1908 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Walk 10 Mile (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	10 mile walk
gender	Men
place	White City Stadium
Attendees	25 athletes from 8 countries
Competition phase	16./17. July 1908
Medalist
gold	George Larner ( GBR )
silver	Ernest Webb ( GBR )
bronze	Edward Spencer ( GBR )

British Olympic Champion George Larner

The men's ten-mile walk in the 1908 London Olympics was decided on July 17, 1908 at the White City Stadium . Like the competition over the 3500 meter distance, the discipline was held in the form of lane walking.

In an all-British final, George Larner won the gold medal. Silver went to Ernest Webb , bronze went to Edward Spencer .

Records

The world record was still unofficial back then, there was one record for professionals and one for amateurs. There was still no Olympic record , because this discipline was Olympic for the first time.

World record (professionals)	1:14: 45.0 h	JW Raby	1883
World record (amateurs)	1: 17: 38.8 h	WJ Sturgess	1896

The following records were set or set at the 1908 Olympic Games in this discipline:

OR	1:20:18.8 h	Great Britain	Ernest Webb	1. Preliminary round
	1: 18: 19.0 h	Great Britain	George Larner	2. Preliminary round
WR	1: 15: 57.4 h			final

Results

Qualifications (July 16)

From two preliminary rounds, four walkers each qualified for the final.

1. Preliminary round

space	athlete	country	Time (h)
1	Ernest Webb	Great Britain	1: 20: 18.8 OR
2	Frank Carter	Great Britain	1: 21: 25.4
	Edward Spencer	Great Britain	1: 21: 25.4
	Ernest Larner	Great Britain	1: 21: 25.4
5	Albert Rowland	Australasia	1: 21: 57.6
6th	Thomas Hammond	Great Britain	1: 23: 44.0
7th	Paul Gunia	Germany	1: 26: 09.4
	Jo Goetzee	Netherlands	DNF
	Willem Winkelman	Netherlands
	Piet Soudyn	Netherlands
	Arne Højme	Denmark
	Alfred Yeoumans	Great Britain	DSQ

Alfred Yeoumans, listed here as disqualified, is not listed in the literature mentioned below at zur Megede .

2. Preliminary round

space	athlete	country	Time (h)
1	George Larner	Great Britain	1: 18: 19.0 OR
2	Ralph Harrison	Great Britain	1: 18: 21.2
3	Harry Kerr	Australasia	1: 18: 40.2
4th	William Palmer	Great Britain	1: 19: 04.0
5	Godwin Withers	Great Britain	1: 19: 22.4
6th	Sydney Schofield	Great Britain	1: 21: 07.4
7th	Piet Ruimers	Netherlands	1: 27: 38.8
8th	Emmerich Rath	Austria	1: 30: 33.8
	Jan Huijgen	Netherlands	DNF
	George Goulding	Canada
	John Butler	Great Britain
	Einar Rothman	Sweden
	Charles Vestergaard	Denmark

Final (July 17th)

space	athlete	country	Time (h)
1	George Larner	Great Britain	1: 15: 57.4 WR
2	Ernest Webb	Great Britain	1: 17: 31.0
3	Edward Spencer	Great Britain	1: 21: 20.2
4th	Frank Carter	Great Britain	1: 21: 20.4
5	Ernest Larner	Great Britain	1: 24: 26.2
	William Palmer	Great Britain	DNF
	Ralph Harrison	Great Britain	DNS
	Harry Kerr	Australasia

The Briton Ralph Harrison and the Australasia starter Harry Kerr - third in the 3500 meter walk - did not start. Only six walkers entered the final, and it was all British.

Like walking over the 3500 meter distance, George Larner won this competition. He was even better than three days before and won by more than a minute and a half. In doing so, he set a new world record . Only J. W. Raby had been faster before. But he was a professional and his performance was so out of mark. Ernest Webb won his second silver medal here. His lead over bronze medalist Edward Spencer was nearly four minutes.

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

• Sports-Reference, Athletics at the 1908 London Summer Games: Men's 10 mile Walk , English, accessed August 29, 2018
• Olympic Games London 1908, Athletics, 10miles walk 1609m men , IOC page on athletics at the 1908 Olympic Games from olympic.org, English, accessed on 29 August 2018

annotation

1. ↑ World record for amateurs