Athletics at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metres

Men's 100 metres
at the Games of the XIV Olympiad
Men's 100 metres; at the Games of the XIV Olympiad
Venue	Wembley Stadium; London, England
Dates	30 July 1948 (heats, quarterfinals); 31 July 1948 (semifinals, final)
Competitors	63 from 33 nations
Winning time	10.3 seconds
Medalists
	← 1936 1952 →

Official Video Highlights

The men's 100 metres sprint event at the 1948 Olympic Games in London, England, we held at Wembley Stadium on 30 and 31 July.^[1] The final was won by American Harrison Dillard, in a photo finish. This was the first time a photo finish camera was used at an Olympic Games.^[2] The photo finish equipment consisted of a photoelectric cell, called the Magic Eye, produced by Swiss watchmaker Omega and a slit photography camera produced by the British Race Finish Recording Company.^[3]

Records

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

World record	Jesse Owens (USA)	10.2 s	Chicago, United States	20 June 1936
World record	Harold Davis (USA)	10.2 s	Compton, United States	6 June 1941
Olympic record	Jesse Owens (USA)	10.3 s	Berlin, Germany	2 August 1936

Schedule

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

Date	Time
Friday, 30 July 1948	15:00 17:30	Round 1 Round 2
Saturday, 31 July 1948	14:30 15:45	Semifinals Finals

Results

Round 1

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

Heat 1

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time
1	Barney Ewell	United States	10.5
2	Alastair McCorquodale	Great Britain	10.5
3	Leslie Laing	Jamaica	11.0
4	Angel García	Cuba
5	Nestor Jacono	Malta

Heat 2

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time
1	Mel Patton	United States	10.6
2	Ivan Hausen	Brazil	10.9
3	James O'Brien	Canada	10.9
4	Fernando Lapuente	Argentina
5	Hector Gosset	Belgium
6	Guillermo Rodríguez	Mexico

Heat 3

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time
1	Lloyd La Beach	Panama	10.5
2	Béla Goldoványi	Hungary	11.0
3	Frank Mahoney	Bermuda	11.8

Heat 4

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time
1	Juan López	Uruguay	10.5
2	Ken Jones	Great Britain	10.6
3	Jan Meijer	Netherlands	11.0
4	Máximo Reyes	Peru
5	Finnbjörn Þorvaldsson	Iceland

Heat 5

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time
1	Harrison Dillard	United States	10.4
2	Aroldo da Silva	Brazil	10.6
3	Peter Bloch	Norway	11.1
4	Pol Braekman	Belgium

Heat 6

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time
1	McDonald Bailey	Great Britain	10.5
2	Haukur Clausen	Iceland	11.0
3	Abram van Heerden	South Africa	11.1
4	Carlos Silva	Chile
5	Bernabe Lovina	Philippines
6	Stanley Lines	Bermuda

Heat 7

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time
1	John Treloar	Australia	10.5
2	René Valmy	France	10.8
3	György Csányi	Hungary	11.1
4	Carlos Isaac	Argentina
5	Sayed Moukhtar	Egypt
6	Ali Salman	Iraq

Heat 8

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time
1	Rafael Fortún	Cuba	10.7
2	John Bartram	Australia	10.8
3	Basil McKenzie	Jamaica	10.8
4	Hélio da Silva	Brazil
5	Jo Zwaan	Netherlands

Heat 9

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Morris Curotta	Australia	10.7
2	Gerardo Bönnhoff	Argentina	10.8
3	Raúl Mazorra	Cuba	11.1
4	Örn Clausen	Iceland
5	Raşit Öztaş	Turkey
-	Perry Johnson	Bermuda		DQ

Heat 10

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time
1	George Lewis	Trinidad and Tobago	10.8
2	Ted Haggis	Canada	10.9
3	Walter Pérez	Uruguay	11.0
4	Santiago Ferrando	Peru
5	Stefanos Petrakis	Greece

Heat 11

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time
1	Isidoor Van De Wiele	Belgium	10.8
2	Nuno Morais	Portugal	10.9
3	Alberto Labarthe	Chile	11.0
4	Muhammad Sharif Butt	Pakistan
5	Charles Thompson	Guyana

Heat 12

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Mario Fayos	Uruguay	11.0
2	Eric Prabhakar	India	11.0
3	László Bartha	Hungary	11.1
4	Jan Kleyn	Netherlands
5	Kemal Aksur	Turkey
6	Maung Sein Pe	Burma
-	Étienne Bally	France		DNF

Round 2

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

Heat 1

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time
1	Harrison Dillard	United States	10.4
2	Juan López	Uruguay	10.6
3	Ken Jones	Great Britain	10.7
4	Ivan Hausen	Brazil
5	Ted Haggis	Canada
6	António Morais	Portugal

Heat 2

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time
1	Barney Ewell	United States	10.5
2	McDonald Bailey	Great Britain	10.6
3	Morris Curotta	Australia	10.8
4	George Lewis	Trinidad and Tobago
5	Béla Goldoványi	Hungary
6	Haukur Clausen	Iceland

Heat 3

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time
1	Mel Patton	United States	10.4
2	Alastair McCorquodale	Great Britain	10.5
3	John Bartram	Australia	10.6
4	René Valmy	France
5	Mario Fayos	Uruguay
6	Isidoor Van De Wiele	Belgium

Heat 4

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time
1	Lloyd La Beach	Panama	10.5
2	John Treloar	Australia	10.5
3	Rafael Fortún	Cuba	10.6
4	Aroldo da Silva	Brazil
5	Gerardo Bönnhoff	Argentina
6	Eric Prabhakar	India

Semifinals

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

Heat 1

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time
1	Harrison Dillard	United States	10.5
2	Barney Ewell	United States	10.5
3	Alastair McCorquodale	Great Britain	10.7
4	John Bartram	Australia
5	Juan López	Uruguay
6	Morris Curotta	Australia

Heat 2

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time
1	Mel Patton	United States	10.4
2	Lloyd LaBeach	Panama	10.5
3	McDonald Bailey	Great Britain	10.6
4	John Treloar	Australia
5	Rafael Fortún	Cuba
6	Ken Jones	Great Britain

Key: =OR = Equalled Olympic record; DNF = Did not finish; DQ = Disqualified

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time (hand)	Notes
	Harrison Dillard	United States	10.3	=OR
	Barney Ewell	United States	10.4
	Lloyd LaBeach	Panama	10.6
4	Alastair McCorquodale	Great Britain
5	Mel Patton	United States
6	McDonald Bailey	Great Britain

Key: =OR = Equalled Olympic record

References

^ "Athletics at the 1948 London Summer Games: Men's 100 metres". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
^ Jackson, Peter (24 July 2012). "London's three Olympic Games compared", BBC News.
^ https://secondtime.com/blog/omega-the-olympics-and-the-innovations-required-to-time-the-earths-best/

External links

Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad, The (1948). The Official Report of the Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad. LA84 Foundation. Retrieved 4 September 2016.

[SR-1] "Athletics at the 1948 London Summer Games: Men's 100 metres". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2017.

[2] Jackson, Peter (24 July 2012). "London's three Olympic Games compared", BBC News.

[3] ttps://secondtime.com/blog/omega-the-olympics-and-the-innovations-required-to-time-the-earths-best/

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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
v t e

v t e 100 metres at the Athletics at the Summer Olympics
Complete event history
Men	1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020
Women	1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020
See also: Men's 100 metres 1906 Intercalated Games Men's 60 metres 1900 1904