Men 200m Breaststroke Swimming Olympic Games 1952 Helsinki, Finland - Saturdaty, 2nd August - Gold Medal: John Davies, Australia
Final time gap L Y 1. John Davies Australia2:34.4 OR 4 23 2. Bowen Stassforth United States2:34.7 +0.3s 6 25 3. Herbert Klein Germany2:35.9 +1.5s 5 29 4. Nobuyasu Hirayama Japan2:37.4 +3.0s 1 18 5. Takayoshi Kajikawa Japan2:38.6 +4.2s 3 18 6. Jiro Nagasawa Japan2:39.1 +4.7s 7 20 7. Maurice Lusien France2:39.8 +5.4s 8 25 8. Ludevit Komadel Czechoslovakia2:40.1 +5.7s 2 24
Venue: Helsinki Swimming Stadium. 40 Competitors from 27 Nations. World Record: Herbert Klein, Germany 2:27.3 Munchen, West Germany 9 June 1951 Olympic Record: Joe Verdeur, United States 2:39.3 London, Great Britain 7 August 1948
For the first and last time in Olympic Breaststroke history every finalist used the butterfly stroke as by the next Olympic Games the butterfly would be contested as a separate event. Although the German world record holder Herbert Klein was in the field there was no clear favourite for this race and the evenly matched performances of some of the main contenders in the heats and semi-finals did not help to resolve the issue of favouritism. Klein led the final at the halfway stage but was passed by Australia's John Davies and Bowen Stassforth of the USA over the second half of the race. Although Davies had finished fourth in this event in 1948 in London, his victory in Helsinki was unexpected.
Semi 1 Team time Rk. 1. John Davies AUS2:36.8 1. 2. Komadeľ Ľudovít TCH2:38.8 5. 3. Nobuyasu Hirayama JPN2:39.1 6. 4. Gerald Holan USA2:39.2 9. 5. Monty Nitzkowski USA2:41.4 11. 6. Daan Buijze NED2:42.6 13. 7. Orlando Cossani ARG2:43.1 14. 8. George Portelance CaN2:43.8 15.
Semi 2 Team time Rk. 1. Herbert Klein GER2:37.0 2. 2. Takayoshi Kajikawa JPN2:37.3 3. 3. Bowen Stassforth USA2:38.7 4. 4. Jiro Nagasawa JPN2:39.0 6. 5. Maurice Lusien FRA2:39.1 8. 6. David Hawkins AUS2:39.8 10. 7. Nikola Trojanović YUG2:41.8 12. 8. Vladimir Borisenko URS2:46.2 16.
Heat 1 Team time Rk. 1. Monty Nitzkowski USA2:40.6 9. 2. Pierre Joly dit Dumesnil FRA2:43.4 17. 3. Marek Petrusewicz POL2:44.0 19. 4. Juha Tikka FIN2:46.3 24. 5. Brian Barnes GBR2:48.6 31. 6. René Kohn LUX2:59.3 37.
Heat 2 Team time Rk. 1. John Davies AUS2:39.7 7. 2. Jiro Nagasawa JPN2:40.4 8. 3. Nikola Trojanović YUG2:42.4 14. 4. Bengt Rask SWE2:45.3 22. 5. Ludovicus Schoenmaekers BEL2:46.5 25. 6. Yury Kurchashov URS2:47.3 26. 7. Alfons Oehy SUI2:54.8 36. 8. Muhammad Bashir PAK3:01.3 38.
Heat 3 Team time Rk. 1. Komadeľ Ľudovít TCH2:38.9 3. 2. Orlando Cossani ARG2:39.6 5. 3. Takayoshi Kajikawa JPN2:39.6 5. 4. Walter Ocampo MEX2:44.8 21. 5. Octavio Mobiglia BRA2:46.1 23. -. Giorgio Grilz ITA
Heat 4 Team time Rk. 1. Bowen Stassforth USA2:39.3 4. 2. David Hawkins AUS2:41.2 11. 3. George Portelance CaN2:42.5 15. 4. Pyotr Skripchenkov URS2:47.3 26. 5. Blago Barbijeri YUG2:47.3 26. 6. Knud Gleie DEN2:51.4 34. 7. Vladimír Skovajsa TCH2:53.3 35.
Heat 5 Team time Rk. 1. Gerald Holan USA2:36.8 1. 2. Maurice Lusien FRA2:40.9 10. 3. Nobuyasu Hirayama JPN2:41.5 12. 4. Adhemar Grijó Filho BRA2:47.6 29. 5. Habib Suharko INA2:51.3 33.
Heat 6 Team time Rk. 1. Herbert Klein GER2:37.0 2. 2. Daan Buijze NED2:41.9 13. 3. Vladimir Borisenko URS2:43.2 16. 4. Aulis Kähkönen FIN2:43.8 18. 5. Manuel Sanguily CUB2:44.5 20. 6. Vlastimil Linhart TCH2:48.0 30. 7. Awad Moukhtar Halloudah EGY2:50.5 32. 8. Eduardo Barbeiro POR3:04.6 39.
Prepared and maintained by Todor Krastev
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Last updated: 15 May 2022Facebook Todor Krastev