Competitors 65 from 32 nations | Winning time 10.5 seconds | |
Venue Melbourne Cricket Ground
Melbourne, Australia Dates 23 November (heats, quarterfinals)
24 November 1956 (semifinals, final) | ||
The men's 100 metres sprint event at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia, was held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 23 and 24 November. The final was won by American Bobby Morrow. The competition took place in strong winds, with the final run into an approximately 5 m/s (11 mph) headwind.
Contents
In lane 4, Bobby Morrow was out fast, sandwiched by his teammates Thane Baker in lane 6 and Ira Murchison in lane 1. Morrow just ran away from the field. Baker edged ahead of Murchison to get silver. Running before an Australian crowd, Hec Hogan came from behind to nip Murchison at the line. While Morrow had almost two metres on Baker, the hand timing of the day gave them the same time of 10.5. An early fully automatic timing system showed the separation to be .15 of a second and that Baker had effectively the same time as Hogan, .02 ahead of Murchison.
Final
The final was run into a negative 5.5m/s wind.
Heats
The fastest two runners in each of the twelve heats advanced to the quarterfinal round.
Heat one
Heat two
Heat three
Heat four
Heat five
Heat six
Heat seven
Heat eight
Heat nine
Heat ten
Heat eleven
Heat twelve
Quarterfinals
The fastest three runners in each of the four heats advanced to the semifinal round.
Heat one
Heat two
Heat three
Heat four
Semifinals
The fastest three runners in each of the two heats advanced to the final round.
Heat one
Heat two
Key: =OR = Equalled Olympic record; DQ = Disqualified