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Men's 110 metres hurdles at the Games of the I Olympiad
Alajos Szokolyi hurdling
Venue	Panathinaiko Stadium
Dates	April 7, 1896 (heats) April 10, 1896 (final)
Competitors	8 from 6 nations
Winning time	17.6 OR
Medalists
Thomas Curtis  United States Grantley Goulding  Great Britain
1900 →

Athletics at the 1896 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m	men
400 m	men
800 m	men
1500 m	men
110 m hurdles	men
Road events
Marathon	men
Field events
Long jump	men
Triple jump	men
High jump	men
Pole vault	men
Shot put	men
Discus throw	men
v t e

The men's 110 metres hurdles was the only hurdling event on the Athletics at the 1896 Summer Olympics programme. The preliminary heats were the first track event of the day on 7 April. Eight competitors ran in two heats of four runners each. Only the fastest two runners in each heat advanced to the final. The event was won by Thomas Curtis of the United States.

Background

This was the first appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. It was not a well-known event. Two top hurdlers, Stephen Chase of the United States and Godfrey Shaw of Great Britain, were not present. In Greece, Anastasios Andreou was thought to be unbeatable. Grantley Goulding of Great Britain apparently had the same view of himself. Alajos Szokolyi had won the Hungarian Olympic trials and was considered a strong contender there.

Competition format

The competition consisted of two semifinals and a final. With seventeen competitors having entered, there were scheduled to be three or four semifinal heats: ultimately, only eight competitors started, meaning two heats were ultimately held.

The top two runners in each semifinal heat advanced to the four-man final.

Records

There was no standing Olympic record before the first Games.

World record	Stephen Chase (USA)	15.4y	New York	21 September 1895
Olympic record	New event	n/a	n/a	n/a

Each race set a new Olympic record. Grantley Goulding won the first semifinal in 18.4 seconds. Thomas Curtis won the second semifinal in 18.0 seconds. Curtis then won the final in 17.6 seconds to finish the Games with the Olympic record.

Schedule

The precise times of the events are not recorded. The 110 metres hurdles semifinal round was the first event of the afternoon session on the second day, which began around "half past two". The final was the third event of the fifth day's afternoon.

Results

Semifinals

The semifinal heats were held on 7 April. The top two finishers in each of the two heats advanced to the final.

Semifinal 1

Grantley Goulding of Great Britain finished first, in a time of 18.4 seconds. Szokolyi was in the lead but hit the last hurdle and stumbled. It is not entirely clear what happened next. Goulding certainly passed Szokolyi and finished first. Szokolyi got up and crossed the finish line along with Reichel; there was some dispute over which had finished second and which third. Neither man competed in the final, eliminating a reliable way of resolving the dispute. The Official Report placed Szokolyi second. Mallon & Widlund place Reichel second. Ekkehard zur Megede places Szokolyi second. The IOC webpage lists Szokolyi as a finalist, suggesting he was second.

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Grantley Goulding	Great Britain	18.4	Q, OR
2	Alajos Szokolyi	Hungary	Unknown	Q
3	Frantz Reichel	France	Unknown
4	Anastasios Andreou	Greece	Unknown

Semifinal 2

The Americans finished 1st and 2nd in this heat, with Thomas Curtis advancing to the final with a time of 18 seconds, and Hoyt second. Athanasios Skaltsogiannis of Greece and Kurt Doerry of Germany also competed, though their final positions are not recorded.

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Thomas Curtis	United States	18.0	Q, OR
2	William Hoyt	United States	Unknown	Q
3–4	Kurt Doerry	Germany	Unknown
	Athanasios Skaltsogiannis	Greece	Unknown

Final

The final of the 110 metre hurdles was run on 10 April.

Hoyt scratched from the final in order to prepare for the pole vault (which he won).

As there are conflicting reports of who qualified in second from the first heat, there are conflicting reports of why that runner scratched: Mallon and Widlund have Reichel as second in the heat, and that he was forced to scratch from the final as he was serving as an assistant to Albin Lermusiaux in the marathon. Sources placing Szokolyi second rather than Reichel do not generally give a reason for Szokolyi's absence, but Szokolyi himself recounted that "hen the final came — after a lot of negotiations we were both canceled as second."

The Official Report placed Szokolyi second in the heat, and says of both Hoyt and Szokolyi that "o other competitor came forward" than Curtis and Goulding.

In any case, only two athletes competed, but they finished within one-tenth of a second: Goulding led at the final hurdle, being a better hurdler, but Curtis passed him in the straight and won a tight race by two inches.

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
	Thomas Curtis	United States	17.6	OR
	Grantley Goulding	Great Britain	17.7
—	William Hoyt	United States	DNS
	Alajos Szokolyi	Hungary	DNS

Results summary

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Semifinal	Final	Notes
	Thomas Curtis	United States	18.0	17.6	OR
	Grantley Goulding	Great Britain	18.4	17.7
3	William Hoyt	United States	Unknown	DNS
	Alajos Szokolyi	Hungary	Unknown	DNS
5	Frantz Reichel	France	Unknown	Did not advance	3rd in semifinal
6	Kurt Doerry	Germany	Unknown		3rd–4th in semifinal
	Athanasios Skaltsogiannis	Greece	Unknown		3rd–4th in semifinal
8	Anastasios Andreou	Greece	Unknown		4th in semifinal

References

1. "Athletics at the 1896 Athens Summer Games: Men's 110 metres Hurdles". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
2. ^ "Szokoly Alajos – A modern olimpiák egyes számú versenyzője" (in Hungarian). Rubicon. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
3. ^ "110 metres Hurdles, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
4. ^ Official Report, pp. 68, 85.
5. "Track & Field Statistics". trackfield.brinkster.net. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
6. Official Report, p. 68 ("Mr Sokoly, a Hungarian came in second").
7. Ekkehard zur Megede, Die Geschichte der olympischen Leichtathletik, Band 1: 1896–1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2. Auflage 1970
8. ^ 110m Hurdles Men
9. Official Report, p. 85.

Notes

1. Set over 120 yards (109.72 metres)

• Lampros, S.P.; Polites, N.G.; De Coubertin, Pierre; Philemon, P.J. & Anninos, C. (1897). The Olympic Games: BC 776 – AD 1896. Athens: Charles Beck. (Digitally available at la84foundation.org)
• Mallon, Bill & Widlund, Ture (1998). The 1896 Olympic Games. Results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. Jefferson: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0379-9. (Excerpt available at la84foundation.org)
• Smith, Michael Llewellyn (2004). Olympics in Athens 1896. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games. London: Profile Books. ISBN 1-86197-342-X.

• Athletics at the 1896 Summer Olympics
• Sprint hurdles at the Olympics