Athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metres
Men's 1500 metres at the Games of the V Olympiad | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The finish with Arnold Jackson setting a new Olympic record. | ||||||||||
Venue | Stockholm Olympic Stadium | |||||||||
Dates | July 9, 1912 (semifinals) July 10, 1912 (final) | |||||||||
Competitors | 45 from 14 nations | |||||||||
Winning time | 3:56.8 OR | |||||||||
Medalists | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
Athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Track events | |
100 m | men |
200 m | men |
400 m | men |
800 m | men |
1500 m | men |
5000 m | men |
10,000 m | men |
110 m hurdles | men |
4 × 100 m relay | men |
4 × 400 m relay | men |
3000 m team race | men |
10 km walk | men |
Road events | |
Marathon | men |
Field events | |
Long jump | men |
Triple jump | men |
High jump | men |
Pole vault | men |
Standing long jump | men |
Standing high jump | men |
Shot put | men |
Discus throw | men |
Hammer throw | men |
Javelin throw | men |
2-hand shot put | men |
2-hand discus | men |
2-hand javelin | men |
Combined events | |
Pentathlon | men |
Decathlon | men |
Cross-country events | |
Individual | men |
Team | men |
The men's 1500 metres was a track and field athletics event held as part of the athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics programme. The competition was held on Tuesday, July 9, 1912, and on Wednesday, July 10, 1912.[1] Forty-five runners from 14 nations competed, including the Olympic champion from 1908, Mel Sheppard. NOCs could enter up to 12 athletes.[2]
Arnold Jackson won the final by 0.1 second, ahead of an American trio, in what was acclaimed at the time as "the greatest race ever run". Aged 21, he remains the youngest ever winner of this event.
1912 was the last Olympics where "private entries" were allowed (i.e. not part of a country's officially selected team), and Jackson was one of these; his medal is credited to the United Kingdom. It was the second victory for Great Britain in the event, after 1900.
Background
[edit]This was the fifth appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Two finalists from 1908 returned: gold medalist Mel Sheppard of the United States and fourth-place finisher John Tait of Canada. Sheppard was among the favorites, along with countrymen John Paul Jones, Norman Taber, and Abel Kiviat, as well as Arnold Jackson of Great Britain. Kiviat had broken the world record three times in May and June 1912.[3]
Russia, South Africa, and Turkey each made their first appearance in the event. The United States made its fifth appearance, the only nation to have competed in the men's 1500 metres at each Games to that point.
Competition format
[edit]The competition consisted of two rounds, as in 1908. Seven semifinals were held, with anywhere between 3 and 8 runners in each. The top two runners in each heat advanced to the final, making a large (14 runners, compared to 8 or 9 in previous Games) final race.[3]
Records
[edit]These were the standing world and Olympic records prior to the 1912 Summer Olympics.
World record | ![]() |
3:55.8 | Cambridge, United States | 8 June 1912 |
Olympic record | ![]() |
4:03.4 | London, United Kingdom | 13 July 1908 |
Abel Kiviat finished his semifinal only 1 second off the Olympic record time of 4:03.4; he and all six other finalists whose times are known broke that mark in the final. Kiviat took second behind Arnold Jackson, who set the new record at 3:56.8.
Schedule
[edit]Date | Time | Round |
---|---|---|
Tuesday, 9 July 1912 | 14:30 | Semifinals |
Wednesday, 10 July 1912 | 15:30 | Final |
Results
[edit]Semifinals
[edit]All semi-finals were held on Tuesday, July 9, 1912.
Semifinal 1
[edit]Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Mel Sheppard | ![]() |
4:27.6 | Q |
2 | Louis Madeira | ![]() |
4:27.9 | Q |
3 | Albert Hare | ![]() |
4:39.4 |
Semifinal 2
[edit]Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Norman Taber | ![]() |
4:25.5 | Q |
2 | Philip Baker | ![]() |
4:26.0 | Q |
3 | Georg Amberger | ![]() |
4:27.0 | |
4–5 | Teofil Savniky[4] | ![]() |
Unknown | |
Rūdolfs Vītols | ![]() |
Unknown | ||
— | Dmitri Nazarov | ![]() |
DNF |
Semifinal 3
[edit]Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Abel Kiviat | ![]() |
4:04.4 | Q |
2 | Henri Arnaud | ![]() |
4:05.4 | Q |
3 | Norman Patterson | ![]() |
4:05.5 | |
4 | John Tait | ![]() |
Unknown | |
5 | Ferenc Forgács | ![]() |
Unknown | |
6–7 | François Delloye | ![]() |
Unknown | |
Jacob Pedersen | ![]() |
Unknown | ||
— | Edward Owen | ![]() |
DNF |
Semifinal 4
[edit]Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Arnold Jackson | ![]() |
4:10.8 | Q |
2 | John Paul Jones | ![]() |
4:12.4 | Q |
3 | John Victor | ![]() |
4:12.7 | |
4 | Lewis Anderson | ![]() |
Unknown | |
5 | Oscar Larsen | ![]() |
Unknown | |
6 | Arnolds Indriksons | ![]() |
Unknown | |
7 | Alfrēds Ruks | ![]() |
Unknown |
Semifinal 5
[edit]Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | John Zander | ![]() |
4:05.5 | Q |
2 | Evert Björn | ![]() |
4:07.2 | Q |
3 | Herbert Putnam | ![]() |
4:07.6 | |
4 | Richard Yorke | ![]() |
Unknown | |
5 | Georg Mickler | ![]() |
Unknown | |
6 | Aleksandr Elizarov | ![]() |
Unknown | |
7 | Nikolay Kharkov | ![]() |
Unknown | |
— | Charles Ruffell | ![]() |
DNF |
Semifinal 6
[edit]Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Erwin von Sigel | ![]() |
4:09.3 | Q |
2 | Frederick Hedlund | ![]() |
4:10.8 | Q |
3 | William Moore | ![]() |
4:11.2 | |
4 | Nils Frykberg | ![]() |
4:11.2 | |
5–6 | Frederick Hulford | ![]() |
Unknown | |
Andrejs Krūkliņš | ![]() |
Unknown | ||
— | Guido Calvi | ![]() |
DNF |
Semifinal 7
[edit]Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Ernst Wide | ![]() |
4:06.0 | Q |
2 | Walter McClure | ![]() |
4:07.3 | Q |
3 | Joe Cottrill | ![]() |
Unknown | |
4 | Efraim Harju | ![]() |
Unknown | |
5 | Yevgeny Petrov | ![]() |
Unknown | |
— | Vahram Papazian | ![]() |
DNF |
Final
[edit]The final was held on Wednesday, July 10, 1912.
Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() |
Arnold Jackson | ![]() |
3:56.8 | OR |
![]() |
Abel Kiviat | ![]() |
3:56.9 | |
![]() |
Norman Taber | ![]() |
3:56.9 | |
4 | John Paul Jones | ![]() |
3:57.2 | |
5 | Ernst Wide | ![]() |
3:57.6 | |
6 | Philip Baker | ![]() |
4:01.0 | |
7 | John Zander | ![]() |
4:02.0 | |
8 | Walter McClure | ![]() |
Unknown | |
9–14 | Henri Arnaud | ![]() |
Unknown | |
Evert Björn | ![]() |
Unknown | ||
Oscar Hedlund | ![]() |
Unknown | ||
Louis Madeira | ![]() |
Unknown | ||
Mel Sheppard | ![]() |
Unknown | ||
Erwin von Sigel | ![]() |
Unknown |
References
[edit]- ^ "Athletics at the 1912 Stockholm Games: Men's 1500 metres". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
- ^ Official report, p. 61.
- ^ a b "1500 metres, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
- ^ Savniky was also a poet, who changed his name to Teofil Marschalkó; under this name he competed for Hungary in the 1936 Summer Olympics arts competition (writing).
Sources
[edit]- Bergvall, Erik (ed.) (1913). Adams-Ray, Edward (trans.). (ed.). The Official Report of the Olympic Games of Stockholm 1912. Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand.
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has generic name (help) - Wudarski, Pawel (1999). "Wyniki Igrzysk Olimpijskich" (in Polish). Retrieved 27 August 2006.