Competitors 76 from 49 nations | Winning time 10.0 seconds | |
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Venue Olympic Stadium
Tokyo, Japan Dates 14 October (heats, quarterfinals)
15 October 1964 (semifinals, finals) | ||
The men's 100 metres was the shortest of the men's track races in the Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics program in Tokyo, Japan. It was held at the Olympic Stadium on 14 and 15 October 1964. 76 athletes from 49 nations entered, with 3 not starting in the first round. The first two rounds were held on 14 October, with the semifinals and the final on the following day.
Contents
In the final, American Bob Hayes tied the world record of 10.0 seconds and won the gold medal. Enrique Figuerola of Cuba and Harry Jerome of Canada tied the old Olympic record time and both won silver.
Final
Note that until the Tokyo Olympics world records were measured by officials with stopwatches, measured to the nearest tenth of a second. Although fully automatic timing was used in Tokyo, the times were given the appearance of manual timing. This was done by subtracting 0.05 seconds from the automatic time and rounding to the nearest tenth of a second, making Hayes' time of 10.06 seconds convert to 10.0 seconds, despite the fact that the officials with stopwatches had measured Hayes' time to be 9.9 seconds, and the average difference between manual and automatic times was typically 0.15 to 0.20 seconds. This unique method of determining the official time therefore denied Hayes the record of being the first to officially record 9.9 seconds for the 100 meters. The first official times of 9.9 seconds were recorded at the "Night of Speed" in 1968.
First round
The top three runners in each of the 10 heats advanced. The Official Report describes the weather for these heats as 'rainy'.
First round, heat 2
Wind, -2.51 m/s
Second round
The top four runners in each of the four second round heats advanced to the semifinals.
Second round, heat 1
Wind, +1.90 m/s
Semifinals
The top four runners in each of the two semifinals advanced to the final.
Semifinal 1
Excessive wind from behind the runners made this semifinal ineligible for world record breaking.
Wind, +5.28 m/s