The men's

200 metres The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightl ...

was held on 2 September and 3 September as part of the

athletics at the 1960 Summer Olympics At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, 34 events in athletics were contested, 24 by men and 10 by women. There were a total number of 1016 participating athletes from 73 countries. Medal summary Men Women Medal table Records broken Durin ...

, which were held in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. 74 athletes from 54 nations entered, but only 62 athletes from 47 nations ultimately competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by

Livio Berruti Livio Berruti (born 19 May 1939) is an Italian former athlete who was the winner of the 200-meter dash in the 1960 Summer Olympics. He won five medals, at individual level, and three medals with the national relay team at the International athl ...

of Italy, the first victory in the event by a nation outside of North America and snapping a five-Games winning streak (and two-Games medal sweep streak) by the United States. The Americans finished with a silver medal, by Lester Carney, to extend their medal streak to six Games.

Abdoulaye Seye Abdoulaye Seye (30 July 1934 – 13 October 2011) was a Senegalese sprinter. He competed for France at the 1960 Olympics in the 100 m, 200 m and 4 × 100 m relay events and won a bronze medal in the 200 m. Although Senegal had received its indepe ...

of France took bronze. Berruti's gold and Seye's bronze were the first medal for their nations in the men's 200 metres.

Background

This was the 13th appearance of the event, which was not held at the first Olympics in 1896 but has been on the program ever since. One of the six finalists from the 1956 Games returned: sixth-place finisher José da Conceição of Brazil. The favorite was American

Ray Norton Otis Ray Norton (born September 22, 1937 in Tulsa, Oklahoma) is a former American sprinter who competed in the 1960 Olympics in Rome. Track career After graduating high school in 1955, Norton initially went to Oakland City College staying f ...

, the 1959 and 1960 AAU champion and 1959 Pan American Games winner. Italian

was the only man who had defeated Norton in any 200 metres race in 1959, and the home crowd in Rome hoped for a medal from him. Afghanistan, the British West Indies, Fiji, Ghana, Kenya, and Morocco each made their debut in the event. The United States made its 13th appearance, the only nation to have competed at each edition of the 200 metres to date.

Competition format

The competition used the four round format introduced in 1920: heats, quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. A significant change, however, was the introduction of the "fastest loser" system. Previously, advancement depended solely on the runners' place in their heat. The 1960 competition added advancement places to the fastest runners across the heats in the first round who did not advance based on place. There were 12 heats of between 5 and 6 runners each (before withdrawals), with the top 2 men in each advancing to the quarterfinals along with the next 3 fastest overall. The quarterfinals consisted of 4 heats of 6 or 7 athletes each; the 3 fastest men in each heat advanced to the semifinals. There were 2 semifinals, each with 6 runners. In that round, the top 3 athletes advanced. The final had 6 runners. The races were run on a 400 metre track.

Records

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

's hand-timed 20.5 seconds in the semifinal equalled the world record and set a new Olympic record; he equalled this time in the Final.

Schedule

All times are

Central European Time Central European Time (CET) is a standard time which is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The time offset from UTC can be written as UTC+01:00. It is used in most parts of Europe and in a few North African countries. CET ...

(

UTC+1 UTC+01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in: *Central European Time *West Africa Time *Western European Summer Time **B ...

)

Results

Heats

The top two runners in each of the 12 heats advanced, as well as the next three fastest runners from across all heats.

Heat 1

Heat 2

Heat 3

Heat 4

Heat 5

Heat 6

Heat 7

Heat 8

Heat 9

Heat 10

Heat 11

Heat 12

Quarterfinals

The first three in each quarterfinal qualified for the semifinals.

Quarterfinal 1

Quarterfinal 2

Quarterfinal 3

Quarterfinal 4

Semifinals

The first three in each semifinal qualified for the final.

Semifinal 1

Semifinal 2

Berruti tied the world record of 20.5 seconds.

Final

Berruti tied again the world record of 20.5 seconds

References

External links

Olympic Report 1960 Volume 2
{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 1960 Summer Olympics - Men's 200 metres M 200 metres at the Olympics Men's events at the 1960 Summer Olympics