Ardalion Ignatyev. But there is a reality to running the 400 meters, Jones' exuberance caught up with him, his movement strained. The lead began to shrink through the final turn, to barely a metre by the time he reached the home stretch. More importantly, he had nothing left in the tank for the final sprint. By that point, his American teammate, Charles Jenkins was only a metre behind Ignatyev and gaining. With more speed down the final straightaway, in the next 40 metres, Jenkins caught Jones at the same time as Ignatyev. Jones could only look helplessly while Ignatyev strained. Another two metres back, Karl-Friedrich Haas was in full flight with Voitto Hellstén another metre behind in his wake. As Jenkins ran away to gold, Hellstén closed rapidly, the next three runners hitting the finish line virtually at the same time. With a slight lean at the finish, the tall Haas was given silver, but the photo finish could not separate Hellstén and Ignatyev, both being given the bronze medal.

Heats

The top three runners in each of the eight heats, advanced to the quarterfinal round.

Heat 1

Heat 2

Heat 3

Heat 4

Heat 5

Heat 6

Heat 7

Heat 8

Quarterfinals

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

Quarterfinal 1

Quarterfinal 2

Quarterfinal 3

Quarterfinal 4

Semifinals

Top three in each of the two heats advanced to the final round.

Semifinal 1

Semifinal 2

Final