Athletics at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Women's 80 metres hurdles

The Women's 80 metres hurdles at the 1952 Summer Olympics took place on July 24 and July 25 at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium. Australian athlete Shirley Strickland de la Hunty earned the gold medal, setting new World and Olympic records.

Women's 80 metres hurdles at the Games of the XV Olympiad
Venue	Helsinki Olympic Stadium
Dates	July 23 (heats and semifinals) July 24 (final)
Competitors	33 from 21 nations
Medalists
Shirley Strickland de la Hunty  Australia Maria Golubnichaya  Soviet Union Maria Sander  Germany

Video on YouTube amateur film

Summary

Suffering from skin boils, defending champion Fanny Blankers-Koen was dropping out of other events to save herself for this event. In the first heat, Shirley Strickland set the Olympic record at 11.0. Strickland improved upon that with a 10.8 in the semi-final round, joined by Maria Sander and Jean Desforges also running 10.9. It would have been a world record race but instead was wind aided.

In the final, Blankers-Koen blasted out to a clear early lead over the first hurdle. Still leading she hit the second hurdle hard and was knocked off stride. She quit after jumping the third hurdle, this was the last race of her career. Meanwhile Strickland was left with a metre lead on the closest chaser Sander. At the sixth hurdle, Sander lost her stride and struggled, leaving Maria Golubnichaya in silver position but more than 2 metres behind Strickland. And those positions held, Strickland well ahead of Golubnichaya, a slowing Sander leaning across the finish line to hold off her teammate Anneliese Seonbuchner for bronze.

Results

Heats

The first round was held on July 23. The two fastest runners qualified for the semifinals.

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Shirley Strickland de la Hunty	Australia	11.0	=OR
2	Milena Greppi	Italy	11.7
3	Miyo Miyashita	Japan	11.8
4	Colette Elloy	France	11.9
5	Jorun Askersrud Tangen	Norway	12.2

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Fanny Blankers-Koen	Netherlands	11.2
2	Edna Maskell	South Africa	11.6
3	Klára Soós	Hungary	11.9
4	Hilde Antes	Saar	12.0
5	Nilima Ghose	India	12.9

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Elene Gokieli	Soviet Union	11.5
2	Pam Seaborne	Great Britain	11.5
3	Wilhelmina Lust	Netherlands	11.6
4	Seija Pöntinen	Finland	11.8
5	Pui Wah Tang	Singapore	12.8

Heat 4

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Jean Desforges	Great Britain	11.4
2	Anneliese Seonbuchner	Germany	11.4
3	Luella Law	Canada	11.8
4	Helene Bielansky	Austria	11.8
5	Sylvi Keskinen	Finland	12.4
6	Leah Horowitz-Ravid	Israel	12.4

Heat 5

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Maria Sander	Germany	11.3
2	Claudie Flament	France	11.5
3	Anna Aleksandrova	Soviet Union	11.5
4	Maria Musso	Italy	11.9
5	Constance Darnowski	United States	12.1
6	Aino Autio	Finland	12.1

Heat 6

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Maria Golubnichaya	Soviet Union	11.1
2	Wanda dos Santos	Brazil	11.3
3	Yvette Monginou	France	11.3
4	Elfriede Steurer	Austria	11.4
5	Pauline Threapleton-Wainwright	Great Britain	11.9
6	Gretel Bolliger	Switzerland	12.3

Semifinals

The semifinals were held on the July 23, the same day as the preliminary round. The first three runners from each heat qualified for the final.

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Shirley Strickland de la Hunty	Australia	10.8	Due to excessive wind assistance during the race, this result did not count as a new World Record.
2	Maria Sander	Germany	10.9
3	Jean Desforges	Great Britain	10.9
4	Elene Gokieli	Soviet Union	11.1
5	Edna Maskell	South Africa	11.2
6	Milena Greppi	Italy	11.4

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Maria Golubnichaya	Soviet Union	11.2
2	Fanny Blankers-Koen	Netherlands	11.3
3	Anneliese Seonbuchner	Germany	11.4
4	Pam Seaborne	Great Britain	11.4
5	Wanda dos Santos	Brazil	11.4
6	Claudie Flament	France	11.6

Final

The final was held on July 24.

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
	Shirley Strickland de la Hunty	Australia	10.9	WR
	Maria Golubnichaya	Soviet Union	11.1
	Maria Sander	Germany	11.1
4	Anneliese Seonbuchner	Germany	11.2
5	Jean Desforges	Great Britain	11.6
	Fanny Blankers-Koen	Netherlands	DNF