The men's 110 metres hurdles event at the 1928 Olympic Games took place between July 31 & August 1. Forty-one athletes from 24 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation was 4.Official Report, p. 374. The event was won by Sydney Atkinson of South Africa, the nation's first title in the 110 metres hurdles; Atkinson became the first man to win two medals in the event (he had taken silver in 1924). It was only the second time the United States had not won the event; as in 1920, the Americans took silver and bronze.
Background
This was the eighth appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Two finalists from 1924 returned: silver medalist Sydney Atkinson of South Africa and bronze medalist Sten Pettersson of Sweden. Atkinson and the American hurdlers were favored.
Austria, Ireland, Japan, Poland, Portugal, and Romania each made their first appearance in the event. The United States made its eighth appearance, the only nation to have competed in the 110 metres hurdles in each Games to that point.
Competition format
The competition used the three-round basic format introduced in 1908. The first round consisted of nine heats, with between 4 and 6 hurdlers each. The top two hurdlers in each heat advanced to the semifinals. The 18 semifinalists were divided into three semifinals of 6 hurdlers each; the top two hurdlers in each advanced to the 6-man final.Official Report, pp. 434–36.
Records
These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1928 Summer Olympics.
George Weightman-Smith set a new world record at 14.6 seconds in the semifinals; that time was not beaten in the final.
Schedule
Date Time Round Tuesday, 31 July 1928 14:0016:50 Round 1Semifinals Wednesday, 1 August 1928 15:00 Final
Results
Round 1
The first two finishers in each heat moved on to the semifinal round.
Heat 1
Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Gabriel Sempé 15.0 2 Otakar Jandera Unknown 3 Armand Lepaffe Unknown 4 Lothar Albrich Unknown — Valerio Vallania
Heat 2
Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Carl Ring 15.0 2 Johannes Viljoen Unknown 3 Ludwig Wessely Unknown 4 Arie Kaan Unknown 5 Otto Schöpp Unknown
Heat 3
Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 George Weightman-Smith 14.8 2 Robert Marchand Unknown 3 Albert Andersson Unknown 4 Wilfrid Kalaugher Unknown
Heat 4
Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Steve Anderson 15.0 2 Eric Wennström Unknown 3 Alister Clark Unknown 4 Douglas Neame Unknown
Heat 5
Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Leighton Dye 15.0 2 Sid Atkinson Unknown 3 Erik Kjellström Unknown 4 Arie van Leeuwen Unknown
Heat 6
Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Bernard Lucas 15.2 2 Hans Steinhardt Unknown 3 Alfredo Ugarte Unknown 4 René Joannes-Powell Unknown
Heat 7
Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 John Collier 15.0 2 Bengt Sjöstedt 15.0 3 Giacomo Carlini 15.9 4 Jan Britstra Unknown
Heat 8
Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Fred Gaby 15.2 2 Sten Pettersson Unknown 3 Alf Watson Unknown 4 Evangelos Moiropoulos 15.6 5 Louis Lundgren 15.7 6 Wojciech Trojanowski 16.0
Heat 9
Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Yoshio Miki 15.4 2 David, Lord Burghley Unknown 3 Lau Spel Unknown 4 S. Abdul Hamid Unknown 5 José Palhares Costa Unknown
Semifinals
The first two finishers in each race moved on to the final.
Semifinal 1
Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Leighton Dye United States 14.8 2 Fred Gaby Great Britain 14.9 3 Eric Wennström Sweden 14.9 4 Hans Steinhardt Germany 15.3 5 Johannes Viljoen South Africa 15.4 6 Yoshio Miki Japan Unknown
Semifinal 2
Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Steve Anderson United States 14.8 2 Sid Atkinson South Africa 14.9 3 David, Lord Burghley Great Britain 15.0 4 Bengt Sjöstedt Finland 15.1 5 Robert Marchand France Unknown 6 Otakar Jandera Czechoslovakia Unknown
Semifinal 3
Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 George Weightman-Smith South Africa 14.6 , 2 John Collier United States 14.8 3 Sten Pettersson Sweden 15.0 4 Carl Ring United States Unknown 5 Gabriel Sempé France Unknown 6 Bernard Lucas Great Britain Unknown
Final
Rank Athlete Nation Time Sydney Atkinson 14.8 Steve Anderson 14.8 John Collier 14.9 4 Leighton Dye 14.9 5 George Weightman-Smith 15.0 6 Fred Gaby 15.2
References