| | Event type

80 metres Hurdles, Women

Date	27 – 28 November 1956
Status	Olympic
Location	Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Victoria
Participants	22 from 11 countries

The defending champion, Shirley Strickland, now Strickland-de la Hunty, was back, and running in her native Australia. The silver medalist, Mariya Golubnichiya (URS), was also back and had won the 1954 European Championship in the interim. In August 1954, she had also equaled Strickland’s world record from the 1952 Olympic final. That record was broken in July 1956 by West German Zenta Gastl, who ran 10.6 in an International in Frechen. Gastl was in Melbourne but finished fourth in the second semi and did not make the final. Three Australians made it to the final, along with Golubnichiya and her teammate Galina Bystrova, later European Champion, and East German Gisela Köhler. In the first semi, Strickland-de la Hunty and Köhler both ran under 11 seconds auto timing, the first time that had been done. The final was not as close as expected, as Strickland-de la Hunty won by almost 2 metres.

Pos	Nr	Athlete	NOC	R1	SF	Final
1	469	Shirley Strickland de la Hunty	AUS	10.8 (1 h2)	10.8 (1 h1)	10.7 (1)	Gold	OR
2	482	Gisela Köhler	GER	11.0 (1 h3)	10.8 (2 h1)	10.9 (2)	Silver
3	522	Norma Thrower	AUS	10.8 (1 h4)	11.0 (2 h2)	11.0 (3)	Bronze
4	537	Galina Bystrova	URS	10.9 (2 h4)	11.0 (1 h2)	11.0 (4)
5	536	Mariya Golubnichaya	URS	11.1 (2 h2)	11.0 (3 h1)	11.3 (5)
6	521	Gloria Cooke	AUS	11.4 (3 h3)	11.1 (3 h2)	11.4 (6)
4 h1 r2/3	523	Marthe Lambert	FRA	10.9 (3 h4)	11.1 (4 h1)	–
4 h2 r2/3	525	Zenta Gastl	GER	10.9 (1 h1)	11.1 (4 h2)	–
5 h1 r2/3	478	Berta Díaz	CUB	11.4 (2 h1)	11.2 (5 h1)	–
5 h2 r2/3	531	Elaine Winter	RSA	11.1 (2 h3)	11.3 (5 h2)	–
6 h1 r2/3	528	Carole Quinton	GBR	11.4 (3 h1)	11.4 (6 h1)	–
6 h2 r2/3	494	Margaret Stuart	NZL	11.3 (3 h2)	11.3 (6 h2)	–
4 h1 r1/3	533	Barbara Mueller	USA	11.6 (4 h1)	–	–
4 h2 r1/3	532	Connie Darnowski	USA	11.9 (4 h2)	–	–
4 h3 r1/3	524	Angèle Picado	FRA	11.5 (4 h3)	–	–
4 h4 r1/3	526	Maria Sander	GER	11.1 (4 h4)	–	–
5 h1 r1/3	529	Milena Greppi	ITA	12.3 (5 h1)	–	–
5 h2 r1/3	527	Pauline Wainwright	GBR	11.9 (5 h2)	–	–
5 h3 r1/3	535	Niliya Besedina-Kulakova	URS	11.5 (5 h3)	–	–
5 h4 r1/3	497	Francisca Sañopal	PHI	11.8 (5 h4)	–	–
6 h3 r1/3	534	Irene Robertson	USA	11.9 (6 h3)	–	–
7 h3 r1/3	496	Manolita Cinco	PHI	12.1 (7 h3)	–	–
DNS	661	Olga Gyarmati	HUN	– (DNS h1)	–	–
DNS	488	Mary Rao	IND	– (DNS h2)	–	–
DNS	530	Elżbieta Krzesińska	POL	– (DNS h4)	–	–

Round One (27 November 1956 — 14:30)

Top three in each heat advanced to the semi-finals.

Heat One

Wind	0.8 m/s

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (H)	Time (A)
1	5	Zenta Gastl	GER	10.9	11.18	Q=OR
2	6	Berta Díaz	CUB	11.4	11.51	Q
3	1	Carole Quinton	GBR	11.4	11.63	Q
4	2	Barbara Mueller	USA	11.6	11.83
5	4	Milena Greppi	ITA	12.3	12.66
DNS	3	Olga Gyarmati	HUN	–	–

Heat Two

Wind	-1.5 m/s

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (H)	Time (A)
1	1	Shirley Strickland de la Hunty	AUS	10.8	11.02	QOR
2	3	Mariya Golubnichaya	URS	11.1	11.25	Q
3	6	Margaret Stuart	NZL	11.3	11.46	Q
4	4	Connie Darnowski	USA	11.9	12.02
5	2	Pauline Wainwright	GBR	11.9	12.06
DNS	5	Mary Rao	IND	–	–

Heat Three

Wind	-0.6 m/s

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (H)	Time (A)
1	3	Gisela Köhler	GER	11.0	11.11	Q
2	4	Elaine Winter	RSA	11.1	11.28	Q
3	2	Gloria Cooke	AUS	11.4	11.45	Q
4	6	Angèle Picado	FRA	11.5	11.50
5	7	Niliya Besedina-Kulakova	URS	11.5	11.59
6	1	Irene Robertson	USA	11.9	12.02
7	5	Manolita Cinco	PHI	12.1	12.20

Heat Four

Wind	3.0 m/s

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (H)	Time (A)
1	2	Norma Thrower	AUS	10.8	10.94	Q
2	1	Galina Bystrova	URS	10.9	11.09	Q
3	5	Marthe Lambert	FRA	10.9	11.18	Q
4	4	Maria Sander	GER	11.1	11.22
5	6	Francisca Sañopal	PHI	11.8	12.15
DNS	3	Elżbieta Krzesińska	POL	–	–

Semi-Finals (27 November 1956 — 17:20)

Top three in each heat advanced to the final.

Heat One

Wind	0.9 m/s

Pos	Nr	Athlete	NOC	Time (H)	Time (A)
1	469	Shirley Strickland de la Hunty	AUS	10.8	10.89	Q=OR
2	482	Gisela Köhler	GER	10.8	10.93	Q=OR
3	536	Mariya Golubnichaya	URS	11.0	11.12	Q
4	523	Marthe Lambert	FRA	11.1	11.37
5	478	Berta Díaz	CUB	11.2	11.42
6	528	Carole Quinton	GBR	11.4	11.61

Heat Two

Wind	-1.8 m/s

Pos	Nr	Athlete	NOC	Time (H)	Time (A)
1	537	Galina Bystrova	URS	11.0	11.14	Q
2	522	Norma Thrower	AUS	11.0	11.20	Q
3	521	Gloria Cooke	AUS	11.1	11.25	Q
4	525	Zenta Gastl	GER	11.1	11.30
5	531	Elaine Winter	RSA	11.3	11.47
6	494	Margaret Stuart	NZL	11.3	11.51

Final (28 November 1956 — 17:15)

Wind	-1.3 m/s

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (H)	Time (A)
1	6	Shirley Strickland de la Hunty	AUS	10.7	10.96	OR
2	2	Gisela Köhler	GER	10.9	11.12
3	5	Norma Thrower	AUS	11.0	11.25
4	4	Galina Bystrova	URS	11.0	11.25
5	3	Mariya Golubnichaya	URS	11.3	11.50
6	1	Gloria Cooke	AUS	11.4	11.60