Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metres


The men's 100 metres sprint event at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, West Germany, was held at Olympiastadion on 31 August and 1 September. Eighty-five athletes from 55 nations competed. Each nation was limited to 3 athletes per rules in force since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Valeriy Borzov of the Soviet Union, the first medal in the men's 100 metres for that nation. Jamaican Lennox Miller, silver medalist four years earlier, became the second man to make the podium twice in the event by taking bronze.
This event is notable for the absence of favorites and world record holders Eddie Hart and Rey Robinson from their quarterfinal heats due to a communication error, leading to American sprint coach Stan Wright being given the wrong starting time. The three qualified American athletes, Robinson, Hart and Robert Taylor, were at the ABC television headquarters watching what they believed were replays of their morning preliminary races before being informed they were watching live coverage of the races they were scheduled to run in. The athletes rushed to the stadium, but Hart and Robinson, scheduled in the first two races, missed their heats, while Robert Taylor hurried to take off his warm up uniform before running his heat. An appeal by American officials to have Robinson and Hart run in another heat was rejected.

Background

This was the seventeenth time the event was held, having appeared at every Olympics since the first in 1896. Two finalists from 1968 returned: Lennox Miller of Jamaica and Jean-Louis Ravelomanantsoa of Madagascar. The favorite was Soviet Valeriy Borzov, the European champion. The American team was missing John Carlos, who had turned to professional football, but still had strong runners in Eddie Hart and Rey Robinson, who had matched the world record of 9.9 seconds in the U.S. Olympic trials, and Robert Taylor.
Thirteen nations appeared in the event for the first time: Bolivia, Cambodia, Chad, Kuwait, Lesotho, Malawi, Mongolia, Paraguay, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Upper Volta, the Virgin Islands, and Zambia. The United States was the only nation to have appeared at each of the first seventeen Olympic men's 100 metres events.

Competition format

The event retained the same basic four round format introduced in 1920: heats, quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. It also expanded the "fastest loser" system, introduced in 1968, to include the quarterfinals as well as the preliminary heats.
The first round consisted of 12 heats, each with 6–8 athletes. The top three runners in each heat advanced, along with the next four fastest runners overall. This made 40 quarterfinalists, who were divided into five heats of 8 runners. The top three runners in each quarterfinal advanced, along with the single fastest fourth-place finisher. The 16 semifinalists competed in two heats of 8, with the top four in each semifinal advancing to the eight-man final.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
World record9.9 Jim HinesSacramento, United States20 June 1968
World record9.9 Ronnie Ray SmithSacramento, United States20 June 1968
World record9.9 Charles GreeneSacramento, United States20 June 1968
World record9.9 Jim HinesMexico City, Mexico14 October 1968
World record9.9 Eddie HartEugene, United States1 July 1972
World record9.9 Rey RobinsonEugene, United States1 July 1972
Olympic record9.9 Jim HinesMexico City, Mexico14 October 1968

No records were set in the event at the 1972 Games.

Results

Heats

The top three runners in each of the twelve heats, and the next fastest four, advanced to the quarterfinal round.

Heat one

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Lennox Miller10.45
2Amadou Meïté10.51
3Hans-Jürgen Bombach10.66
4Rudy Reid10.74
5Dan Amuke10.76
6Byambajavyn Enkhbaatar10.93
7Samphon Mao10.95
8Luis Alers11.09

Heat two

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Valeriy Borzov10.47
2Mike Sands10.67
3Luděk Bohman10.72
4Gerhard Wucherer10.82
5Tadeusz Cuch10.89
6Yeo Kian Chye10.92
7Alphonse Yanghat10.95
8Andrew Sartee11.09

Heat three

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Manfred Kokot10.49
2Sandy Osei-Agyemang10.52
3Les Piggot10.54
4John Mwebi10.60
5Luís da Silva10.63
6Kevin Johnson10.91
7Mansour Al-Juaid11.23
–Robert Arega

Heat four

The tailwind of 2.3 m/s made this heat ineligible for records purposes.
RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Jaroslav Matoušek10.37
2Brian Green10.41
3Kouakou Komenan10.50
4Walter Callander10.78
5George Calhern10.90
6Farhan Navab11.02
7Angel Guerreros11.12
–Anat Ratanapol

Heat five

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Aleksandr Kornelyuk10.38
2Kola Abdulai10.57
3Stanisław Wagner10.62
4Juraj Demeč10.66
5Félix Mata10.73
6Bjarni Stefánsson10.99
7Younis Abdallah11.20
–Gaoussou Kone

Heat six

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Rey Robinson10.56
2Philippe Clerc10.58
3Sammy Monsels10.61
4George Daniels10.65
5André Bicaba10.71
6Motsapi Moorosi10.74
7William Dralu10.92

Heat seven

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Hasely Crawford10.50
2Don Halliday10.58
3Erik Gustafsson10.68
4Guillermo González10.73
5Norman Chihota10.79
6Egzi Gebre-Gebre10.89
7Pierre-Richard Gaetjens11.50
–Pablo Montes

Heat eight

The tailwind of 2.10 m/s made this heat ineligible for records purposes.
RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Barka Sy10.30
2Bernd Borth10.48
3Audun Garshol10.49
4Su Wen-Ho10.59
5Gana Abba Kimet10.89
6Raimo Vilén11.00
7Lionel Caero11.19

Heat nine

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Alain Sarteur10.42
2Saleh Alah-Djaba10.65
3Charlie Francis10.68
4Andrés Calonge10.73
5Laurie D'Arcy10.77
6Larmeck Mukonde11.16
–Hermes Ramirez

Heat ten

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Vasilios Papageorgopoulos10.24
2Jean-Louis Ravelomanantsoa10.29
3Michael Fray10.47
4Antti Rajamäki10.52
5Ainsley Armstrong10.56
6Jorge Vizcarrondo10.79
7Zain-ud-Din bin Abdul Wahab10.80

Heat eleven

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Eddie Hart10.47
2Dominique Chauvelot10.66
3Klaus Ehl10.67
4Benedict Majekodunmi10.70
5Gaston Malam10.88
6Sunil Gunawardene11.00
7Tukal Mokalam11.02

Heat twelve

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Robert Taylor10.32
2Jobst Hirscht10.36
3Zenon Nowosz10.36
4Volodymyr Atamas10.51
5Axel Nepraunik10.61
6André Byrame10.64
7Moustafa Matola11.31

Quarterfinals

The top three runners in each of the five heats and the next fastest one, advanced to the semifinal round.

Quarterfinal one

Hart failed to appear due to a scheduling change and coaching error.
RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Jobst Hirscht10.25
2Jaroslav Matoušek10.35
3Bernd Borth10.44
4Philippe Clerc10.45
5Ainsley Armstrong10.47
6Mike Sands10.50
7Audun Garshol10.55
-Eddie Hart

Quarterfinal two

Robinson failed to appear due to a scheduling change and coaching error.
RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Jean-Louis Ravelomanantsoa10.47
2Brian Green10.58
3Kouakou Komenan10.60
4Stanisław Wagner10.61
5Sandy Osei-Agyemang10.66
6Erik Gustafsson10.78
7Su Wen-Ho10.82
-Rey Robinson

Quarterfinal three

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Valeriy Borzov10.07,
2Robert Taylor10.16
3Hasely Crawford10.18
4Zenon Nowosz10.40
5Klaus Ehl10.44
6Les Piggot10.53
7Dominique Chauvelot10.54
8Hans-Jürgen Bombach10.64

Quarterfinal four

The tailwind of 3.40 m/s made this heat ineligible for records purposes.
RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Aleksandr Kornelyuk10.23
2Barka Sy10.27
3Michael Fray10.28
4Kola Abdulai10.41
5Antti Rajamäki10.43
6Manfred Kokot10.44
7Saleh Alah-Djaba10.51
8Charlie Francis10.51

Quarterfinal five

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Lennox Miller10.33
2Alain Sarteur10.40
3Vasilios Papageorgopoulos10.45
4Amadou Meïté10.52
5Luděk Bohman10.52
6Don Halliday10.60
7Sammy Monsels10.64
8Vladimir Atamas10.83

Semifinals

The top four runners in each of the two heats advanced to the final round.

Semifinal one

Papageorgopoulos was forced to scratch after he pulled a groin muscle in the quarter-finals.
RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Valeriy Borzov10.21
2Hasely Crawford10.36
3Jobst Hirscht10.36
4Michael Fray10.48
5Alain Sarteur10.51
6Kouakou Komenan10.57
7Bernd Borth10.60
-Vasilios Papageorgopoulos

Semifinal two

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1Robert Taylor10.30
2Lennox Miller10.31
3Aleksandr Kornelyuk10.35
4Zenon Nowosz10.42
5Barka Sy10.42
6Jean-Louis Ravelomanantsoa10.46
7Jaroslav Matoušek10.40
8Brian Green10.40

Final

Borzov "won fairly easily."
RankLaneAthleteNationTime
2Valeriy Borzov10.14
4Robert Taylor10.24
5Lennox Miller10.33
46Aleksandr Kornelyuk10.36
58Michael Fray10.40
67Jobst Hirscht10.40
71Zenon Nowosz10.46
–3Hasely Crawford