Athletics at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metres

Lou Jones entered the Olympics as the world record holder, having first set it in early 1955 in Mexico City, then improving his record at the 1956 United States Olympic Trials. He managed to get into the final expending the minimum effort, running just fast enough to qualify behind the South African Malcolm Spence and ahead of Jamaican Melville Spence, twin brother of the Jamaican Malcom Spence who ran in the other semi-final. That's three M. Spences in the semi-final round, including two named Malcom. Four years later, both Malcoms would again make it to the semi-final round and each would leave that Olympics with a bronze medal.

Jones took off from the start of the race, pulling away from the field on the backstretch and reaching the half way point with a 3 metre lead on Ardalion Ignatyev. But there is a reality to running the 400 meters, Jones' exuberance caught up with him, his movement strained. The lead began to shrink through the final turn, to barely a metre by the time he reached the home stretch. More importantly, he had nothing left in the tank for the final sprint. By that point, his American teammate, Charles Jenkins was only a metre behind Ignatyev and gaining. With more speed down the final straightaway, in the next 40 metres, Jenkins caught Jones at the same time as Ignatyev. Jones could only look helplessly while Ignatyev strained. Another two metres back, Karl-Friedrich Haas was in full flight with Voitto Hellstén another metre behind in his wake. As Jenkins ran away to gold, Hellstén closed rapidly, the next three runners hitting the finish line virtually at the same time. With a slight lean at the finish, the tall Haas was given silver, but the photo finish could not separate Hellstén and Ignatyev, both being given the bronze medal.

The top three runners in each of the eight heats, advanced to the quarterfinal round.

Heat one

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time (hand)	Time (auto)
1	Lou Jones	United States	48.1	48.30
2	Murray Cockburn	Canada	49.0	49.07
3	Abdullah Khan	Pakistan	49.0	49.19
4	Konstantin Grachev	Soviet Union	49.4	49.58
5	Beyene Legesse	Ethiopia	50.7	50.83
-	Kanji Akagi	Japan	DQ

Heat two

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time (hand)	Time (auto)
1	Terry Tobacco	Canada	47.9	47.92
2	Jacques Degats	France	48.3	48.32
3	Jim Lea	United States	48.3	48.41
4	Bartonjo Rotich	Kenya	48.8	48.90
5	Jaime Aparicio	Colombia	49.0	49.14
6	Pablo Somblingo	Philippines	49.4	49.50
7	Kenneth Perera	Malaya	no time	51.96

Heat three

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time (hand)	Time (auto)
1	Malcolm Spence	South Africa	47.7	47.77
2	Jürgen Kühl	United Team of Germany	48.7	48.74
3	Charlie Jenkins	United States	48.7	48.82
4	Abebe Hailou	Ethiopia	49.0	49.18
5	Abdul Karim Amu	Nigeria	49.4	49.57

Heat four

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time (hand)	Time (auto)
1	Voitto Hellstén	Finland	48.4	48.52
2	Mike Wheeler	Great Britain	49.3	49.37
3	Kibet Boit	Kenya	49.3	49.48
4	Laird Sloan	Canada	50.0	50.18
5	Somsak Thonf Ar-Ram	Thailand	53.4	53.61

Heat five

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time (hand)	Time (auto)
1	Karl-Friedrich Haas	United Team of Germany	47.2	47.29
2	Graham Gipson	Australia	47.7	47.87
3	John Salisbury	Great Britain	47.7	47.95
4	Milkha Singh	India	48.9	49.07

Heat six

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time (hand)	Time (auto)
1	Ardalion Ignatyev	Soviet Union	48.6	48.69
2	George Kerr	Jamaica	49.7	49.74
3	Pierre Haarhoff	France	49.8	49.99
4	Kamau Wanyoke	Kenya	50.6	50.74

Heat seven

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time (hand)	Time (auto)
1	Kevan Gosper	Australia	48.0	48.07
2	Mal Spence	Jamaica	48.2	48.31
3	Iván Rodríuez	Puerto Rico	48.8	48.86
4	Gérard Rasquin	Luxembourg	50.6	50.76
5	Abdul Rahim bin Ahmed	Malaya	50.8	50.93
6	George Johnson	Liberia	54.8	-

Heat eight

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time (hand)	Time (auto)
1	Peter Higgins	Great Britain	47.9	47.98
2	Mel Spence	Jamaica	47.9	48.00
3	Jean-Paul Martin du Gard	France	48.3	48.39
4	John Goodman	Australia	48.5	48.73
5	Ajanew Bayene	Ethiopia	51.3	51.53
-	Horst Mann	United Team of Germany	DNF

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

Heat one

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time (hand)	Time (auto)
1	Lou Jones	United States	47.4	47.42
2	John Salisbury	Great Britain	47.4	47.60
3	Iván Rodríguez	Puerto Rico	47.5	47.64
4	Terry Tobacco	Canada	47.7	47.79
5	Jürgen Kühl	United Team of Germany	48.0	48.23
6	Abdullah Khan	Pakistan	DNS

Heat two

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time (hand)	Time (auto)
1	Ardalion Ignatyev	Soviet Union	46.8	46.88
2	Mal Spence	Jamaica	47.4	47.42
3	Peter Higgins	Great Britain	47.4	47.43
4	Graham Gipson	Australia	47.4	47.45
5	Jacques Degats	France	48.7	48.79
6	Murray Cockburn	Canada	49.5	49.74

Heat three

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time (hand)	Time (auto)
1	Voitto Hellstén	Finland	46.8	46.85
2	Malcolm Spence	South Africa	47.1	47.08
3	Mel Spence	Jamaica	47.3	47.38
4	Pierre Haarhoff	France	47.6	47.82
5	Jim Lea	United States	48.1	48.33
6	Kibet Boit	Kenya	49.1	49.18

Heat four

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time (hand)	Time (auto)
1	Kevan Gosper	Australia	46.7	46.83
2	Karl-Friedrich Haas	United Team of Germany	47.3	47.37
3	Charlie Jenkins	United States	47.5	47.63
4	George Kerr	Jamaica	47.7	47.79
5	Mike Wheeler	Great Britain	47.9	48.05
6	Jean-Paul Martin du Gard	France	48.2	48.37

Top three in each of the two heats advanced to the final round.

Heat one

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time (hand)	Time (auto)
1	Ardalion Ignatyev	Soviet Union	46.8	46.93
2	Malcolm Spence	South Africa	47.2	47.27
3	Lou Jones	United States	47.3	47.32
4	Mel Spence	Jamaica	47.5	47.58
5	Peter Higgins	Great Britain	47.7	47.65
6	Iván Rodríguez	Puerto Rico	47.7	47.86

Heat two

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time (hand)	Time (auto)
1	Charlie Jenkins	United States	46.1	46.19
2	Voitto Hellstén	Finland	46.1	46.20
3	Karl-Friedrich Haas	United Team of Germany	46.2	46.29
4	Kevan Gosper	Australia	46.2	46.45
5	John Salisbury	Great Britain	47.3	47.47
6	Mal Spence	Jamaica	47.4	47.52

• Official report