Athletics at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Men's 800 metres

Men's 800 metres at the Games of the XIV Olympiad
Venue	Wembley Stadium
Dates	July 30 (heats) July 31 (semifinals) August 2 (final)
Medalists
Mal Whitfield  United States Arthur Wint  Jamaica Marcel Hansenne  France

The men's 800 metres event at the 1948 Olympic Games took place July 30, July 31 and August 2. The final was won by the American Mal Whitfield.

Summary

The competitors all started from a crouch start. In the final, Marcel Hansenne bolted from the blocks to take the lead. The tall Arthur Wint worked his way through the crowd and moved into the marking position by the end of the turn. Mal Whitfield smoothly ran around the crowd, past Wint and Hansenne into the lead. Whitfield kept going, extending his lead to five metres uncontested. Ingvar Bengtsson moved forward to challenge Hansenne, holding the edge through the final turn. Coming off the final turn, Wint ran around both of them and set off in chase of Whitfield. He was able to close down a couple of meters but the gap was too much, Whitfield winning easily. Behind them, Herb Barten ran around the outside of Bengtsson and challenged Hansenne to the line, but Hansenne took the bronze.

Records

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

World record	Rudolf Harbig (GER)	1:46.6	Milan, Italy	15 July 1939
Olympic record	Tommy Hampson (GBR)	1:49.7	Los Angeles, United States	2 August 1932

The following new Olympic record was set during this competition:

Date	Event	Athlete	Time	Notes
2 August	Final	Mal Whitfield (USA)	1:49.2	OR

Schedule

All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1).

Date	Time
Friday, 30 July 1948	16:00	Round 1
Saturday, 31 July 1948	15:15	Semifinals
Monday, 2 August 1948	16:00	Final

Results

Round 1

The first four in each heat qualified for the Semi-finals.

Heat 1

Rank	Country	Athletes	Time (hand)
1	France	Marcel Hansenne	1:54.6
2	Great Britain	John Parlett	1:55.0
2	Australia	Bill Ramsay	1:55.0
4	Switzerland	Karl Volkmer	1:55.3
5	Argentina	Adán Torres	1:56.7
6	South Korea	Lee Yun-seok	2:01.4
-	Egypt	Rashid Khadr	Also competed

Heat 2

Rank	Country	Athletes	Time (hand)
1	United States	Herb Barten	1:55.6
2	New Zealand	Doug Harris	1:56.6
2	Great Britain	Tom White	1:56.6
4	Belgium	Raymond Rosier	1:56.7
5	Greece	Vasilios Mavroidis	1:57.4
6	Peru	Antero Mongrut	1:58.7
-	Turkey	Cahit Önel	Also competed
-	Denmark	Herluf Christensen	DNF

Heat 3

Rank	Country	Athletes	Time (hand)
1	Denmark	Niels Holst-Sørensen	1:54.2
1	Norway	Bjørn Vade	1:54.2
3	United States	Bob Chambers	1:54.3
4	Belgium	Joseph Brys	1:55.4
4	Iceland	Óskar Jónsson	1:55.4
6	Canada	Bill Parnell	1:55.7
-	Spain	Juan Adarraga	Also competed

Heat 4

Rank	Country	Athletes	Time (hand)
1	Jamaica	Arthur Wint	1:53.9
2	Netherlands	Frits de Ruijter	1:54.4
3	Luxembourg	Josy Barthel	1:54.8
4	Czechoslovakia	Václav Winter	1:55.1
5	Canada	Ezra Henniger	1 55.4
6	Trinidad and Tobago	Wilfred Tull	1:55.7
-	Turkey	Seydi Dinçtürk	Also competed

Heat 5

Rank	Country	Athletes	Time (hand)
1	Sweden	Olle Ljunggren	1:56.1
2	France	Robert Chef d'Hôtel	1:56.2
3	Switzerland	Hans Streuli	1:56.5
4	Great Britain	Harry Tarraway	1:56.6
4	Argentina	Guillermo Avalos	1:56.6
6	Turkey	Riza Maksut İşman	2:01.1
-	Greece	Georgios Karageorgos	Also competed

Heat 6

Rank	Country	Athletes	Time (hand)
1	United States	Mal Whitfield	1:52.8
2	Sweden	Ingvar Bengtsson	1 52.9
3	Canada	Jack Hutchins	1:55.5
4	France	Gaston Mayordome	1:55.7
5	Greece	Stylianos Stratakos	2:02.2

Semifinals

Heat 1

Rank	Country	Athletes	Time (hand)
1	France	Marcel Hansenne	1:50.5
2	United States	Mal Whitfield	1:50.7
3	Great Britain	John Parlett	1:50.9
4	Canada	Jack Hutchins	1:52.6
5	Belgium	Joseph Brys	1:53.2
6	Luxembourg	Josy Barthel	1:54.6
-	Norway	Bjørn Vade	Also competed
-	Switzerland	Karl Volkmer	DNF

Heat 2

Rank	Country	Athletes	Time (hand)
1	Sweden	Ingvar Bengtsson	1:51.2
2	Jamaica	Arthur Wint	1:52.7
3	United States	Bob Chambers	1:52.9
4	France	Gaston Mayordome	1:54.3
5	Australia	Bill Ramsay	1:54.9
6	Czechoslovakia	Václav Winter	1:57.7
-	Great Britain	Harry Tarraway	DNF
-	New Zealand	Doug Harris	DNF

Heat 3

Rank	Country	Athletes	Time (hand)
1	United States	Herb Barten	1:51.7
2	France	Robert Chef d'Hôtel	1:52.0
3	Denmark	Niels Holst-Sørensen	1:52.4
4	Sweden	Olle Ljunggren	1:52.5
5	Great Britain	Tom White	1:53.0
6	Netherlands	Frits de Ruijter	1:54.6
7	Belgium	Raymond Rosier
-	Switzerland	Hans Streuli	DNF

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time (hand)	Notes
	Mal Whitfield	United States	1:49.2	OR
	Arthur Wint	Jamaica	1:49.5
	Marcel Hansenne	France	1:49.8
4	Herb Barten	United States	1:50.1
5	Ingvar Bengtsson	Sweden	1:50.5
6	Bob Chambers	United States	1:52.1
7	Robert Chef d'Hôtel	France	1:53.0
8	John Parlett	Great Britain	1:53.4
9	Niels Holst-Sørensen	Denmark	1:54.0

Key: OR = Olympic record