Dickson Cups
The Dickson Cup is a traditional athletics award in Sweden . It is now awarded for the best runner over 1500 meters at the DN Galan .
history
James F. Dickson , the court stable master of the Swedish king, donated the trophy for the best runner over the English mile on the occasion of the Andra Allmännan Idrottsfest in 1887 , but it was two years before the first award. In bad weather only two runners competed on the clay soil of the Exercisheden on September 4th, 1889 and the winner H. Lönnroth needed just over six minutes.
In 1891 Dickson awarded a trophy a second time. This time, the competition took place as part of the Internationella gymnastik- och idrottsfest in Stockholm in May , 24 runners took part, including 18 Swedes, three Norwegians, two Finns and one Englishman. The Norwegian H. Haugom won the title in the end. The next three editions of the competition were won by AIK's Patrik Löfgren , so the runner was able to keep the trophy.
In 1895 a cup was donated for the third time, but it was intended as a challenge cup. The running distance was the English mile until 1928, before the decision was made to award the trophy to the Swedish champions over 1500 meters from 1929 onwards. In 1946 this decision was reversed and the English mile was run again until 1980. Since then, however, the race distance has been 1500 meters again.
The competition has been part of DN Galan in Stockholm since 1967.