Athletics at the 1900 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metres hurdles

Men's 400 metres hurdles at the Games of the II Olympiad
Venue	Bois de Boulogne
Dates	July 14 (semifinals) July 15 (final)
Competitors	5 from 4 nations
Medalists
Walter Tewksbury  United States Henri Tauzin  France George Orton  Canada

The men's 400 metres hurdles was a track & field athletics event at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris. This event was held for the first time at the Olympics. The competition took part on July 14 and July 15, 1900. The race was held on a track of 500 metres in circumference. Five athletes from four nations competed in the longest of the three hurdling events.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1900 Summer Olympics.

World Record	56.4(*)	Jerome Buck	New York (USA)	September 19, 1896
Olympic Record		none

(*) unofficial 440 yards (= 402.34 m)

The times set in the two heats are uncertain. In the final Walter Tewksbury set the new Olympic record with 57.6 seconds.

Results

First round

In the first round, there were two heats run on July 14. The top two runners in each advanced to the final, meaning that only one athlete was eliminated in the heats.

First round, heat 1

Place	Athlete	Time
1	Walter Tewksbury (USA)	1:01.0
2	William Lewis (USA)	(1:02.4)
3	Karel Nedvěd (BOH)	Unknown

Tewksbury won from Lewis by ten yards (9 m). This meant that Nedvěd, placing third, was the only athlete eliminated in the round.

First round, heat 2

Place	Athlete	Time
1	Henri Tauzin (FRA)	1:00.2
2	George Orton (CAN)	(1:00.2)

With only two athletes in the heat and both to qualify, neither hurdler ran anywhere near full speed. Tauzin beat Orton by three inches (8 cm).

Final

Place	Athlete	Time
1	Walter Tewksbury (USA)	57.6
2	Henri Tauzin (FRA)	(58.3)
3	George Orton (CAN)	(58.8)
—	William Lewis (USA)	DNS

Lewis withdrew as the final was held on a Sunday. For the three who did start, it was the first race of the event that posed any sort of challenge, with hurdles fashioned out of 30-foot (9 m) long telegraph poles and a 16-foot (5 m) water jump on the final straight; Tewksbury still did not have much difficulty, leading from the start to win by about five yards (4.5 m), with Orton a further four yards (3.5 m) back.

Sources

• International Olympic Committee.
• De Wael, Herman. Herman's Full Olympians: "Athletics 1900". Accessed 18 March 2006. Available electronically at [1].
• Mallon, Bill (1998). The 1900 Olympic Games, Results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. ISBN 0-7864-0378-0.