Athletics at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Men's 4 × 400 metres relay

Men's 4 × 400 metres relay at the Games of the XV Olympiad
Dates	July 26, 1952 (heats) July 27, 1952 (final)
Competitors	from 18 nations
Teams	18
Winning time	3:03.9 (hand) 3:04.04 (automatic)
Medalists
Arthur Wint Leslie Laing Herb McKenley George Rhoden   Jamaica Ollie Matson Gerrard Cole Charles Moore Mal Whitfield   United States Günter Steines Hans Geister Heinz Ulzheimer Karl-Friedrich Haas   Germany
←  1948 1956  →

The men's 4 × 400 metres relay event at the 1952 Olympic Games took place on July 26 & July 27. ^[1]

The Jamaican team won the final, with the medalists breaking the 20-year-old world record.

Herb McKenley's third leg of 44.6, credited with pulling Jamaica into contention from 10 metres back, is considered one of the greatest relay legs in history, ^[2] and on the last leg, George Rhoden, the 400 metres champion and Mal Whitfield the 800 metres champion, ran virtually shoulder to shoulder, but Rhoden was able to keep the lead, and beat Whitfield by a yard.

Results

Heats

Round One Heat One

Video on YouTube Heat 1 amateur film

Rank	Country	Athletes	Time (hand)	Time (automatic)	Notes
1	Jamaica	Arthur Wint, Les Laing, Herb McKenley, George Rhoden	3:12.1	3:12.13	Q
2	France	Jean-Pierre Goudeau, Robert Bart, Jacques Degats, Jean-Paul Martin du Gard	3:12.6	3:12.72	Q
3	Sweden	Gösta Brännström, Tage Ekfeldt, Rune Larsson, Lars-Erik Wolfbrandt	3:13.4	3:13.55
4	Belgium	Albert Lowagie, Antoine Uyterhoeven, Roger Moens, Fernand Linssen	3:15.8	3:16.05
5	Luxembourg	Roby Schaeffer, Jean Hamilius, Fred Hammer, Gérard Rasquin	3:16.2	3:16.38
6	Finland	Pauli Tavisalo, Ossi Mildh, Ragnar Graeffe, Rolf Back	3:16.4	3:16.67
7	Japan	Junkichi Matoba, Eitaro Okano, Hiroshi Yamamoto, Yoshitaka Muroya	3:20.3	3:20.55

Round One Heat Two

Rank	Country	Athletes	Time (hand)	Time (automatic)	Notes [3]
1	United States	Ollie Matson, Gene Cole, Charlie Moore, Mal Whitfield	3:11.5	3:11.67	Q
2	Great Britain	Les Lewis, Alan Dick, Terry Higgins, Nick Stacey	3:12.5	3:12.67	Q
3	Hungary	Ferenc Bánhalmi, Lajos Szentgáli, Egon Solymossy, Zoltán Adamik	3:13.8	3:13.96
4	Italy	Baldassare Porto, Gianni Rocca, Luigi Grossi, Armando Filiput	3:15.2	3:15.23
5	Switzerland	Hans Ernst Schneider, Josef Steger, Paul Stalder, Ernst von Gunten	3:15.4	3:15.36
6	Pakistan	Abdul Rehman, Muhammad Shafi, Mirza Khan, Aurang Zeb	3:23.2

Round One Heat Three

Rank	Country	Athletes	Time (hand)	Time (automatic)	Notes
1	Germany	Hans Geister, Günther Steines, Heinz Ulzheimer, Karl-Friedrich Haas	3:10.5	3:10.57	Q
2	Canada	Doug Clement, Jack Hutchins, Jack Carroll, James Lavery	3:11.2	3:11.49	Q
3	Soviet Union	Ardalion Ignatyev, Gennady Slepnyov, Edmunds Pīlāgs, Yury Lituyev	3:12.5	3:12.65
4	South Africa	Louis van Biljon, Ron Wilke, John Anderton, Bill Chivell	3:14.8	3:15.09
5	Australia	Ray Weinberg, Morris Curotta, Ken Doubleday, Edwin Carr Jr.	3:15.8	3:16.00

Final

Video on YouTube Official film of the final

Rank	Country	Time (hand)	Time (automatic)	Notes
	Jamaica	3:03.9	3:04.04	WR
	United States	3:04.0	3:04.21
	Germany	3:06.6	3:06.78
4	Canada	3:09.3	3:09.37
5	Great Britain	3:10.0	3:10.23
6	France	3:10.1	3:10.33

Key: WR = World record

References

1. "Athletics at the 1952 Helsinki Summer Games: Men's 4 × 400 metres Relay". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
2. "Greatest 4x400m hits and splits – IAAF/BTC World Relays, Bahamas 2015 | NEWS | World Athletics".
3. THE OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE ORGANISING COMMITTEE FOR THE GAMES OF THE XV OLYMPIAD HELSINKI 1952. Helsinki, Finland: THE ORGANISING COMMITTEE FOR THE XV OLYMPIAD HELSINKI 1952. 1955. Archived from the original on 26 August 2015. Retrieved 6 July 2015.