Athletics at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metres

Men's 400 metres at the Games of the XIV Olympiad
The finish of the men's 400 metres final
Venue	Empire Stadium
Dates	August 4 (heats and quarterfinals) August 5 (semifinals and final)
Competitors	6 known from 3 known nations
Medalists
01 ! Arthur Wint  Jamaica 02 ! Herb McKenley  Jamaica 03 ! Mal Whitfield  United States

Official Video Highlights

Athletics at the 1948 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men
800 m		men
1500 m		men
5000 m		men
10,000 m		men
80 m hurdles				women
110 m hurdles		men
400 m hurdles		men
3000 m steeplechase		men
4×100 m relay		men		women
4×400 m relay		men
Road events
Marathon		men
10 km walk		men
50 km walk		men
Field events
Long jump		men		women
Triple jump		men
High jump		men		women
Pole vault		men
Shot put		men		women
Discus throw		men		women
Javelin throw		men		women
Hammer throw		men
Combined events
Decathlon		men

The men's 400 metres sprint event at the 1948 Olympic Games took place between August 4 and August 5. The final was won by Jamaican Arthur Wint coming from almost 10 meters back to catch teammate and world record holder Herb McKenley.^[1]

Records

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

World Record	Rudolf Harbig (GER)	46.0	Frankfurt am Main, Germany	12 August 1939
Olympic Record	Bill Carr (USA)	46.2	Los Angeles, United States	5 August 1932

Schedule

All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1)

Results

Round 1

The fastest two runners in each of the twelve heats advanced to Round 2.

Heat 1

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Jimmy Reardon	Ireland	48.4
2	Marko Račič	Yugoslavia	50.5
3	Chen Yinglang	Republic of China	50.9
4	Georgios Karageorgos	Greece	54.5

Heat 2

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Herb McKenley	Jamaica	48.4
2	Rune Larsson	Sweden	49.2
3	Ferenc Bánhalmi	Hungary	49.6
4	Jaime Aparicio	Colombia	50.8
5	Guillermo Evans	Argentina	51.8

Heat 3

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Zvonko Sabolović	Yugoslavia	49.9
2	Kurt Lundquist	Sweden	50.0
3	Antonio Pocovi	Argentina	50.7
4	Mario Rosas	Colombia	51.4
5	L. Hasso	Iraq	56.8

Heat 4

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	George Rhoden	Jamaica	48.4
2	Dennis Shore	South Africa	49.0
3	Oskar Hardmeier	Switzerland	49.2
4	Angel García	Cuba	50.2
5	Bill Ramsay	Australia	50.3

Heat 5

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Jacques Lunis	France	49.3
2	Folke Alnevik	Sweden	50.2
3	Carlos Monges	Mexico	50.9

Heat 6

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Dave Bolen	United States	50.1
2	John Bartram	Australia	50.8
3	Hazzard Dill	Bermuda	53.0

Heat 7

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Leslie Lewis	Great Britain	48.9
2	Bjørn Vade	Norway	49.6
3	Ernie McCullough	Canada	49.9
4	Walter Keller	Switzerland	50.3
5	Runar Holmberg	Finland	50.6

Heat 8

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Mal Whitfield	United States	48.3
2	Bill Roberts	Great Britain	48.9
3	Don McFarlane	Canada	49.5
4	Olavi Talja	Finland	50.4
5	Max Trepp	Switzerland	50.9

Heat 9

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Arthur Wint	Jamaica	47.7
2	Francis Schewetta	France	48.9
3	John De Saram	Ceylon	51.2
4	Tauno Suvanto	Finland	51.5
5	Doğan Acarbay	Turkey	53.0

Heat 10

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Morris Curotta	Australia	49.1
2	Rosalvo Ramos	Brazil	49.2
3	Raymond Crapet	France	49.4
4	Kemal Horulu	Turkey	51.5

Heat 11

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	George Guida	United States	49.0
2	Derek Pugh	Great Britain	49.3
3	Gustavo Ehlers	Chile	49.5
4	Stefanos Petrakis	Greece	54.5

Heat 12

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Herman Kunnen	Belgium	50.0
2	Bob McFarlane	Canada	50.6
3	Reynir Sigurðsson	Iceland	51.4
4	Jaime Itlmann	Chile	51.5
5	Stylianos Stratakos	Greece	52.8

Round 2

The fastest three runners in each of the four heats advanced to the semifinal round.

Heat 1

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Mal Whitfield	United States	48.0
2	George Rhoden	Jamaica	48.6
3	Rosalvo Ramos	Brazil	48.7
4	Leslie Lewis	Great Britain	49.2
5	Zvonko Sabolović	Yugoslavia	49.5
6	Folke Alnevik	Sweden	50.6

Heat 2

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Arthur Wint	Jamaica	47.7
2	Morris Curotta	Australia	48.4
3	Dennis Shore	South Africa	48.5
4	Bill Roberts	Great Britain	48.6
5	Bjørn Vade	Norway	49.7

Heat 3

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Herb McKenley	Jamaica	48.0
2	George Guida	United States	48.0
3	Rune Larsson	Sweden	48.8
4	John Bartram	Australia	49.9
5	Francis Schewetta	France	49.9
6	Marko Račič	Yugoslavia	52.1

Heat 4

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Dave Bolen	United States	48.0
2	Jimmy Reardon	Ireland	48.3
3	Bob McFarlane	Canada	48.4
4	Kurt Lundquist	Sweden	48.4
5	Derek Pugh	Great Britain	48.8
6	Jacques Lunis	France	48.9

Semifinals

The fastest three runners in each of the two heats advanced to the final round.

Heat 1

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time (hand)	Notes
1	Arthur Wint	Jamaica	46.3
2	Morris Curotta	Australia	47.2
3	Mal Whitfield	United States	47.4
4	George Rhoden	Jamaica	47.7
5	Jimmy Reardon	Ireland	47.8
6

Heat 2

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time (hand)	Notes
1	Herb McKenley	Jamaica	47.3
2	Dave Bolen	United States	47.9
3	George Guida	United States	48.3
4	Dennis Shore	South Africa	48.8
5	Rosalvo Ramos	Brazil	49.1
6	Bob McFarlane	Canada	51.7

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time (hand)	Notes
01 !	Arthur Wint	Jamaica	46.2	=OR
02 !	Herb McKenley	Jamaica	46.4
03 !	Mal Whitfield	United States	46.9
4	Dave Bolen	United States	47.2
5	Morris Curotta	Australia	47.9
6	George Guida	United States	50.2

Key: =OR = Equalled Olympic record

References

External links

• Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad, The (1948). The Official Report of the Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad. LA84 Foundation. Retrieved 5 September 2016.