In the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, Herb McKenley, one of Jamaica's most celebrated sprinters, faced a heart-wrenching defeat in the men’s 400 metres final. Despite setting a blistering pace and being the crowd favourite, McKenley was narrowly outpaced by his fellow Jamaican, George Rhoden, in a dramatic finish.

Published Friday, September 2,1988

Olympic Focus

-George Rhoden’s golden day

By Tony Becca

AS far as the world is concerned, especially the athletics buffs who can recite the names of every winner at every Olympic Games – including their times and whatever other details one may call for - there are a few events at the 1988 Games in Seoul in which the interest is not who will win, but in what time.

One of those events is the men’s 400 metres, where an American named Butch Reynolds is considered so invincible that the race will be for second and third place. Indeed, there are those who believe that even those placings are already accounted for by two other Americans.

The world, however, is full of surprises, and while Reynolds may continue to dominate the field in Seoul, probably breaking the present world record as well as taking the Olympic gold, there is every possibility that he may be beaten. After all, sport is full of surprises, the history of the Olympic Games studded with unexpected champions.

One such surprise took place on a bleak, chilly day – Friday, July 25, 1952 in Helsinki - when one of the best fields ever assembled for such an event contested the final of the men’s 400 metres,  a field that read Arthur Wint, who was the defending champion from Jamaica; Karl Friedrich Hass of Germany; Ollie Watson of the USA; Mal Whitfield of the USA; George Rhoden of Jamaica; and Herb McKenley, also of Jamaica.

It was a field of celebrities, for apart from Wint, the previous champion, there was Whitfield – the bronze medallist in 1948 and reigning AAU champion; Rhoden - the man who was beaten by Whitfield in the AAU event; and McKenley – the man who had set many world records, the man who was picked to win the event in 1948, the man considered by many the best 400 runner of them all.

In the semi-finals. Wint won his race in 46.3 to beat Hass and Whitfield, who both clocked 46.4, while McKenley won the other in 46.4, followed by Rhoden in 46.5 and Malson in 46.7.

For all six contestants, victory was important, but more so to the three Jamaicans – to Wint who wanted so badly to retain the title and who felt he could do it; to Rhoden who believed that he was the best 400-man, McKenley or no McKenley; and McKenley himself, the man who missed out in London in 1948, the man who had just missed out in the 100 metres and the man who had broken so many records that many felt the race should be his.

At the start, it was Wint who set the pace, so fast, in fact,that he covered the first 200 metres in 21.7, so fast was he that he blew himself out as Rhoden and McKenley bided their time.

Going round the curve, with every man pacing himself, Rhoden – the man who failed to Whitfield in the AAU while running on the outside lane, the man who trained every day since in the outside lane, and the man who drew the outside lane on this the biggest occasion of all – stepped up the pace, and by the time the field realised it, by the time McKenley checked the positioning of the field, Rhoden was heading for the home stretch some eight metres away.

With a second 400 metres gold medal slipping away from him in what was certainly his last Olympic Games. McKenley took off and went for his man.  In a glorious diving finish, McKenley was just about to get by when Rhoden called in his last reserve of strength, shouted to himself, and bared his teeth to win by the slimmest of margins as both men finished in 45.9.

For McKenley,  it was another bitter disappointment, another occasion on which he had finished second despite a glorious effort.

For Rhoden, however, the man who liked to talk to himself and to recite verses of poetry, it was an occasion to remember, the day when he beat the people’s choice in one of the finest contests in the history of the Olympics.

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