Charles Bennett (athlete)

Charles Bennett
Charles Bennett (1900)
nation	United Kingdom
birthday	December 28, 1870
place of birth	Shapwick
date of death	December 18, 1948
Place of death	Bournemouth
Career
discipline	Obstacle course , medium distance run
society	Portsmouth Harriers
Medal table
Olympic games 2 × 1 × 0 ×
Olympic games gold Paris 1900 1500 m gold Paris 1900 5000 m team silver Paris 1900 4000 m obstacle course

Charles Bennett (born December 28, 1870 in Shapwick ( Dorset ), England , † December 18, 1948 in Bournemouth (Dorset), England) was a British athlete and Olympic champion . He was a train driver by profession. In terms of sport, he was one of the best middle-distance athletes of his time.

Career

In 1897 Bennett won the championship of the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA) , which corresponded to the British championships, the run over 4 miles . He repeated this success in 1898 and again in 1899. That year he won two more titles over ten miles and cross-country running . 1900 was his most successful year in sport. It started with winning the title again in cross-country running and over 1 mile.

At the Olympic Games in Paris in 1900 he was a two-time Olympic champion. He achieved his first victory on July 15 in the 1,500 meter run , ahead of Frenchman Henri Deloge and American John Bray . He finished this run with the world record time of 4: 06.0 min. This made him the first British Olympic champion in athletics.

In the further course of the games he won another gold medal in the joint British-Australian team in the 5,000-meter team run, together with his teammates John Rimmer , Sidney Robinson , Alfred Tysoe and the Australian Stan Rowley , ahead of the team from France . Bennett won this run, in which all runners of a team started together and the team ranking was decided on the number of places, with 15: 20.0 minutes, with which he set his second world record at the games.

He achieved another success in the 4000 meter obstacle course, where he was able to achieve second place between his compatriots John Rimmer and Sidney Robinson.

Placements at the Olympic Games:

• II. Olympic Games 1900, Paris
  • 1500 m - gold with 4: 06.2 min (silver to Henri Deloge from France with 4: 06.6 min; bronze to John Bray from the USA with 4: 07.2 min)
  • 5000 m team - gold in the mixed team (silver to France )
  • 4000 m obstacle - silver with 12: 58.6 min (gold to John Rimmer from the United Kingdom with 12: 58.4 min; bronze to Sidney Robinson from the United Kingdom with 12: 58.8 min)

Note: With the exception of the time of the winner, the running times are estimated as there was no time measurement for those placed. With them, the gap to the winner or the first place was determined with a length specification.

There are no usable biographical records of Charles Bennett after the Paris Games. However, the date of his death is incorrectly published in most publications as March 9, 1949, as the gravestone in the cemetery in Kinson (part of Bornemouth) shows.

Web links

• Charles Bennett in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )