Athletics at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metres hurdles

Men's 400 metres hurdles at the Games of the XIX Olympiad
Venue	Estadio Olímpico Universitario
Date	October 13–15
Competitors	30 from 24 nations
Winning time	48.1 WR
Medalists
David Hemery   Great Britain   Gerhard Hennige   West Germany   John Sherwood   Great Britain

Official Video Highlights @1:05:39 Video on YouTube

Athletics at the 1968 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
800 m		men		women
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
20 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
Pentathlon				women
Decathlon		men

The Men's 400 metres hurdles competition at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico took place on October 13–15 at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario.

In the final, David Hemery took the race out hard. By the final straightaway he had an ever growing lead over the world record holder Geoff Vanderstock. Hemery continued to pour it on, taking seven tenths of a second out of the world record, a huge improvement. Vanderstock struggled between the final barrier and the finish line, his 2 metre advantage over field evaporated. Gerhard Hennige, then John Sherwood edged past him at the line.

Competition format

The men's 400m hurdles competition started with four heats, where the four fastest runners from each race qualified to one of the two semifinals groups. The top four competitors from each semifinals group advanced to the final.

Records

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

World record	Geoff Vanderstock (USA)	48.8	Echo Summit, United States	September 11, 1968
Olympic record	Glenn Davis (USA)	49.3	Rome, Italy	September 2, 1960

Results

Heats

Heat 1

Rank	Name	Country	Result	Notes
1	Gerhard Hennige	West Germany	49.5	Q
2	Geoff Vanderstock	United States	50.6	Q
3	Vyacheslav Skomorokhov	Soviet Union	50.7	Q
4	Víctor Maldonado	Venezuela	51.4	Q
5	Kiyoo Yui	Japan	51.5
6	Bob McLaren	Canada	51.8
7	Miguel Olivera	Cuba	51.9
8	Mohamed Asswai Khalifa	Libya	54.3

Heat 2

Rank	Name	Country	Result	Notes
1	Juan Carlos Dyrzka	Argentina	49.8	Q
2	Roger Johnson	New Zealand	51.3	Q
3	John Cooper	Great Britain	51.4	Q
4	Mamadou Sarr	Senegal	51.5	Q
5	Wes Brooker	Canada	51.5
6	William Quaye	Ghana	51.6

Heat 3

Rank	Name	Country	Result	Notes
1	Ron Whitney	United States	49.0	Q OR
2	Rainer Schubert	West Germany	49.1	Q
3	Gary Knoke	Australia	49.8	Q
4	John Sherwood	Great Britain	50.2	Q
5	Wilhelm Weistand	Poland	50.7
6	Wilfried Geeroms	Belgium	51.2
7	Juan Santiago Gordón	Chile	52.4
8	Zambrose Abdul Rahman	Malaysia	53.2

Heat 4

Rank	Name	Country	Result	Notes
1	Roberto Frinolli	Italy	49.9	Q
2	David Hemery	Great Britain	50.3	Q
3	Robert Poirier	France	50.5	Q
4	Jaakko Tuominen	Finland	50.6	Q
5	Kimaru Songok	Kenya	50.6
6	Alejandro Sánchez	Mexico	51.6
7	Juan García	Cuba	51.8
8	Georgios Birmbilis	Greece	52.6

Semifinals

Heat 1

Rank	Name	Country	Result	Notes
1	Roberto Frinolli	Italy	49.2	Q
2	Geoff Vanderstock	United States	49.2	Q
3	John Sherwood	Great Britain	49.3	Q
4	Rainer Schubert	West Germany	49.3	Q
5	Juan Carlos Dyrzka	Argentina	49.8
6	Jaakko Tuominen	Finland	50.8
7	John Cooper	Great Britain	50.8
8	Víctor Maldonado	Venezuela	52.2

Heat 2

Rank	Name	Country	Result	Notes
1	Gerhard Hennige	West Germany	49.1	Q
2	Ron Whitney	United States	49.2	Q
3	David Hemery	Great Britain	49.3	Q
4	Vyacheslav Skomorokhov	Soviet Union	49.6	Q
5	Gary Knoke	Australia	49.6
6	Robert Poirier	France	51.2
7	Roger Johnson	New Zealand	51.8
8	Mamadou Sarr	Senegal	52.1

Final

Rank	Name	Country	Result	Notes
01 !	David Hemery	Great Britain	48.1	WR
02 !	Gerhard Hennige	West Germany	49.0
03 !	John Sherwood	Great Britain	49.0
4	Geoff Vanderstock	United States	49.0
5	Vyacheslav Skomorokhov	Soviet Union	49.1
6	Ron Whitney	United States	49.2
7	Rainer Schubert	West Germany	49.2
8	Roberto Frinolli	Italy	50.1

References

• Official Olympic Report, la84foundation.org. Retrieved August 13, 2012.