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

Men's 400 metres at the Games of the XV Olympiad
Venue	Olympic Stadium
Dates	July 24 (heats and quarterfinals) July 25 (semifinals and final)
Medalists
George Rhoden Jamaica   Herb McKenley Jamaica   Ollie Matson United States

Athletics at the 1952 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 1952 Olympic Games took place between July 24 and July 25.

Results

Heats

The fastest two runners in each of the twelve heats advanced to the quarterfinal round.

Heat one

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Karl-Friedrich Haas	Germany	47.58
2	Leslie Lewis	Great Britain	47.95
3	Edwin Carr, Jr.	Australia	48.23
4	Zoltán Adamik	Hungary	48.70
5	Evelio Planas	Cuba	49.44
6	Abdul Rehman	Pakistan	51.47

Heat two

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Ardalion Ignatyev	Soviet Union	48.22
2	Rolf Back	Finland	48.58
3	Rupert Blöch	Austria	49.82
4	Gérard Rasquin	Luxembourg	50.12
5	John Anderton	South Africa	50.35
6	Pongamat Amatayakul	Thailand	53.23

Heat three

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Arthur Wint	Jamaica	47.42
2	Jack Carroll	Canada	48.05
3	Egon Solymossy	Hungary	49.32
4	Josef Steger	Switzerland	49.35
5	Jaakko Suikkari	Finland	50.92
6	Aurang Zeb	Pakistan	51.25

Heat four

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Lars-Erik Wolfbrandt	Sweden	48.57
2	Terry Higgins	Great Britain	48.77
3	Junkichi Matoba	Japan	49.57
4	Vasilios Sillis	Greece	49.79
5	Doğan Acarbay	Turkey	50.83
6	Ivan Jacob	India	51.48

Heat five

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Herb McKenley	Jamaica	48.09
2	Louis van Biljon	South Africa	48.31
3	Roger Moens	Belgium	48.71
4	Ferenc Bánhalmi	Hungary	49.55
5	Arie Gill-Glick	Israel	50.27
6	Ernst von Gunten	Switzerland	50.88
-	Tage Ekfeldt	Sweden		DQ

Heat six

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Mal Whitfield	United States	48.68
2	Guillermo Gutiérrez	Venezuela	48.82
3	Gianni Rocca	Italy	49.51
4	Gösta Brännström	Sweden	50.32
5	Javier Souza	Mexico	50.47
6	Emin Doybak	Turkey	51.34
7	Fernando Casimiro	Portugal	52.33

Heat seven

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Jacques Degats	France	48.60
2	Morris Curotta	Australia	48.87
3	Vincenzo Lombardo	Italy	49.53
4	Rudolf Haidegger	Austria	50.01
5	Albert Lowagie	Belgium	50.26

Heat eight

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Hans Geister	Germany	47.99
2	Yves Camus	France	48.06
3	Milan Filo	Czechoslovakia	48.91
4	Guðmundur Lárusson	Iceland	49.81
5	Sompop Svadanandana	Thailand	53.68
6	Jeremias Stokes	Guatemala	53.81

Heat nine

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Gene Cole	United States	48.44
2	Alan Dick	Great Britain	48.84
3	Edmunds Pīlāgs	Soviet Union	49.29
4	Angel García	Cuba	49.34
5	Antoine Uyterhoeven	Belgium	50.21
6	Jean Hamilius	Luxembourg	50.75

Heat ten

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	George Rhoden	Jamaica	48.28
2	Gerard Mach	Poland	48.64
3	Paul Dolan	Ireland	48.81
4	Jean-Pierre Goudeau	France	48.94
5	Doug Clement	Canada	50.19

Heat eleven

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	James Lavery	Canada	48.47
2	Yuriy Lituyev	Soviet Union	49.01
3	Frank Rivera	Puerto Rico	49.48
4	Antonio Siddi	Italy	51.03

Heat twelve

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Ollie Matson	United States	48.17
2	Hans Ernst Schneider	Switzerland	48.86
3	Argemiro Roque	Brazil	49.05
4	Schalk Booysen	South Africa	49.17
5	Jiří David	Czechoslovakia	49.23
6	Fred Hammer	Luxembourg	49.90
7	Ossi Mildh	Finland	50.36

Quarterfinals

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

Heat one

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Arthur Wint	Jamaica	46.98
2	James Lavery	Canada	47.67
3	Lars-Erik Wolfbrandt	Sweden	48.08
4	Guillermo Gutiérrez	Venezuela	48.75
5	Leslie Lewis	Great Britain	49.09
6	Hans Ernst Schneider	Switzerland	49.32

Heat two

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	George Rhoden	Jamaica	47.24
2	Ollie Matson	United States	47.53
3	Karl-Friedrich Haas	Germany	47.66
4	Morris Curotta	Australia	48.86
5	Rolf Back	Finland	51.53

Heat three

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Mal Whitfield	United States	47.74
2	Hans Geister	Germany	47.81
3	Jack Carroll	Canada	47.82
4	Louis van Biljon	South Africa	48.63
5	Jacques Degats	France	48.90
6	Alan Dick	Great Britain	49.20

Heat four

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Herb McKenley	Jamaica	47.56
2	Gene Cole	United States	47.88
3	Ardalion Ignatyev	Soviet Union	48.25
4	Yves Camus	France	48.43
5	Terry Higgins	Great Britain	49.22

Semifinals

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

Heat one

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Arthur Wint	Jamaica	46.38
2	Karl-Friedrich Haas	Germany	46.56
3	Mal Whitfield	United States	46.64
4	Gene Cole	United States	46.94
5	Ardalion Ignatyev	Soviet Union	47.49
6	James Lavery	Canada	47.83

Heat two

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Herb McKenley	Jamaica	46.53
2	George Rhoden	Jamaica	46.61
3	Ollie Matson	United States	46.99
4	Hans Geister	Germany	47.00
5	Jack Carroll	Canada	47.61

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
01 !	George Rhoden	Jamaica	46.09	OR
02 !	Herb McKenley	Jamaica	46.20
03 !	Ollie Matson	United States	46.94
4	Karl-Friedrich Haas	Germany	47.22
5	Arthur Wint	Jamaica	47.24
6	Mal Whitfield	United States	47.30

Key: OR = Olympic record; DQ = Disqualified

References

• 1952 Summer Olympics results: Men's 400 metres, from http://www.sports-reference.com/; retrieved 2010-08-05.