Athletics at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metres


The men's 1500 metres event at the 1952 Olympics took place between July 24 and July 26.
The early leaders of the final were Audun Boysen followed by Warren Druetzler. Towards the end of the first lap, Werner Lueg began to move up to take the lead, with Rolf Lamers on his shoulder to place a wall to control the pack. Patrick El Mabrouk was next in line but unable to get by. On the third lap Lamers was unable to maintain the pace as Josy Barthel and Roger Bannister exchanging elbows with El Mabrouk lined up behind Leug. With 300 metres to go, Leug accelerated, opening up a 5-metre gap down the backstretch but through the final turn, Leug was unable to hold the pace allowing Barthel to catch back up. Bob McMillen moved up from eighth place to catch the group of leaders at the head of the final straight. Barthel went around Leug and sprinted to victory. McMillen ran the long way around El Mabrouk and Bannister and was chasing Barthel down the straight. Leug maintained his gap on Bannister and El Mabrouk, but looked helplessly as McMillen sprinted past, but he didn't have enough race left to catch Barthel, finishing half a metre behind but also being credited with the same time, a new Olympic record.
To date, this is the only Olympic gold medal won by a Luxembourger, though Luxembourg-born Michel Théato is credited for winning the 1900 Marathon for France.

Results

Heats

The first round was held on July 24. The fastest four runners in each heat advanced to the final round.
Heat 1
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Josy Barthel3:51.6
2Günter Dohrow3:51.8
3Ingvar Ericsson3:52.0
4Don MacMillan3:52.0
5Sándor Iharos3:56.0
6Mieczysław Długoborski3:57.8
7Filemón Camacho4:18.0
8Pierre Gillet4:26.6
9Hans HartingDNF

Heat 2
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Warren Druetzler3:51.4
2Sture Landqvist3:52.2
3Stanislav Jungwirth3:52.4
4Mihail Velsvebel3:52.6
5Aulis Pystynen3:53.0
6Len Eyre3:53.2
7Fred Lüthi3:56.4
8Turhan Göker4:00.6

Heat 3
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Olle Åberg3:51.0
2Denis Johansson3:51.2
3Rolf Lamers3:52.4
4Bill Parnell3:53.4
5Fritz Prossinagg3:54.2
6Athol Jennings3:55.4
7Daniel Janssens3:55.8
8Cahit Önel3:58.4
Willem SlijkhuisDNF

Heat 4
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Patrick El Mabrouk3:55.8
2Bob McMillen3:55.8
3Roger Bannister3:56.0
4Vilmos Tölgyesi3:56.0
5John Landy3:57.0
6Andrija Otenhajmer3:57.8
7Maurice Marshall4:01.0
8Nikolay Kuchurin4:03.6
9Vasilios Mavroidis4:07.8

Heat 5
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1George Hoskins3:56.2
2Frans Herman3:56.2
3Bill Nankeville3:56.4
4Mykola Belokurov3:56.4
5Urpo Vähäranta3:56.8
6Javier Montez3:58.2
7Stefan Lewandowski4:00.8

Heat 6
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Werner Lueg3:52.0
2Václav Čevona3:53.4
3Audun Boysen3:55.0
4John Ross3:55.2
5Jean Vernier3:56.8
6Edmund Potrzebowski3:56.8
7Sándor Garay4:01.2
8Ekrem Koçak4:01.4
9William Fahmy Hanna4:11.2
10Satid Leangtanom4:32.6

Semifinals

The fastest six runners in each heat advanced to the final round.
Heat one
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Denis Johansson3:49.4
2Werner Lueg3:49.8
3Don MacMillan3:50.8
4Warren Druetzler3:50.8
5Patrick El Mabrouk3:51.0
6Audun Boysen3:51.0
7Václav Čevona3:51.4
8Sture Landqvist3:51.4
9Bill Nankeville3:52.0
10Bill Parnell3:52.4
11Mihail Velsvebel3:52.6
12George Hoskins3:53.0

Heat two
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Josy Barthel3:50.4
2Olle Åberg3:50.6
3Ingvar Ericsson3:50.6
4Bob McMillen3:50.6
5Roger Bannister3:50.6
6Rolf Lamers3:50.8
7Stanislav Jungwirth3:51.0
8Vilmos Tölgyesi3:53.2
9Frans Herman3:53.8
10Günter Dohrow3:55.2
11Nikolay Belokurov3:55.6
12John Ross4:00.6

Final

RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
Josy Barthel3:45.2OR
Bob McMillen3:45.2
Werner Lueg3:45.4
4Roger Bannister3:46.0
5Patrick El Mabrouk3:46.0
6Rolf Lamers3:46.8
7Olle Åberg3:47.0
8Ingvar Ericsson3:47.6
9Don MacMillan3:49.6
10Denis Johansson3:49.8
11Audun Boysen3:51.4
12Warren Druetzler3:56.0