V 9 N. 37 Blaine Lindgren (June 26, 1939-October 5, 2019) R.I.P.

Blaine Lindgren passed away on October 5, 2019 at the age of 80.  He will long be remembered for that controversial decision that cost him the gold medal in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, where officials decided that he went under the finish tape instead of breaking it, thus costing him the race. Hayes Jones was declared the winner. The rules said that the winner had to break the tape.  The race was probably too close for the human eye to pick a winner and the photo technology may not have been up to seeing who crossed the line first.  Jones and Lindgren were separated by several lanes, so that also made it more difficult to decide.  The biggest disadvantage to Lindgren was probably the Lane 1 draw.  It does appear that Lindgren's lanebon the cinder track  had not been chewed up by any earlier races.  Obviously lane assignments were not yet done based on timing in the semis, as Lindgren had won his semi over Jones and had the best time overall in those heats.

Blaine Lindgren in his own words  Lots of info on Lindgen in this 7 minute interview.  You just have to put up with the wahoo doing the interview.

Note the difference in clearance styles with Jones straightening up more quickly than Lindgren.  Jones was much shorter than Lindgren at 5' 10.5" (168 lbs)   to 6' 2.5" (203 lbs.)..

Semi-Finals Heat One

G

Rank	Athlete	Age	Team	NOC	T(H)	T(A)
1	Anatoly Mikhaylov	27	Soviet Union	URS	13.9w	13.90w	QU
2	Gurbachan Singh Randhawa	25	India	IND	14.0w	14.04w	QU
3	Giorgio Mazza	25	Italy	ITA	14.0w	14.06w	QU
4	Marcel Duriez	24	France	FRA	14.0w	14.10w	QU
5	Hinrich John	28	Germany	GER	14.1w	14.14w
6	Lázaro Betancourt	28	Cuba	CUB	14.2w	14.23w
7	Willie Davenport	21	United States	USA	14.2w	14.28w
AC	Valentin Chistyakov	24	Soviet Union	URS			DQ

Semi-Finals Heat Two

Rank	Athlete	Age	Team	NOC	T(H)	T(A)
1	Blaine Lindgren	25	United States	USA	13.9	13,95	QU
2	Giovanni Cornacchia	25	Italy	ITA	14.0	14,06	QU
3	Hayes Jones	26	United States	USA	14.0	14,06	QU
4	Eddy Ottoz	20	Italy	ITA	14.1	14,12	QU
5	Bo Forssander	22	Sweden	SWE	14.2	14,21
6	Aleksandr Kontarev	26	Soviet Union	URS	14.2	14,27
7	Hirokazu Yasuda	28	Japan	JPN	14.3	14,30
8	Mike Parker	26	Great Britain	GBR	14.6	14,65

Final

Rank	Athlete	Age	Team	NOC	T(H)	T(A)	L
1	Hayes Jones	26	United States	USA	13.6	13.67	6	OR
2	Blaine Lindgren	25	United States	USA	13.7	13.74	1
3	Anatoly Mikhaylov	27	Soviet Union	URS	13.7	13.78	8
4	Eddy Ottoz	20	Italy	ITA	13.8	13.84	3
5	Gurbachan Singh Randhawa	25	India	IND	14.0	14.09	4
6	Marcel Duriez	24	France	FRA	14.0	14.09	5
7	Giovanni Cornacchia	25	Italy	ITA	14.1	14.12	7
8	Giorgio Mazza	25	Italy	ITA	14.1	14.17	2

Finish Stats from "Sports Reference"

Blaine Lindgren Obituary from KSL.com


Jim Allen's Photos in Russia with Lindgren and others  An earlier posting in Once Upon a Time in the Vest featuring Jim Allen has photos taken in Moscow of Lindgren and some of the other well known athletes of 1963.