Athletics at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Men's 800 metres


The men's 800 metres event at the 1952 Olympics took place between July 20 and July 22. The final was won by the American Mal Whitfield.

Summary

Starting from a waterfall start, most competitors were allowed to and chose to use a crouch start. Returning silver medalist Arthur Wint sprinted to the lead with Heinz Ulzheimer moving into a tight marking position with Gunnar Nielsen and Günther Steines sprinting to keep up. On the home stretch for the first time, defending champion Mal Whitfield moved forward, past the other chasers into a marking position on Ulzheimer. Wint continued to lead down the backstretch, then Whitfield accelerated past Ulzheimer, who turned to look, then at the beginning of the turn, Wint. It was a deja vu for Wint, seeing Whitfield ahead of him on the final turn of the Olympics. The first five were separated from the rest of the pack, Whitfield pulling away to defend his championship. Wint couldn't make any progress on Whitfield but held off the battle behind him. Steines lost ground, getting passed by a big rush by Albert Webster, but Nielsen pressed Ulzheimer to the line, Ulzheimer taking bronze with a lean then in the next step doing a face plant to the track.
Whitfield equalled the Olympic record he had set in London four years earlier, meaning he ran exactly the same time 1:49.2 in both races. Wint was a tenth of a second faster. Whitfield became the second man after Douglas Lowe to defend the 800 metres title. Peter Snell and David Rudisha have since equalled the feat.

Results

Heats

The first round was held on July 20. The first three runners from each heat advanced to the semifinals.
Heat 1
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Lars Wolfbrandt1:55.3
2Albert Webster1:55.5
3Gennady Modoy1:55.8
4Maurice Marshall1:56.2
5Johannes Baumgartner1:57.1
6Mohamed Sanni-Thomas2:05.8

Heat 2
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Mal Whitfield1:52.5
2Edmund Potrzebowski1:52.6
3Tom White1:52.7
4Olavi Talja1:52.9
5Turhan Göker1:55.9
6Evelio Planas1:57.6

Heat 3
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Jack Hutchins1:54.5
2John Barnes1:54.5
3Jenő Bakos1:54.5
4Roman Korban1:54.7
5Alam Zeb1:56.3
6Vasilios Mavrodis1:58.7

Heat 4
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Reggie Pearman1:51.6
2Petro Chevhun1:51.8
3Günther Steines1:52.7
4Louis Desmet1:52.9
5René Djian1:54.3

Heat 5
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Hans Ring1:53.6
2Arthur Wint1:54.2
3Don MacMillan1:55.0
4Oscar Soetewey1:55.4
5Georgy Ivakin1:56.4
6Frank Rivera1:57.6
7Víctorio Solares2:01.4

Heat 6
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Heinz Ulzheimer1:51.4
2Sohan Singh1:52.0
3Ludvík Liška1:52.3
4John Ross1:52.5
5Arqemiro Roque1:54.1
6Lucien Demuynck1:57.4
7Boonpak Kwancharoen2:12.6

Heat 7
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Audun Boysen1:53.2
2Urban Cleve1:53.4
3Frank Evans1:53.8
4Ekrem Koçak1:54.5
5Filemón Camacho2:00.0
6Arie Gill-Glick2:00.9

Heat 8
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Patrick El Mabrouk1:52.0
2Gunnar Nielsen1:53.0
3Bill Parnell1:53.1
4Yoshitaka Muroya1:54.0
5Fred Lüthi1:55.0
6Erkki Rönnholm1:55.7
7Guðmundur Lárusson1:56.5

Semifinals

The fastest three runners in each of the three heats advanced to the final round.
Heat one
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Gunnar Nielsen1:50.0
2Mal Whitfield1:50.1
3Albert Webster1:50.1
4Audun Boysen1:50.4
5Urban Cleve1:51.6
6Bill Parnell1:52.7
7Pyotr Chevgun1:52.8
8Don MacMillan1:58.4

Heat two
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Arthur Wint1:52.7
2Günther Steines1:52.9
3Hans Ring1:53.0
4John Barnes1:53.4
5Tom White1:53.6
6Ludvík Liška1:54.8
7Gennady Modoy1:55.7

Heat three
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
1Heinz Ulzheimer1:51.9
2Lars Wolfbrandt1:52.4
3Reggie Pearman1:52.5
4Jack Hutchins1:52.8
5Edmund Potrzebowski1:53.7
6Sohan Singh1:54.9
7Jenő Bakos1:55.5
8Frank Evans1:56.8

Final

RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
Mal Whitfield1:49.2=OR
Arthur Wint1:49.4
Heinz Ulzheimer1:49.7
4Gunnar Nielsen1:49.7
5Albert Webster1:50.2
6Günther Steines1:50.6
7Reggie Pearman1:52.1
8Lars Wolfbrandt1:52.1
9Hans Ring1:54.0