1954 European Athletics Championships / men's marathon

5th European Athletics Championships
The current EAA logo, which is not yet valid, has been replaced by a general athletics logo
discipline	Men's marathon
city	Bern
place	Circuit through Bern
Attendees	22 athletes from 14 countries
Competition phase	August 25, 1954
Medalist
gold	Veikko Karvonen ( FIN )
silver	Boris Grischajew ( URS )
bronze	Ivan Filin ( URS )

The men's marathon at the 1954 European Athletics Championships took place on August 25, 1954 in Bern , Switzerland .

Veikko Karvonen from Finland won the race and set a new championship record with 2: 24: 51.6 hours. Vice European champion was the Soviet runner Boris Grischajew in front of his compatriot Ivan Ilyich Filin .

Records / best performances

Existing records

World record	Jim Peters	2: 17: 39.4 h	Chiswick , UK	June 26, 1954
European best time
Championship record	Jack Holden	2:32:14 h	EM in Brussels , Belgium	23rd August 1950

Panoramic view of the city of Bern

Note:
At that time, records were not kept in marathon running and street walking because of the different track conditions with the exception of championship records.

Record improvement

With his time of rounded 2:24:52 h, Veikko Karvonen improved Jack Holden's European championship record by 7:22 minutes as the new European champion .

Result

The Finn Veikko Karvonen became European champion with a new EM record

space	athlete	country	Time (h)
	Veikko Karvonen	Finland	2: 24: 51.6 CR
	Boris Grischajew	Soviet Union	2: 24: 55.6 PB
	Ivan Filin	Soviet Union	2: 25: 26.6 SB
04th	Erkki Puolakka	Finland	2: 26: 45.6 PB
05	Gustaf Jansson	Sweden	2: 27: 27.8 SB
06th	Geoff Iden	Great Britain	2: 28: 02.8 PB
07th	Janus van der Zande	Netherlands	2: 29: 19.2 PB
08th	Jose Araujo	Portugal	2: 29: 45.0 PB
09	Viktor Olsen	Norway	2: 33: 49.4 PB
10	Dinu Christea	Romania	2: 35: 07.4 PB
11	Eric Losthouse	Great Britain	2: 35: 22.3 PB
12	Bengt Rehnvall	Sweden	2: 35: 48.5 PB
13	Walter Bednar	Czechoslovakia	2: 36: 41.4 PB
14th	Hans Vollbach	BR Germany	2: 40: 02.4 PB
15th	Claudino Martins	Portugal	2: 41: 01.4 PB
16	Adolf Gruber	Austria	2: 41: 59.6 SB
17th	Franjo Skrinjar	Yugoslavia	2: 42: 11.8 SB
18th	August flower seed	BR Germany	2: 42: 32.2 PB
19th	Jules Zehnder	Switzerland	2: 45: 27.8 PB
20th	Guillaume Marquet	Belgium	2: 48: 47.2 PB
21st	Michel Pressense	France	2: 55: 52.4 PB
22nd	Hans Studer	Switzerland	2: 58: 22.0 PB

• 

  Gustaf Jansson from Sweden came in fifth

• 

  The Dutchman Janus van der Zande ( here in a leading position in a cross race ) finished seventh

• 

  The Austrian Adolf Gruber ( on the photo of an award ceremony in 1959 on the far right ) came in sixteenth

Web links and sources

• Men Marathon European Championships 1954 Bern at todor66.com (English), accessed on March 1, 2019
• European Marathon Championships on marathonspiegel.de, accessed on March 1, 2019
• European Athletics Championships - Bern 1954 at european-athletics.org, accessed on March 1, 2019

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} IAAF records. Men's marathon , accessed February 28, 2019