1900 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 4000 m obstacle (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	4000 meter obstacle course
gender	Men
place	Croix Catelan
Attendees	8 athletes from 5 countries
Competition phase	July 16, 1900
Medalist
gold	John Rimmer ( GBR )
silver	Charles Bennett ( GBR )
bronze	Sidney Robinson ( GBR )

The men's 4,000-meter obstacle course at the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris was decided on July 16, 1900 in the Croix Catelan . The length of the route resulted from the length of the track in the stadium, on which eight laps had to be completed. On every lap there was a hurdle, a ditch and a wall to overcome.

The British celebrated a triple success. Olympic champion was John Rimmer , Charles Bennett came second , and Sidney Robinson came third.

After the obstacle course over 2500 meters held the day before, this was the second obstacle competition that was held in Olympic athletics. The route with its obstacles was in no way standardized at the time. So it makes no sense to list any records or personal bests. At the games four years later in St. Louis an obstacle course was held over a distance of 2590 meters and in the following years there were also different lengths of the obstacle course before the distance of 3000 meters, which is still common today, was introduced from 1920 .

There were only eight participants, so, as on the day before, no preliminary runs were scheduled for the shorter distance, the competition was decided in one run.

Results

space	athlete	country	Time (min)
1	John Rimmer	Great Britain	12: 58.4
2	Charles Bennett	Great Britain	12: 58.8
3	Sidney Robinson	Great Britain	12: 58.8
4th	Jean Chastanié	France	k. A.
5	George Orton	Canada
6th	Franz Duhne	Germany
-	Alex Grant	United States	DNF
	Thaddeus McClain	United States

John Rimmer celebrated a start-to-finish victory on this route. Alex Grant, brother of the marathon runner Dick Grant , was able to keep up for a long time, fell back on the last lap and was overrun by several competitors, whereupon he gave up the race. Charles Bennett and Sidney Robinson, the Olympic runner-up in the 2500 meter obstacle race, came very close to the eventual winner, but could not quite reach Rimmer. SportsReference indicates that they are one and a half or two yards behind . Jean Chastanié, third in the shorter distance obstacle course, was eight yards behind. George Orton, the day before winner of the 2500 meters, was weakened overnight by a gastrointestinal infection and was unable to intervene in the medal fight.

All information on the placements also corresponds here in the sources used. The times for places two and three can be found at zur Megede . In his book, the two runners who have given up the race after the variant shown here from all three other sources used, are not listed in his book.

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  The Olympic third party Sidney Robinson from Great Britain after the race

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  The Olympic champion Chastanié, also third in the 2500 meter obstacle - here as the French champion over 4000 meter obstacle in 1900

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  The Canadian George Orton, winner of the 2500 meter obstacle the day before, only came in fifth after an illness

literature

• Volker Kluge , Olympic Summer Games - The Chronicle I, Berlin 1997 ( ISBN 3-328-00715-6 )
• Ekkehard zur Megede , The history of Olympic athletics, Volume 1: 1896–1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970

Web links

• SportsReference, Athletics at the 1900 Paris Summer Games: Men's 4,000 meters Steeplechase , accessed July 24, 2018
• Olympic Games Paris 1900, Athletics, 4000m steeplechase men , IOC website on athletics at the 1900 Olympic Games at olympic.org, English, accessed on July 24, 2018