Athletics at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metres

Men's 100 metres at the Games of the XIV Olympiad
Venue	Wembley Stadium London, England
Dates	30 July 1948 (heats, quarterfinals) 31 July 1948 (semifinals, final)
Competitors	63 from 33 nations
Winning time	10.3 seconds
Medalists
Harrison Dillard   United States Barney Ewell   United States Lloyd LaBeach   Panama
←  1936 1952  →

Official Video Highlights

The men's 100 metres sprint event at the 1948 Olympic Games in London, England, we held at Wembley Stadium on 30 and 31 July. ^[1] Sixty-three athletes from 33 nations competed; each nation was limited to 3 runners by rules set at the 1930 Olympic Congress. The final was won by American Harrison Dillard, in a photo finish. Lloyd LaBeach of Panama won his nation's first medal in the men's 100 metres, a bronze. This was the first time a photo finish camera was used at an Olympic Games. ^[2] The photo finish equipment consisted of a photoelectric cell, called the Magic Eye, produced by Swiss watchmaker Omega and a slit photography camera produced by the British Race Finish Recording Company. ^[3]

Background

This was the eleventh time the event was held, having appeared at every Olympics since the first in 1896. With a 12 year gap due to World War II, none of the athletes from the 1936 edition returned. Notable entrants and favorites were American Mel Patton and Panamanian Lloyd LaBeach. American Barney Ewell was a "top sprinter" but "felt to be slightly past his prime". The third member of the United States team was Harrison Dillard, a hurdles specialist who had also entered the 100 metres and came in third at the U.S. Olympic trials. ^[4]

Bermuda, Burma, Guyana, Iraq, Jamaica, Pakistan, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay were represented in the event for the first time. The United States was the only nation to have appeared at each of the first eleven Olympic men's 100 metres events.

Competition format

The event retained the four round format from 1920–1936: heats, quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. There were 12 heats, of 4–7 athletes each, with the top 2 in each heat advancing to the quarterfinals. The 24 quarterfinalists were placed into 4 heats of 6 athletes. The top 3 in each quarterfinal advanced to the semifinals. There were 2 heats of 6 semifinalists, once again with the top 3 advancing to the 6-man final. ^[4]

Records

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

World record	10.2	Jesse Owens  (USA)	Chicago, United States	20 June 1936
	10.2	Harold Davis  (USA)	Compton, United States	6 June 1941
Olympic record	10.3	Eddie Tolan	Los Angeles, USA	August 1, 1932
	10.3	Ralph Metcalfe	Los Angeles, USA	August 1, 1932
	10.3	Jesse Owens	Berlin, Germany	August 2, 1936

Harrison Dillard of the United States matched the Olympic record in the final.

Schedule

All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1).

Date	Time
Friday, 30 July 1948	15:00 17:30	Round 1 Round 2
Saturday, 31 July 1948	14:30 15:45	Semifinals Finals

Results

Round 1

The fastest two runners in each of the twelve heats advanced to the second round. Official hand-timed results are known (and provided in the Official Report) only for the top three in each heat; unofficial auto-timed results are shown in parentheses. ^[4]

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Barney Ewell	United States	10.5	Q
2	Alastair McCorquodale	Great Britain	10.5	Q
3	Leslie Laing	Jamaica	11.0
4	Angel García	Cuba	(11.25)
5	Nestor Jacono	Malta	(11.54)
–	Bogdan Lipski	Poland	DNS

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Mel Patton	United States	10.6	Q
2	Ivan Hausen	Brazil	10.9	Q
3	James O'Brien	Canada	10.9
4	Fernando Lapuente	Argentina	(11.16)
5	Hector Gosset	Belgium	(11.50)
6	Gonzalo Rodríguez	Mexico	(11.97)

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Lloyd La Beach	Panama	10.5	Q
2	Béla Goldoványi	Hungary	11.0	Q
3	Frank Mahoney	Bermuda	11.8
–	George Rhoden	Jamaica	DNS
–	Tomás Paquete	Portugal	DNS
–	John De Saram	Ceylon	DNS

Heat 4

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Juan López	Uruguay	10.5	Q
2	Ken Jones	Great Britain	10.6	Q
3	Jan Meijer	Netherlands	11.0
4	Máximo Reyes	Peru	(11.04)
5	Finnbjörn Þorvaldsson	Iceland	(11.23)
–	Kyros Marinis	Greece	DNS

Heat 5

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Harrison Dillard	United States	10.4	Q
2	Haroldo da Silva	Brazil	10.6	Q
3	Peter Bloch	Norway	11.1
4	Pol Braekman	Belgium	(11.30)
–	Ricardo Sáenz	Spain	DNS
–	John O'Donnell	Ireland	DNS

Heat 6

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	McDonald Bailey	Great Britain	10.5	Q
2	Haukur Clausen	Iceland	11.0	Q
3	Abram van Heerden	South Africa	11.1
4	Carlos Silva	Chile	(11.08)
5	Bernabe Lovina	Philippines	(11.32)
6	Stanley Lines	Bermuda	(11.69)

Heat 7

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	John Treloar	Australia	10.5	Q
2	René Valmy	France	10.8	Q
3	György Csányi	Hungary	11.1
4	Carlos Isaac	Argentina	(11.24)
5	Sayed Moukhtar	Egypt	(11.71)
6	Ali Salman	Iraq	(11.90)
–	Jack Parry	Canada	DNS

Heat 8

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Rafael Fortún	Cuba	10.7	Q
2	John Bartram	Australia	10.8	Q
3	Basil McKenzie	Jamaica	10.8
4	Hélio da Silva	Brazil	(11.09)
5	Jo Zwaan	Netherlands	(11.09)
–	Duncan White	Ceylon	DNS

Heat 9

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Morris Curotta	Australia	10.7	Q
2	Gerardo Bönnhoff	Argentina	10.8	Q
3	Raúl Mazorra	Cuba	11.1
4	Örn Clausen	Iceland	(11.22)
5	Raşit Öztaş	Turkey	(11.35)
-	Perry Johnson	Bermuda	DSQ

Heat 10

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	George Lewis	Trinidad and Tobago	10.8	Q
2	Ted Haggis	Canada	10.9	Q
3	Walter Pérez	Uruguay	11.0
4	Santiago Ferrando	Peru	(11.19)
5	Stefanos Petrakis	Greece	(11.62)
–	Joseph Stéphan	France	DNS

Heat 11

The tailwind of 3.3 m/s made this heat ineligible for records purposes.

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Isidoor Van De Wiele	Belgium	10.8	Q
2	Nuno Morais	Portugal	10.9	Q
3	Alberto Labarthe	Chile	11.0
4	Muhammad Sharif Butt	Pakistan	(11.23)
5	Charles Thompson	Guyana	Unknown
–	Joe Kelly	Ireland	DNS
–	Dennis Shore	South Africa	DNS

Heat 12

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Mario Fayos	Uruguay	11.0	Q
2	Eric Prabhakar	India	11.0	Q
3	László Bartha	Hungary	11.1
4	Jan Kleyn	Netherlands	(11.36)
5	Kemal Aksur	Turkey	(11.45)
6	Maung Sein Pe	Burma	(11.78)
-	Étienne Bally	France	DNF

Quarterfinals

The fastest three runners in each of the four heats advanced to the semifinal round. Official hand-timed results are known (and provided in the Official Report) only for the top three in each heat; unofficial auto-timed results are shown in parentheses. ^[4]

Quarterfinal 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Harrison Dillard	United States	10.4	Q
2	Juan López	Uruguay	10.6	Q
3	Ken Jones	Great Britain	10.7	Q
4	Ivan Hausen	Brazil	(10.93)
5	Ted Haggis	Canada	(10.97)
6	António Morais	Portugal	(11.32)

Quarterfinal 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Barney Ewell	United States	10.5	Q
2	McDonald Bailey	Great Britain	10.6	Q
3	Morris Curotta	Australia	10.8	Q
4	George Lewis	Trinidad and Tobago	(11.04)
5	Béla Goldoványi	Hungary	(11.11)
6	Haukur Clausen	Iceland	(11.18)

Quarterfinal 3

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Mel Patton	United States	10.4	Q
2	Alastair McCorquodale	Great Britain	10.5	Q
3	John Bartram	Australia	10.6	Q
4	René Valmy	France	(10.82)
5	Mario Fayos	Uruguay	(11.08)
6	Isidoor Van De Wiele	Belgium	(11.10)

Quarterfinal 4

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Lloyd La Beach	Panama	10.5	Q
2	John Treloar	Australia	10.5	Q
3	Rafael Fortún	Cuba	10.6	Q
4	Haroldo da Silva	Brazil	(11.04)
5	Gerardo Bönnhoff	Argentina	(11.09)
6	Eric Prabhakar	India	(11.26)

Semifinals

The fastest three runners in each of the two heats advanced to the final round. Official hand-timed results are known (and provided in the Official Report) only for the top three in each heat; unofficial auto-timed results are shown in parentheses. ^[4]

Semifinal 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Harrison Dillard	United States	10.5	Q
2	Barney Ewell	United States	10.5	Q
3	Alastair McCorquodale	Great Britain	10.7	Q
4	John Bartram	Australia	(10.98)
5	Juan López	Uruguay	(11.05)
6	Morris Curotta	Australia	(11.15)

Semifinal 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Mel Patton	United States	10.4	Q
2	Lloyd LaBeach	Panama	10.5	Q
3	McDonald Bailey	Great Britain	10.6	Q
4	John Treloar	Australia	(10.74)
5	Rafael Fortún	Cuba	(10.82)
6	Ken Jones	Great Britain	(11.01)

Final

Patton "got off to a disastrous start and was not a factor." Dillard led the entire way. Official hand-timed results are known (and provided in the Official Report) only for the top three in each heat; unofficial auto-timed results are shown in parentheses. ^[4]

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time (hand)	Notes
	Harrison Dillard	United States	10.3	=OR
	Barney Ewell	United States	10.4
	Lloyd LaBeach	Panama	10.6
4	Alastair McCorquodale	Great Britain	(10.61)
5	Mel Patton	United States	(10.67)
6	McDonald Bailey	Great Britain	(10.81)

References

1. "Athletics at the 1948 London Summer Games: Men's 100 metres". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
2. Jackson, Peter (24 July 2012). "London's three Olympic Games compared", BBC News.
3. "Omega, the Olympics, and the innovations required to time the Earth's Best".
4. "100 metres, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 21 July 2020.

External links

• Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad, The (1948). The Official Report of the Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad. LA84 Foundation . Retrieved 4 September 2016.