Despite the presence of previous world record holder Vasili Kuznetsov, the competition quickly became a battle between UCLA training partners Rafer Johnson and Yang Chuan-kwang, known as C.K. Yang. After two years of training together under "Ducky" Drake, each knew the other's abilities.
Yang's abilities lay in the speed events, building an almost 90 point lead in the first two events (100m and long jump). Johnson was superior in the throwing events. At the end of the first day, Johnson had a 55-point advantage.
The second day began with Yang speeding to a 180-point advantage in the 110 hurdles. Johnson countered with a 270-point gain in the Discus. Yang continued to dominate in the pole vault but Johnson set a personal record in the event, minimizing Yang's gain. Yang followed that by staying close to Johnson in the javelin, leaving the final event, Yang's best event, the 1500m to decide the competition. Both knew Yang would need to defeat Johnson by 10 seconds to win. Johnson did not break, finishing a mere 1.2 seconds behind Yang to claim the gold medal.[2] Yang beat Johnson in seven of the ten events, but Johnson beat Yang by significant margins in the shot put and discus to win. The two warmly congratulated each other after the conclusion of the event and waved to the crowd.
Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:
The best scores in each event are highlighted in yellow. These scores were split between six competitors, with the gold medallist Rafer Johnson achieving the best result in the shot put by 104 points.
