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


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. 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. 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.

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.
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.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
World record10.2Chicago, United States20 June 1936
World record10.2Compton, United States6 June 1941
Olympic record10.3 Eddie TolanLos Angeles, USAAugust 1, 1932
Olympic record10.3 Ralph MetcalfeLos Angeles, USAAugust 1, 1932
Olympic record10.3Jesse OwensBerlin, GermanyAugust 2, 1936

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

Schedule

All times are British Summer Time.
DateTime
Friday, 30 July 194815:00
17:30		Round 1
Round 2
Saturday, 31 July 194814:30
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 only for the top three in each heat; unofficial auto-timed results are shown in parentheses.

Heat 1

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Barney Ewell10.5
2Alastair McCorquodale10.5
3Leslie Laing11.0
4Angel García
5Nestor Jacono
–Bogdan Lipski

Heat 2

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Mel Patton10.6
2Ivan Hausen10.9
3James O'Brien10.9
4Fernando Lapuente
5Hector Gosset
6Guillermo Rodríguez

Heat 3

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Lloyd La Beach10.5
2Béla Goldoványi11.0
3Frank Mahoney11.8
–George Rhoden
–Tomás Paquete
–John De Saram

Heat 4

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Juan López10.5
2Ken Jones10.6
3Jan Meijer11.0
4Máximo Reyes
5Finnbjörn Þorvaldsson
–Kyros Marinis

Heat 5

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Harrison Dillard10.4
2Aroldo da Silva10.6
3Peter Bloch11.1
4Pol Braekman
–Ricardo Sáenz
–John O'Donnell

Heat 6

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1McDonald Bailey10.5
2Haukur Clausen11.0
3Abram van Heerden11.1
4Carlos Silva
5Bernabe Lovina
6Stanley Lines

Heat 7

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1John Treloar10.5
2René Valmy10.8
3György Csányi11.1
4Carlos Isaac
5Sayed Moukhtar
6Ali Salman
–Jack Parry

Heat 8

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Rafael Fortún10.7
2John Bartram10.8
3Basil McKenzie10.8
4Hélio da Silva
5Jo Zwaan
–Duncan White

Heat 9

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Morris Curotta10.7
2Gerardo Bönnhoff10.8
3Raúl Mazorra11.1
4Örn Clausen
5Raşit Öztaş
-Perry Johnson

Heat 10

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1George Lewis10.8
2Ted Haggis10.9
3Walter Pérez11.0
4Santiago Ferrando
5Stefanos Petrakis
–Joseph Stéphan

Heat 11

The tailwind of 3.3 m/s made this heat ineligible for records purposes.
RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Isidoor Van De Wiele10.8
2Nuno Morais10.9
3Alberto Labarthe11.0
4Muhammad Sharif Butt
5Charles ThompsonUnknown
–Joe Kelly
–Dennis Shore

Heat 12

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Mario Fayos11.0
2Eric Prabhakar11.0
3László Bartha11.1
4Jan Kleyn
5Kemal Aksur
6Maung Sein Pe
-Étienne Bally

Quarterfinals

The fastest three runners in each of the four heats advanced to the semifinal round. Official hand-timed results are known only for the top three in each heat; unofficial auto-timed results are shown in parentheses.

Quarterfinal 1

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Harrison Dillard10.4
2Juan López10.6
3Ken Jones10.7
4Ivan Hausen
5Ted Haggis
6António Morais

Quarterfinal 2

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Barney Ewell10.5
2McDonald Bailey10.6
3Morris Curotta10.8
4George Lewis
5Béla Goldoványi
6Haukur Clausen

Quarterfinal 3

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Mel Patton10.4
2Alastair McCorquodale10.5
3John Bartram10.6
4René Valmy
5Mario Fayos
6Isidoor Van De Wiele

Quarterfinal 4

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Lloyd La Beach10.5
2John Treloar10.5
3Rafael Fortún10.6
4Aroldo da Silva
5Gerardo Bönnhoff
6Eric Prabhakar

Semifinals

The fastest three runners in each of the two heats advanced to the final round. Official hand-timed results are known only for the top three in each heat; unofficial auto-timed results are shown in parentheses.

Semifinal 1

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Harrison Dillard10.5
2Barney Ewell10.5
3Alastair McCorquodale10.7
4John Bartram
5Juan López
6Morris Curotta

Semifinal 2

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Mel Patton10.4
2Lloyd LaBeach10.5
3McDonald Bailey10.6
4John Treloar
5Rafael Fortún
6Ken Jones

Final

Patton "got off to a disastrous start and was not a factor." Dillard led the entire way. Official hand-timed results are known only for the top three in each heat; unofficial auto-timed results are shown in parentheses.
RankAthleteNationTime Notes
Harrison Dillard10.3
Barney Ewell10.4
Lloyd LaBeach10.6
4Alastair McCorquodale
5Mel Patton
6McDonald Bailey