Athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metres

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Men's 1500 metres
at the Games of the V Olympiad
The finish with Arnold Jackson setting a new Olympic record.
VenueStockholm Olympic Stadium
DatesJuly 9 (semifinals)
July 10 (final)
Competitors45 from 14 nations
Winning time3:56.8 OR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Arnold Jackson
 Great Britain
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Abel Kiviat
 United States
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Norman Taber
 United States
← 1908
1920 →

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

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, Norm 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

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

These were the standing world and Olympic records prior to the 1912 Summer Olympics.

World record  Abel Kiviat (USA) 3:55.8 Cambridge, United States 8 June 1912
Olympic record  Norman Hallows (GBR) 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

Date Time Round
Tuesday, 9 July 1912 14:30 Semifinals
Wednesday, 10 July 1912 15:30 Final

Results

Semifinals

All semi-finals were held on Tuesday, July 9, 1912.

Semifinal 1

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Mel Sheppard  United States 4:27.6 Q
2 Louis Madeira  United States 4:27.9 Q
3 Albert Hare  Great Britain 4:39.4

Semifinal 2

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Norman Taber  United States 4:25.5 Q
2 Philip Baker  Great Britain 4:26.0 Q
3 Georg Amberger  Germany 4:27.0
4–5 Teofil Savniky[4]  Hungary Unknown
Rūdolfs Vītols  Russia Unknown
Dmitri Nazarov  Russia DNF

Semifinal 3

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Abel Kiviat  United States 4:04.4 Q
2 Henri Arnaud  France 4:05.4 Q
3 Norman Patterson  United States 4:05.5
4 John Tait  Canada Unknown
5 Ferenc Forgács  Hungary Unknown
6–7 François Delloye  Belgium Unknown
Jacob Pedersen  Norway Unknown
Edward Owen  Great Britain DNF

Semifinal 4

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Arnold Jackson  Great Britain 4:10.8 Q
2 John Paul Jones  United States 4:12.4 Q
3 John Victor  South Africa 4:12.7
4 Lewis Anderson  United States Unknown
5 Oscar Larsen  Norway Unknown
6 Arnolds Indriksons  Russia Unknown
7 Alfrēds Ruks  Russia Unknown

Semifinal 5

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 John Zander  Sweden 4:05.5 Q
2 Evert Björn  Sweden 4:07.2 Q
3 Herbert Putnam  United States 4:07.6
4 Richard Yorke  Great Britain Unknown
5 Georg Mickler  Germany Unknown
6 Aleksandr Elizarov  Russia Unknown
7 Nikolay Kharkov  Russia Unknown
Charles Ruffell  Great Britain DNF

Semifinal 6

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Erwin von Sigel  Germany 4:09.3 Q
2 Oscar Hedlund  United States 4:10.8 Q
3 William Moore  Great Britain 4:11.2
4 Nils Frykberg  Sweden 4:11.2
5–6 Frederick Hulford  Great Britain Unknown
Andrejs Krūkliņš  Russia Unknown
Guido Calvi  Italy DNF

Semifinal 7

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Ernst Wide  Sweden 4:06.0 Q
2 Walter McClure  United States 4:07.3 Q
3 Joe Cottrill  Great Britain Unknown
4 Efraim Harju  Finland Unknown
5 Yevgeny Petrov  Russia Unknown
Vahram Papazian  Turkey DNF

Final

The start of the final.

The final was held on Wednesday, July 10, 1912.

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s) Arnold Jackson  Great Britain 3:56.8 OR
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Abel Kiviat  United States 3:56.9
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Norman Taber  United States 3:56.9
4 John Paul Jones  United States 3:57.2
5 Ernst Wide  Sweden 3:57.6
6 Philip Baker  Great Britain 4:01.0
7 John Zander  Sweden 4:02.0
8 Walter McClure  United States Unknown
9–14 Henri Arnaud  France Unknown
Evert Björn  Sweden Unknown
Oscar Hedlund  United States Unknown
Louis Madeira  United States Unknown
Mel Sheppard  United States Unknown
Erwin von Sigel  Germany Unknown

References

  1. ^ "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.
  2. ^ Official report, p. 61.
  3. ^ a b "1500 metres, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  4. ^ 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

  • Bergvall, Erik (ed.) (1913). Adams-Ray, Edward (trans.). (ed.). The Official Report of the Olympic Games of Stockholm 1912. Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  • Wudarski, Pawel (1999). "Wyniki Igrzysk Olimpijskich" (in Polish). Retrieved 27 August 2006.