| | Event type

400 metres Hurdles, Men

Date	23 – 24 November 1956
Status	Olympic
Location	Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Victoria
Participants	28 from 18 countries

Coming in to 1956, the top American was Josh Culbreath, AAU Champion in 1953-55 and Pan-American Champion in 1955. The world record holder at the beginning of the year was Soviet Yury Lituyev with 50.4 set in 1953. Lituyev had been second at the European Championships in 1950 and 1954 and was the top European in 1956. But two young Americans took up the intermediate hurdles in 1956. Glenn Davis was a top 200/400 runner at Ohio State and won the US Olympic Trials in a world record 49.5, narrowly defeating Eddie Southern, still only a junior, who ran 49.7. In Melbourne again established his superiority, winning the final by 7/10ths over Southern, with Culbreath completing a US medal sweep, Lituyev trailing in fourth. South Africa’s Gert Potgieter had been in the medal hunt until he fell on the last barrier, finishing last.

Pos	Nr	Athlete	NOC	R1	SF	Final
1	278	Glenn Davis	USA	51.3 (1 h1)	50.7 (2 h1)	50.1 (1)	Gold
2	279	Eddie Southern	USA	51.3 (1 h2)	50.1 (1 h1)	50.8 (2)	Silver
3	277	Josh Culbreath	USA	50.9 (1 h3)	50.9 (1 h2)	51.6 (3)	Bronze
4	282	Yury Lituyev	URS	51.6 (1 h5)	51.8 (3 h2)	51.7 (4)
5	257	David Lean	AUS	51.4 (2 h1)	51.4 (2 h2)	51.8 (5)
6	274	Gert Potgieter	RSA	52.0 (2 h5)	51.3 (3 h1)	56.0 (6)
4 h1 r2/3	263	Guy Cury	FRA	51.6 (2 h3)	51.5 (4 h1)	–
4 h2 r2/3	113	Ilie Savel	ROU	52.2 (2 h6)	52.0 (4 h2)	–
5 h1 r2/3	280	Anatoly Yulin	URS	52.1 (1 h6)	51.7 (5 h1)	–
5 h2 r2/3	268	Harry Kane	GBR	51.8 (2 h2)	52.7 (5 h2)	–
6 h1 r2/3	258	Ross Parker	AUS	53.5 (1 h4)	52.6 (6 h1)	–
6 h2 r2/3	240	Ioannis Kampadelis	GRE	53.7 (2 h4)	53.8 (6 h2)	–
3 h1 r1/3	270	Keiji Ogushi	JPN	53.2 (3 h1)	–	–
3 h2 r1/3	256	Geoff Goodacre	AUS	52.5 (3 h2)	–	–
3 h3 r1/3	675	Jaime Aparicio	COL	52.0 (3 h3)	–	–
3 h4 r1/3	247	Amadeo Francis	PUR	54.3 (3 h4)	–	–
3 h5 r1/3	262	Ossi Mildh	FIN	52.1 (3 h5)	–	–
3 h6 r1/3	267	Bob Shaw	GBR	52.5 (3 h6)	–	–
4 h1 r1/3	273	Ovidio de Jesús	PUR	54.0 (4 h1)	–	–
4 h2 r1/3	246	Kalim Khawaja Ghani	PAK	55.1 (4 h2)	–	–
4 h3 r1/3	266	Tom Farrell	GBR	52.7 (4 h3)	–	–
4 h5 r1/3	264	Alexandre Yankoff	FRA	53.1 (4 h5)	–	–
4 h6 r1/3	260	Ulisses dos Santos	BRA	53.8 (4 h6)	–	–
5 h1 r1/3	271	Pablo Somblingo	PHI	54.5 (5 h1)	–	–
5 h2 r1/3	269	Jagdev Singh	IND	55.2 (5 h2)	–	–
5 h3 r1/3	372	Muhammad Yaqub	PAK	53.1 (5 h3)	–	–
5 h5 r1/3	259	Marcel Lambrechts	BEL	54.0 (5 h5)	–	–
6 h3 r1/3	261	Tsai Cheng-Fu	TPE	54.6 (6 h3)	–	–
DNS	281	Igor Ilyin	URS	– (DNS h4)	–	–
DNS	249	Josef Kost	SUI	– (DNS h6)	–	–
DNS	265	Helmut Janz	GER	– (DNS h4)	–	–
DNS	275	Christian Wägli	SUI	– (DNS h4)	–	–

Round One (23 November 1956 — 14:30)

Top two in each heat advanced to the semi-finals.

Heat One

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (H)	Time (A)
1	2	Glenn Davis	USA	51.3	51.33	Q
2	5	David Lean	AUS	51.4	51.55	Q
3	1	Keiji Ogushi	JPN	53.2	53.22
4	4	Ovidio de Jesús	PUR	54.0	54.08
5	3	Pablo Somblingo	PHI	54.5	54.66

Heat Two

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (H)	Time (A)
1	3	Eddie Southern	USA	51.3	51.41	Q
2	4	Harry Kane	GBR	51.8	51.85	Q
3	2	Geoff Goodacre	AUS	52.5	52.85
4	5	Kalim Khawaja Ghani	PAK	55.1	55.36
5	1	Jagdev Singh	IND	55.2	55.36

Heat Three

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (H)	Time (A)
1	1	Josh Culbreath	USA	50.9	51.06	Q
2	2	Guy Cury	FRA	51.6	51.76	Q
3	3	Jaime Aparicio	COL	52.0	52.14
4	5	Tom Farrell	GBR	52.7	52.88
5	4	Muhammad Yaqub	PAK	53.1	53.18
6	6	Tsai Cheng-Fu	TPE	54.6	54.84

Heat Four

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (H)	Time (A)
1	1	Ross Parker	AUS	53.5	53.51	Q
2	3	Ioannis Kampadelis	GRE	53.7	53.66	Q
3	4	Amadeo Francis	PUR	54.3	54.38
DNS	5	Igor Ilyin	URS	–	–
DNS	2	Helmut Janz	GER	–	–
DNS	6	Christian Wägli	SUI	–	–

Heat Five

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (H)	Time (A)
1	3	Yury Lituyev	URS	51.6	51.69	Q
2	5	Gert Potgieter	RSA	52.0	52.05	Q
3	4	Ossi Mildh	FIN	52.1	52.19
4	2	Alexandre Yankoff	FRA	53.1	53.30
5	1	Marcel Lambrechts	BEL	54.0	54.24

Heat Six

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (H)	Time (A)
1	4	Anatoly Yulin	URS	52.1	52.22	Q
2	5	Ilie Savel	ROU	52.2	52.31	Q
3	1	Bob Shaw	GBR	52.5	52.62
4	3	Ulisses dos Santos	BRA	53.8	53.99
DNS	2	Josef Kost	SUI	–	–

Semi-Finals (23 November 1956 — 17:40)

Top three in each heat advanced to the final.

Heat One

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (H)	Time (A)
1	5	Eddie Southern	USA	50.1	50.26	QOR
2	4	Glenn Davis	USA	50.7	50.78	Q
3	2	Gert Potgieter	RSA	51.3	51.30	Q
4	6	Guy Cury	FRA	51.5	51.66
5	1	Anatoly Yulin	URS	51.7	51.79
6	3	Ross Parker	AUS	52.6	52.72

Heat Two

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (H)	Time (A)
1	5	Josh Culbreath	USA	50.9	50.97	Q
2	3	David Lean	AUS	51.4	51.45	Q
3	1	Yury Lituyev	URS	51.8	51.78	Q
4	6	Ilie Savel	ROU	52.0	52.06
5	2	Harry Kane	GBR	52.7	52.95
6	4	Ioannis Kampadelis	GRE	53.8	53.93

Final (24 November 1956 — 17:10)

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (H)	Time (A)
1	4	Glenn Davis	USA	50.1	50.29	=OR
2	2	Eddie Southern	USA	50.8	50.94
3	1	Josh Culbreath	USA	51.6	51.74
4	5	Yury Lituyev	URS	51.7	51.91
5	6	David Lean	AUS	51.8	51.93
6	3	Gert Potgieter	RSA	56.0	–