| Final 17:45 | time | L | | 1. Forrest Towns |  United States | 14.2s | 2 | | 2. Don Finlay |  Great Britain | 14.4s | 1 | | 3. Fritz Pollard, Jr. | United States | 14.4s | 6 | | 4. Lidman Håkan |  Sweden | 14.4s | 3 | | 5. John Thornton | Great Britain | 14.7s | 4 | | 6. Larry O'Connor |  Canada | 14.8s | 5 |
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| | | Venue: Olympiastadion, Charlottenburg, Berlin. Capp.: 100,000. | | 31 competitors from 20 nations. |
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Semi-Finals - Thursday 06.08 15:00 | | First 3 from each Semi advanced to Final |
| Semi 1 | time | | | 1. Forrest Towns | United States | 14.1s | Q, | | 2. Lidman Håkan | Sweden | 14.5s | Q | | 3. John Thornton | Great Britain | 14.7s | | | 4. Roy Staley | United States | 14.8s | | | 5. Tadashi Murakami |  Japan | 15.1s | | | 6. Juan Lavenás |  Argentina | 15.6s | |
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| Semi 2 | time | | | 1. Don Finlay | Great Britain | 14.5s | Q | | 2. Fritz Pollard, Jr. | United States | 14.6s | Q | | 3. Larry O'Connor | Canada | 15.0s | | | 4. Vane Ivanović |  Yugoslavia | 15.2s | | | 5. Erwin Wegner |  Germany | 15.3s | | | 6. Tom Lavery |  South Africa | 15.6s | |
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Towns, who had run 14.1 four times before the Games, and Fritz
Pollard, the first world class black hurdler, were favourites for the gold
and silver. Towns was fastest in both preliminary rounds, clocking 14.5
and then 14.1 to equal his world record. Lidman ran 14.5 behind
Towns, a time emulated by Finlay in winning the other semi, just ahead
of Pollard after the American had led for most of the race.
In the final Pollard got a superb start and led Towns by half a metre
at the second hurdle, which he hit. Towns caught him at the third hur-
dle, and went clear for good. Pollard was still second at the 10th hurdle,
but hit it, and lost the silver to Finlay on the run-in, with Lidman inches
behind in fourth place. Towns went on to run 13.7 three weeks later.
| Heat 1 | time | | | 1. Tom Lavery | South Africa | 15.0s | Q | | 2. Larry O'Connor | Canada | 15.1s | Q | | 3. Khristos Mantikas |  Greece | 15.2s | | | 4. Svend Aage Thomsen |  Denmark | 15.3s | | | 5. Juul Bosmans |  Belgium | Unknown | | | 6. Yasuharu Furuta | Japan | Unknown | |
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| Heat 2 | time | | | 1. Fritz Pollard, Jr. | United States | 14.7s | Q | | 2. John Thornton | Great Britain | 15.0s | Q | | 3. Johann Langmayr |  Austria | 15.1s | | | 4. Willi Welscher | Germany | 15.2s | | | 5. Huang Yingjie |  Rep. China | 16.9s | |
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| Heat 3 | time | | | 1. Don Finlay | Great Britain | 14.7s | Q | | 2. Tadashi Murakami | Japan | 15.3s | Q | | 3. Jim Worrall | Canada | 15.6s | | | 4. Darcy Guimarães |  Brazil | Unknown | | | 5. Ludvík Kománek |  Czechoslovakia | Unknown | |
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| Heat 4 | time | | | 1. Roy Staley | United States | 15.0s | Q | | 2. Juan Lavenás | Argentina | 15.1s | Q | | 3. Ashleigh Pilbrow | Great Britain | 15.5s | | | 4. Ioannis Skiadas | Greece | Unknown | | | 5. Lin Shaozhou | Rep. China | 15.7s | |
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| Heat 5 | time | | | 1. Forrest Towns | United States | 14.5s | Q | | 2. Erwin Wegner | Germany | 15.1s | Q | | 3. Ernst Leitner | Austria | 15.3s | | | 4. René Kunz |  Switzerland | Unknown | | | 5. Kotaro Shimizu | Japan | Unknown | |
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| Heat 6 | time | | | 1. Lidman Håkan | Sweden | 14.9s | Q | | 2. Vane Ivanović | Yugoslavia | 15.1s | Q | | 3. Gianni Caldana |  Italy | 15.1s | | | 4. Alf Watson |  Australia | 15.1s | | | 5. Miguel White |  Philippines | Unknown | |
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