European Athletics Championships 1954/1500 m men

5th European Athletics Championships
discipline	1500 meter run of men
city	Bern
Stadion	Neufeld Stadium
Attendees	29 athletes from 17 countries
Competition phase	August 26th (preliminary) August 29th (final)
Medalist
gold	Roger Bannister ( GBR )
silver	Gunnar Nielsen ( DEN )
bronze	Stanislav Jungwirth ( TCH )

Grandstand of the Neufeld stadium in Bern

The men's 1,500-meter run at the 1954 European Athletics Championships was held on August 26 and 29, 1954 in the Neufeld Stadium in Bern .

European champion was the Briton Roger Bannister , who had achieved fame through his dream mile . Second place went to the Dane Gunnar Nielsen . Bronze went to the Czechoslovak Stanislav Jungwirth .

Records

Existing records

World record	3: 41.8 min	John Landy	Turku , Finland	June 21, 1954
European record	3: 42.2 min	Roger Bannister	Vancouver , Canada	7th August 1954
Championship record	3: 47.2 min	Willem Slijkhuis	EM in Brussels , Belgium	August 27, 1950

Comment on the world and European
records : Both times were achieved in races over an English mile (1609.34 m). As was often the case back then, an additional time measurement was installed at the 1500 meter mark.

Record improvement

 Roger Bannister improved the EM record in the final by 3.4 seconds to 3: 43.8 minutes.

Preliminary round

As fifth of his heat, Andrej Vipotnik missed the final by one place

August 26, 1954, 5:30 p.m.

The preliminary round was carried out in three runs. The first four athletes per run - highlighted in light blue - qualified for the final.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Günter Dohrow	BR Germany	3: 51.0
2	Stanislav Jungwirth	Czechoslovakia	3: 51.2
3	Roger Bannister	Great Britain	3: 51.8
4th	Alfred Langenus	Belgium	3: 51.8 PB
5	Andrei Vipotnik	Yugoslavia	3: 52.2 PB
6th	Edmund Potrzebowski	Poland	3: 52.2 PB
7th	Vladimir Bagreyev	Soviet Union	3: 53.0 PB
8th	August Sutter	Switzerland	3: 54.4 PB
9	Ekrem Koçak	Turkey	3: 57.4 PB
10	Richard Badet	France	3: 57.8 PB

Forward 2

Gaston Reiff - u. a. Olympic champion in 1948 over 5000 meters - not reaching the final as sixth in his prelim

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Veliša Mugoša	Yugoslavia	3: 51.0 PB
2	Sándor Iharos	Hungary	3: 51.2
3	Ingvar Ericsson	Sweden	3: 51.4
4th	Jorma Kakko	Finland	3: 51.4 PB
5	Roger Mueller	Luxembourg	3: 52.0 PB
6th	Gaston Reiff	Belgium	3: 57.0 PB
7th	Evangelos Depastas	Greece	3: 58.2 PB
8th	Heinz Thoet	Switzerland	4: 01.0 PB
9	Manuel Macías	Spain	4: 10.6 PB

Forward 3

At the beginning of his career, István Rózsavölgyi failed here as sixth of his heat

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Werner Lueg	BR Germany	3: 53.2
2	Ian Boyd	Great Britain	3: 53.2
3	Gunnar Nielsen	Denmark	3: 53.6
4th	Denis Johansson	Finland	3: 53.8
5	Antoine Vincendon	France	3: 54.6 PB
6th	István Rózsavölgyi	Hungary	3: 54.6 SB
7th	Alexander Zvolensky	Czechoslovakia	3: 55.2 PB
8th	Kazimierz Żbikowski	Poland	3: 56.6 SB
9	Dimitrios Konstantinidis	Greece	3: 57.6 SB
10	Turhan Göker	Turkey	4: 01.2 PB

final

August 29, 1954

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Roger Bannister	Great Britain	3: 43.8 CR / NR
2	Gunnar Nielsen	Denmark	3: 44.4 NO
3	Stanislav Jungwirth	Czechoslovakia	3: 45.4 SB
4th	Ingvar Ericsson	Sweden	3: 46.2 SB
5	Werner Lueg	BR Germany	3: 46.4 SB
6th	Sándor Iharos	Hungary	3: 47.0 SB
7th	Denis Johansson	Finland	3: 47.4 PB
8th	Günter Dohrow	BR Germany	3: 48.2 SB
9	Ian Boyd	Great Britain	3: 49.2 SB
10	Jorma Kakko	Finland	3: 51.8
DNF	Veliša Mugoša	Yugoslavia
DNS	Alfred Langenus	Belgium

• 

  After his dream mile , Roger Bannister has now become European champion

• 

  Ingvar Ericsson came in fourth

Web links

• European Athletics Championships - Bern 1954 at european-athletics.org, accessed on April 5, 2019
• Men 1500m European Championship 1954 Bern on todor66.com, accessed on April 5, 2019
• V European Championship, Bern 1954 from trackfield.brinkster.net, accessed on April 5, 2019
• Results of all European Athletics Championships - 1954, 1500 m men on sportschau.de, accessed on April 5, 2019
• 5th European Athletics Championships 1954 in Bern, Switzerland from ifosta.de, accessed on April 5, 2019

Video

• European Games - Bannister Wins (1954) , published April 13, 2014 on youtube.com, accessed April 5, 2019

References and comments

1. ↑ ^{a b} In the European Championship year, Roger Bannister was the first runner in sports history to stay under four minutes over an English mile (1609.34 m). On May 6, 1954, his end time was 3: 59.4 minutes. - 60 years of the dream mile on germanroadraces.de, May 5, 2014, accessed on April 5, 2019
2. ↑ IAAF world records. 1500m men , accessed April 5, 2019
3. ↑ Portrait of Roger Bannister in the database of trackfield.brinkster.net (English), accessed on April 5, 2019.