European Athletics Championships 1938/800 m men

2. European Athletics Championships
discipline	Men's 800-meter run
city	Paris
Stadion	Stade Olympique
Attendees	11 athletes from 9 countries
Competition phase	September 3rd (preliminary) September 4th (final)
Medalist
gold	Rudolf Harbig ( GER )
silver	Jacques Lévèque ( FRA )
bronze	Mario Lanzi ( ITA )

Olympic Stadium in Paris 1924

The men's 800-meter run at the European Athletics Championships in 1938 was held on September 3rd and 4th, 1938 in the Stade Olympique in the French capital, Paris .

The European champion was the German Rudolf Harbig , who won ahead of the French Jacques Lévèque . Bronze went to the Italian Mario Lanzi .

Records

Existing records

World record	1: 49.2 min	Sydney Wooderson	Motspur Park in London , UK	August 20, 1938
Championship record	1: 51.8 min	Mario Lanzi	EM Turin , Italy	September 8, 1934

Comment on the world record:
Sydney Wooderson ran the record over a distance of 880  yards , which corresponds to 804.672 meters.

Record improvements

The German Rudolf Harbig improved the EM record in the final by 1.2 seconds to 1: 50.6 minutes.

Preliminary round

September 3, 1938, 4:20 p.m.

The preliminary round was carried out in three runs. The first three athletes per run - highlighted in light blue - qualified for the final. The fourth of the third heat was added as a finalist. It remains unclear why he, as the runner with the weakest time of all fourth-placed finishers, completed the final.

The division of the preliminary runs also raises questions again. The first run was occupied by only four athletes, while the other two races each had seven runners.

Forward 1

Rudolf Harbig was one of the best middle distance athletes at the end of the 1930s and became European champion by a clear margin

Vice European Champion Jacques Lévèque - here as the winner in the international match France vs. Switzerland in 1938

Bronze medal
winner Mario Lanzi

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Mario Lanzi	Italy	1: 53.6
2	Jacques Lévèque	France	1: 54.1
3	Lennart Nilsson	Sweden	1: 54.2 PB
4th	Frank Handley	Great Britain	1: 55.0 PB

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Rudolf Harbig	German Empire	1: 54.3
2	Bertil Andersson	Sweden	1: 54.9
3	Paul Faure	France	1: 55.2
4th	Ferenc Temesvári	Hungary	1: 55.4
5	Alfred Baldwin	Great Britain	1: 56.6
6th	Emil Gorsek	Yugoslavia	2: 01.4
7th	Charles stone	Luxembourg	NT

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Sjabbe Bouman	Netherlands	1: 56.8
2	Tauno Peussa	Finland	1: 57.7
3	Gusztáv Harsányi	Hungary	1: 58.4 PB
4th	Paul Minder	Switzerland	1: 58.6 PB
5	Eraldo Colombo	Italy	1: 58.6 PB
6th	Antonio Calado	Portugal	1: 58.8 PB
7th	Waclaw Gassowski	Poland	2; 02.0 PB

final

September 4, 1938, 4.15 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Rudolf Harbig	German Empire	1: 50.6 CR / NR
2	Jacques Lévèque	France	1: 51.8 PB
3	Mario Lanzi	Italy	1: 52.0 SB
4th	Sjabbe Bouman	Netherlands	1: 52.3 NO
5	Bertil Andersson	Sweden	1: 53.0 SB
6th	Tauno Peussa	Finland	1: 55.5 PB
7th	Paul Faure	France	NT
8th	Lennart Nilsson	Sweden
9	Paul Minder	Switzerland
DNF	Gusztáv Harsányi	Hungary

Web links

• European Athletics Championships - Paris 1938 from the European Athletics homepage , accessed March 9, 2019
• Men 800m European Championships 1938 Paris (FRA) on todor66.com, accessed March 9, 2019
• II European Championship, Paris 1938 from trackfield.brinkster.net, accessed March 9, 2019
• Results of all European Athletics Championships - 1938, 800 m men on sportschau.de, accessed on March 9, 2019
• 2nd European Athletics Championships 1938 in Paris, France from ifosta.de, accessed on March 9, 2019

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF world records. 800m men , accessed March 9, 2019