The men's
sprint cycling event at the
1948 Summer Olympics
The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...
took place between 7 and 9 August and was one of
six events at the 1948 Olympics.
There were 23 cyclists from 23 nations, with each nation limited to one competitor.
[ The event was won by Mario Ghella of Italy, the nation's first victory in the men's sprint. ]Reg Harris
Reginald Hargreaves Harris OBE (1 March 1920 – 22 June 1992) was a British track racing cyclist in the 1940s and 1950s. He won the world amateur sprint title in 1947, two Olympic silver medals in 1948, and the professional title in 19 ...
of Great Britain, heavily favored coming into the event, finished with silver, the first medal for a British cyclist in the sprint since 1920. Axel Schandorff's bronze was Denmark's first medal in the event since 1928. The podium streaks of the Netherlands (five Games) and France (four Games) both ended, with neither nation's cyclist able to advance to the quarterfinals.
Background
This was the ninth appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1904 and 1912. None of the semifinalists from 1936 returned, but Howard Wing of China competed again after the 12-year break occasioned by World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. The heavy favorite and host nation hero was 1947 World Champion Reg Harris
Reginald Hargreaves Harris OBE (1 March 1920 – 22 June 1992) was a British track racing cyclist in the 1940s and 1950s. He won the world amateur sprint title in 1947, two Olympic silver medals in 1948, and the professional title in 19 ...
; his biggest rival, Cor Bijster of the Netherlands, had turned professional and could not compete in the Games.
Competition format
This track cycling
Track cycling is a bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks or velodromes using purpose-designed track bicycles.
History
Track cycling has been around since at least 1870. When track cycling was in its infancy, it ...
event consisted of numerous rounds. Each race involved the riders starting simultaneously and next to each other, from a standing start. Because the early part of races tend to be slow-paced and highly tactical, only the time for the last 200 metres of the race is typically recorded (though the full time for these Games was recorded as well). The distance for the sprint in 1948 was actually 920 metres instead of the standard 1000 metres, to be exactly two laps of the track.
The first two rounds consisted of single races between pairs of cyclists. The berths in the second round were allocated to the winners from each of the races in the first round, and the winners from each race in the repechage round. Starting with the quarterfinals stage, cyclists were paired once again, this time racing against each other two times, with the winner advancing further in the competition. This was the first time that the best-of-three format was used for the quarterfinals and semifinals (having been introduced in 1932 for the final and expanded to the bronze medal match in 1936).[
]
Records
The records for the sprint are 200 metre flying time trial records, kept for the qualifying round in later Games as well as for the finish of races.
* World records were not tracked by the UCI until 1954.
No new Olympic record was set during the competition.
Schedule
All times are British Summer Time (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
Round 1
Round 1 heat 1
Rocca won by two lengths.[
]
Round 1 heat 2
Van De Velde won by a wheel. Wing broke his collar bone after the race.[
]
Round 1 heat 3
Roth won by inches.[
]
Round 1 heat 4
Harris won by a length.[
]
Round 1 heat 5
Hijzelendoorn won by half a length.[
]
Round 1 heat 6
Cortoni won by two lengths.[
]
Round 1 heat 7
Schandorff won by a length.[
]
Round 1 heat 8
Bellenger won by two lengths.[
]
Round 1 heat 9
Welt won by half a length.[
]
Round 1 heat 10
Heid won by two lengths.[
]
Round 1 heat 11
Ghella won easily.[
]
Repechage
Howard Wing from China broke his collar bone after finishing his first round race. Manthos Kaloudis from Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...
, who had arrived late and missed the first round, took his place.[Official Report, p. 322.]
Repechage heat 1
Lacourse won by two lengths.[
]
Repechage heat 2
Paseiro won by two lengths.[
]
Repechage heat 3
Bazzano won by two lengths.[
]
Repechage heat 4
León won by a length.[
]
Repechage heat 5
Masanés beat replacement rider Kaloudis by two lengths, with Lewis finishing third.[
]
Round 2
The race between Jan Hijzelendoorn from the Netherlands and Leonel Rocca from Uruguay was repeated following a protest from Uruguay after the disqualification of Rocca.
Round 2 heat 1
Ghella won by four lengths.[Official Report, p. 323.]
Round 2 heat 2
There was a crash at the very end of the race, with Hijzelendoorn unable to finish and Rocca disqualified. The Uruguayan team protested the result, however, and the protest was successful. The heat was ordered to be re-run on the next day of competition (two days later). The delay for the appeal led to 40 minutes of inactivity on the track, which the spectators did not appreciate. The result also delayed the start of the later rounds from Saturday to Monday.[Official Report, p. 317.] In the re-run, Rocca won by two lengths.[
; Original
; Re-run
]
Round 2 heat 3
Masanés won by inches.[
]
Round 2 heat 4
Schandorff won easily.[
]
Round 2 heat 5
Van De Velde won by half a wheel.[
]
Round 2 heat 6
Heid won by an inch.[
]
Round 2 heat 7
Bazzano won by one and a half lengths.[
]
Round 2 heat 8
Harris won by a length.[
]
Quarterfinals
Quarterfinal 1
Ghella won the first race by a length and the second by two lengths.[
]
Quarterfinal 2
Schandorff won the first race by a length and the second by two lengths.[
]
Quarterfinal 3
Harris won both races by a length.[
]
Quarterfinal 4
Bazzano won the first race by a wheel and the second by a length and a half.[
]
Semifinals
Semifinal 1
Ghella won the first race by three-quarters of a length and the second by three lengths.
Semifinal 2
Harris won the first race by a length and the second by three-quarters of a length.[
]
Finals
Bronze medal match
Schandorff won the first race by three-quarters of a length and the second by two lengths.[Official Report, p. 324.]
Final
Ghella won the first race by three lengths and the second by one and a half lengths.[ In the first, Ghella made his attack at the 300-yard mark, passing Harris on the inside (accorded a tactical error to leave space inside by the British cyclist). The final distance between the two was increased by Harris easing off to conserve energy for the second race. Doing so did him little good, however, as in the second race Ghella took the lead and fought off two challenges by Harris in the final two straights.][Official Report, p. 317.]
Final standings
References
External links
Cycling at the 1948 London Summer Games: Men's Sprint
sports-reference.com. Retrieved 18 September 2016.
*Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad, The (1948)
The Official Report of the Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad
''LA84 Foundation
The LA84 Foundation (known until June 2007 as the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles) is a private, nonprofit institution created by the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee to manage Southern California's endowment from the 1984 Olym ...
''. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cycling at the 1948 Summer Olympics - Men's sprint
Cycling at the 1948 Summer Olympics
Cycling at the Summer Olympics – Men's sprint
Track cycling at the 1948 Summer Olympics