1,000 metres Time Trial, Men

Russell Mockridge first competed at the Olympics in 1948, placing 26th, and then in 1950 won gold medals in the sprint and kilo time trial at the British Empire Games. He briefly retired but came back to place second at the 1951 World Championships in the sprint. A few months before the Helsinki Olympics, Mockridge competed at the Grand Prix de Paris sprint title, the world’s top invitational event, and became the first amateur to win the open title at that event. He did not race in the sprint at Helsinki, choosing to concentrate on the time trial and the tandem. In the kilo, starting 20th, he won easily, with a margin of 1.6 seconds over Italy’s Marino Morettini, who was the next-to-last to start. Mockridge would return to win a second gold medal in the tandem, accompanied by Lionel Cox. With Mockridge not in the event, Cox would also win a silver in the match sprint. Morettini had been third in the sprint at the 1951 World Championships, would place second in that event in 1952, and became World Champion in 1953.