The altitude which had hurt so many distance runners here was a god-
send to the 400m hurdlers, as all eight finalists ran faster in Mexico
City than they ever did at low altitude. Six men ran quicker than 50 sec-
onds in the first round, two more than in all Olympic history prior to
1958. Fastest was race favourite Whitney who edged Schubert 49.0
(49.06) to 49.1 (49.15), while Kimaru Songok (KEN) had the chasten-
ing experience of running 50.65, a time good enough to make any pre-
vious final, without getting through to the next round.
Frinolli ran a lifetime best of 49.2 (49.14) in the first semi, 0.07
ahead of world record holder Vanderstock. Hennige equalled
Schubert’s European record with 49.1 in the other semi, though, like
his teammate, his time was .01 slower than Frinolli. Unfortunate losers
in the semis were Juan Dyrzka (ARG) and Gary Knoke (AUS) who ran
49.82 and 49.61 in fifth place in the two races.
As in 1964 Frinolli was off first in the final, and led by a metre at the
first hurdle. By the fourth hurdle Skomorokhov and Hemery had joined
the Italian up front, and at the fifth hurdle all three were timed in 21.5.
Hemery was in the lead by halfway (23.3), and his superior hurdling
technique and strength began to tell. His lead extended from 0.2 at the
sixth barrier to 0.7 at the last hurdle. His second half of 24.8 was only
approached by Whitney (24.9) who misjudged the race badly, being 9m
behind Hemery at halfway.
Great Britain
West Germany
United States
Soviet Union
Italy
Argentina
Finland
Venezuela
Australia
France
New Zealand
Senegal
Japan
Canada
Cuba
LBA
Ghana
Poland
Belgium
Chile
Malaya
Kenya
Mexico
