Athletics at the 1924 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metres

Men's 400 metres at the Games of the VIII Olympiad
Venue	Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir
Dates	July 10 (heats and quarterfinals) July 11 (semifinals and final)
Competitors	60 from 27 nations
Medalists
Eric Liddell  Great Britain Horatio Fitch  United States Guy Butler  Great Britain

Official Video

Athletics at the 1924 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m		men
200 m		men
400 m		men
800 m		men
1500 m		men
5000 m		men
10,000 m		men
110 m hurdles		men
400 m hurdles		men
3000 m steeplechase		men
4×100 m relay		men
4×400 m relay		men
3000 m team race		men
10 km walk		men
Road events
Marathon	men
Field events
Long jump	men
Triple jump	men
High jump	men
Pole vault	men
Shot put	men
Discus throw	men
Hammer throw	men
Javelin throw	men
Combined events
Pentathlon	men
Decathlon	men
Cross-country events
Individual	men
Team	men

The men's 400 metres event was part of the track and field athletics programme at the 1924 Summer Olympics. This race was depicted in the film Chariots of Fire. The competition was held on Thursday, July 10, 1924 and on Friday, July 11, 1924.

As for all other races the track was 500 metres in circumference.

Sixty runners from 27 nations competed.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1924 Summer Olympics.

World Record	47.4(*)	Ted Meredith	Cambridge, MA (USA)	May 27, 1916
Olympic Record	48.2	Charles Reidpath	Stockholm (SWE)	July 13, 1912

(*) 440 yards (= 402.34 m)

In the quarter-finals, Josef Imbach set a new Olympic record with 48.0 seconds. In the semi-finals Horatio Fitch improved the Olympic record with 47.8 seconds. In the final, Eric Liddell set a new world record with 47.6 seconds; this time was ratified as a 400 metres world record as Ted Meredith ran his record over 440 yards.

Results

Round 1

All heats were held on Thursday, July 10, 1924 and started at 2 p.m.

The best two finishers of every heat qualified for the quarter-finals.

Heat 1

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	22x20px Horace Aylwin (CAN)	54.0	Q
2	Erik Wilén (FIN)	54.8	Q

Heat 2

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Ray Robertson (USA)	50.2	Q
2	Kai Jensen (DEN)	50.9	Q
3	Jules Migeot (BEL)	51.0
4	Reinhold Kesküll (EST)
5	Christophe Mirgain (LUX)

Heat 3

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Gustaf Wejnarth (SWE)	50.2	Q
2	Lajos Kurunczy (HUN)	52.6	Q
3	Richard Honner (AUS)	53.1
4	Kiril Petrunov (BUL)

Heat 4

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Eric Wilson (USA)	49.6	Q
2	Roy Norman (AUS)	50.6	Q
3	22x20px William Fuller (CAN)	51.5
4	22x20px Édouard Armand (HAI)

Heat 5

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Josef Imbach (SUI)	51.8	Q

Heat 6

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	22x20px David Johnson (CAN)	51.8	Q
2	Charles Hoff (NOR)	53.0	Q

Heat 7

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	John Taylor (USA)	50.8	Q
2	Tokushige Noto (JPN)	51.7	Q
3	Wim Bolten (NED)	53.0

Heat 8

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	22x20px Toby Betts (RSA)	49.8	Q
2	Sean Lavan (IRL)	51.2	Q
3	Wim Kat (NED)	51.8
4	22x20px Guillermo Amparan (MEX)	52.0

Heat 9

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Artur Svensson (SWE)	50.0	Q
2	Raymond Fritz (FRA)	51.0	Q
3	Charles Lane (AUS)	51.4
4	Menso Menso (NED)
5	22x20px Juan Escutia (MEX)

Heat 10

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	22x20px Clarence Oldfield (RSA)	49.6	Q
2	Edward Toms (GBR)	49.9	Q
3	22x20px Carlos Garces (MEX)	51.0
4	Emilio Casanovas (ARG)

Heat 11

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Nils Engdahl (SWE)	49.2	Q
2	George Renwick (GBR)	50.3	Q
3	Francisco Dova (ARG)	51.0
4	22x20px José Martínez (MEX)

Heat 12

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Terence Pitt (IND)	49.8	Q
2	22x20px Alan Christie (CAN)	50.5	Q
3	Félix Escobar (ARG)	51.4
4	Raymond Jamois (FRA)
5	Karel Přibyl (TCH)	52.8

Heat 13

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Luigi Facelli (ITA)	51.0	Q
2	Federico Brewster (ARG)	51.8	Q
3	Stefan Ołdak (POL)	55.0

Heat 14

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Eric Liddell (GBR)	50.2	Q
2	Alfredo Gargiullo (ITA)	50.4	Q
3	Erik Byléhn (SWE)	50.6
4	Stanisław Świętochowski (POL)	55.4

Heat 15

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Horatio Fitch (USA)	52.0	Q
2	Erik Åström (FIN)	52.1	Q

Heat 16

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Guy Butler (GBR)	50.2	Q
2	Gaston Féry (FRA)	51.1	Q
3	Narciso Costa (BRA)
4	Ennio Maffiolini (ITA)
5	Christian Simmen (SUI)

Heat 17

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Barthélémy Favodon (FRA)	51.2	Q
2	Adriaan Paulen (NED)	52.0	Q
3	Paul Hammer (LUX)	53.1

Quarterfinals

All semi-finals were held on Thursday, July 10, 1924 and started at 4 p.m.

The best two finishers of every heat qualified for the semifinals.

Horace Aylwin, Lajos Kurunczy, George Renwick, and Erik Åström qualified for the quarterfinals but withdrew.

Quarterfinal 1

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Horatio Fitch (USA)	49.0	Q
2	Artur Svensson (SWE)	50.0	Q
3	22x20px Alan Christie (CAN)	50.8
4	Edward Toms (GBR)

Quarterfinal 2

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	22x20px Toby Betts (RSA)	49.0	Q
2	Charles Hoff (NOR)	49.2	Q
3	Gustaf Wejnarth (SWE)	50.2
4	Gaston Féry (FRA)	50.7

Quarterfinal 3

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Guy Butler (GBR)	49.8	Q
2	John Taylor (USA)	50.4	Q
3	Barthélémy Favodon (FRA)	50.9
4	Terence Pitt (IND)	51.6
5	Kai Jensen (DEN)
6	Federico Brewster (ARG)

Quarterfinal 4

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Adriaan Paulen (NED)	49.0	Q
2	Eric Liddell (GBR)	49.3	Q
3	Ray Robertson (USA)	49.5
4	Luigi Facelli (ITA)	50.5
5	Raymond Fritz (FRA)	50.5

Quarterfinal 5

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	22x20px Clarence Oldfield (RSA)	49.0	Q
2	22x20px David Johnson (CAN)	49.3	Q
3	Erik Wilén (FIN)	49.6
4	Roy Norman (AUS)	50.2
5	Alfredo Gargiullo (ITA)

Quarterfinal 6

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Josef Imbach (SUI)	48.0	Q OR
2	Nils Engdahl (SWE)	48.4	Q
3	Eric Wilson (USA)	48.8
4	Sean Lavan (IRL)	49.8
5	Tokushige Noto (JPN)	50.7

Semifinals

All semi-finals were held on Friday, July 11, 1924 and started at 2:45 p.m.

The best three finishers of each heat qualified for the final.

Semifinal 1

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Horatio Fitch (USA)	47.8	Q OR
2	Guy Butler (GBR)	47.9	Q
3	22x20px David Johnson (CAN)	48.0	Q
4	Adriaan Paulen (NED)	48.2
5	22x20px Toby Betts (RSA)	48.4
6	Nils Engdahl (SWE)	48.6

Semifinal 2

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Eric Liddell (GBR)	48.2	Q
2	Josef Imbach (SUI)	48.3	Q
3	John Taylor (USA)	48.7	Q
4	Charles Hoff (NOR)
5	22x20px Clarence Oldfield (RSA)
6	Artur Svensson (SWE)

Final

The final was held on Friday, July 11, 1924 and started at 5:30 p.m.

Place	Athlete	Time
1	Eric Liddell (GBR)	47.6 WR
2	Horatio Fitch (USA)	48.4
3	Guy Butler (GBR)	48.6
4	22x20px David Johnson (CAN)	48.8
5	John Taylor (USA)	1:07.0 est
—	Josef Imbach (SUI)	DNF

References

• Olympic Report
• sports-reference