Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metres


The men's 100 metres was the shortest of the men's track races in the Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics program in Tokyo, Japan. It was held at the Olympic Stadium on 14 and 15 October 1964. 76 athletes from 49 nations entered, with 3 not starting in the first round. Nations were limited to three athletes each, per rules in force since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The first two rounds were held on 14 October, with the semifinals and the final on the following day.
In the final, American Bob Hayes tied the world record of 10.0 seconds and won the gold medal. Enrique Figuerola of Cuba and Harry Jerome of Canada tied the old Olympic record time. It was Cuba's first medal in the event; Canada earned its first men's 100 metres medal since 1928.

Background

This was the fifteenth time the event was held, having appeared at every Olympics since the first in 1896. Neither of the top two runners from 1960 returned, but Rome bronze medalist Brit Peter Radford and fourth-place finisher Cuban Enrique Figuerola did. Other notable entrants were American Bob Hayes and Canadian Harry Jerome. A muscle strain prevented Venezuelan Horacio Esteves from competing.
Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo, the Dominican Republic, Iran, the Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mali, Northern Rhodesia, Rhodesia, Senegal, and Vietnam were represented in the event for the first time. The new federation of Malaysia also competed for the first time, though both Malaya and Singapore had previously appeared. The United States was the only nation to have appeared at each of the first fifteen Olympic men's 100 metres events.

Competition format

The event retained the same basic four round format from 1920–1960: heats, quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. However, after an extremely static format from 1936 to 1956, the format was modified for a second time in 1964 after 1960's tweaks. The changes generally increased the number of athletes in each race; for the first time in Olympic men's 100 metres history, 8 runners competed at a time.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.
World record10.0 Armin HaryZürich, Switzerland21 June 1960
World record10.0 Harry JeromeSaskatoon, Canada15 July 1960
World record10.0 Horacio EstevesCaracas, Venezuela15 August 1964
Olympic record10.2 Armin HaryRome, Italy31 August 1960
Olympic record10.3 Armin HaryRome, Italy31 August 1960
Olympic record10.3 Dave SimeRome, Italy31 August 1960

Bob Hayes had an official time of 10.0 seconds in the final, breaking the Olympic record by 0.2 seconds and matching the world record. His official time of 9.9 seconds in the semifinals did not count for records purposes because of wind assistance.

Results

First round

The top three runners in each of the 10 heats advanced. The Official Report describes the weather for these heats as 'rainy'. The wind varied widely, between a 2.85 m/s headwind and a 1.60 m/s tailwind.

Heat 1

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Hideo Iijima10.3
2Bernard Laidebeur10.5
3Edvin Ozolin10.5
4Kenneth Powell10.7
5Zbigniew Syka10.7
6Jean-Louis Ravelomanantsoa10.8
7Sara Camara11.3

Heat 2

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Trenton Jackson10.5
2Peter Radford10.6
3B. El Maachi Bouchaib10.6
4Csaba Csutorás10.7
5Johan Du Preez10.7
6Jeong Gi-seon11.0
7Arnulfo Valles11.1

Wind, -2.51 m/s

Heat 3

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Gaoussou Koné10.5
2Mel Pender10.5
3Michael Ahey10.6
4Franciscus Luitjes10.6
5Wilton Jackson10.6
6Lynn Davies10.7
7Gerardo di Tolla10.9
8Lee Ar-tu11.2

Heat 4

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Marian Dudziak10.6
2Stanley Fabian Allotey10.6
3John Owiti10.6
4Carlos Lorenzo10.7
5George Collie10.9
6Masaru Kamata10.9
7Ho Thành Chinh11.9
—Nikolay Politiko

Heat 5

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Harry Jerome10.5
2Claude Piquemal10.5
3Lloyd Murad10.8
4James Odongo10.9
5Gusman Kosanov10.9
6Abdoulaye N'Diaye11.0
7Levy Psawkin11.1

Heat 6

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Heinz Schumann10.5
2Dennis O. Johnson10.6
3William Earle10.7
4Serafino Antao10.7
5Huba Rozsnyai10.8
6Alf Meakin10.8
7David Njitock11.1
8Akbar Babakhanlou11.1

Heat 7

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Wiesław Maniak10.5
2Arquímedes Herrera10.5
3Mani Jegathesan10.6
4José de Rocha11.0
5Bassirou Doumbia11.0
6Francisco Gutiérrez11.0
7Iftikhar Shah11.4

Heat 8

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Bob Hayes10.4
2Tom Robinson10.5
3Bob Lay10.5
4Ito Jiani10.6
5Rogelio Onofre10.7
6Khudher Zalada11.1
—David Ejoke

Heat 9

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Fritz Obersiebrasse10.4
2Iván Moreno10.5
3Pablo McNeil10.5
4László Mihályfi10.6
5Gary Holdsworth10.6
6Max Barandun10.7
7Jeffery Smith10.8
–Wesley Johnson

Heat 10

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Enrique Figuerola10.5
2Lynn Headley10.5
3Roger Bambuck10.6
4Manfred Knickenberg10.7
5Léon Yombe10.8
6Alberto Torres10.9
7Suthi Manyakass10.9
8Rogelio Rivas11.1

Quarterfinals

The top four runners in each of the four second round heats advanced to the semifinals. The weather was cloudy and winds were tailwinds throughout.

Quarterfinal 1

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Harry Jerome10.3
2Trenton Jackson10.4
3Fritz Obersiebrasse10.4
4Gaoussou Koné10.4
5Dennis O. Johnson10.5
6Marian Dudziak10.5
7Bernard Laidebeur10.5
8William Joseph Earle10.9

Wind, +1.90 m/s

Quarterfinal 2

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Enrique Figuerola10.3
2Wiesław Maniak10.3
3Bob Lay10.4
4Claude Piquemal10.4
5Edvin Ozolin10.4
6B. El Maachi Bouchaib10.5
7John Owiti10.6

Quarterfinal 3

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Tom Robinson10.3
2Mel Pender10.4
3Iijima Hideo10.5
4Pablo McNeil10.5
5Mani Jegathesan10.6
6Ivan Moreno10.6
7Stanley Fabian Allotey10.7
8Lloyd Murad10.7

Quarterfinal 4

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Bob Hayes10.3
2Arquimedes Herrera10.4
3Lynn Headley10.4
4Heinz Schumann10.5
5Peter Radford10.5
6Roger Bambuck10.5
7Michael Ahey10.6

Semifinals

The top four runners in each of the two semifinals advanced to the final. The weather was described as "fine," with lower humidity than the first two rounds and a temperature of 23.8 degrees Celsius. There was a strong tailwind for the first semifinal and a moderate headwind for the second.

Semifinal 1

The tailwind speed of 5.28 m/s meant this semifinal was ineligible for record purposes.
RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Bob Hayes9.9
2Wiesław Maniak10.1
3Tom Robinson10.2
4Heinz Schumann10.3
5Robert William Lay10.3
6Pablo McNeil10.3
7Arquimedes Herrera10.4
8Trenton Jackson10.6

Semifinal 2

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Harry Jerome10.3
2Gaoussou Koné10.4
3Enrique Figuerola10.4
4Mel Pender10.4
5Claude Piquemal10.5
6Lynn Headley10.5
7Iijima Hideo10.6
8Fritz Obersiebrasse10.6

Final

Until the Tokyo Olympics world records were measured by officials with stopwatches, measured to the nearest tenth of a second. Although fully automatic timing was used in Tokyo, the times were given the appearance of manual timing. This was done by subtracting 0.05 seconds from the automatic time and rounding to the nearest tenth of a second, making Hayes' time of 10.06 seconds convert to 10.0 seconds, despite the fact that the officials with stopwatches had measured Hayes' time to be 9.9 seconds, and the average difference between manual and automatic times was typically 0.15 to 0.20 seconds. This unique method of determining the official time therefore denied Hayes the record of being the first to officially record 9.9 seconds for the 100 meters. The first official times of 9.9 seconds were recorded at the "Night of Speed" in 1968.
The final was run in "fine" weather, with a tailwind of just over a metre per second. Hayes ran on lane one, which had been damaged by competitors in the men's 10,000 metres and the men's 20 km walk. Nevertheless, his "margin of victory was described by Track & Field News as 'insulting to an Olympic final field.'"
RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
Bob Hayes10.0
Enrique Figuerola10.2
Harry Jerome10.2
4Wiesław Maniak10.4
5Heinz Schumann10.4
6Gaoussou Koné10.4
7Mel Pender10.4
8Tom Robinson10.5

, Harry Jerome, Gaoussou Koné, Enrique Figuerola, Heinz Schumann, Bob Hayes