1908 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 400 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	400 meter run
gender	Men
place	White City Stadium
Attendees	36 athletes from 11 countries
Competition phase	July 21-25, 1908
Medalist
gold	Wyndham Neck Shaft ( GBR )
silver	not forgiven
bronze	not forgiven

The 400-meter race of the men at the 1908 Olympic Games in London was on July 25, 1908 in White City Stadium decided. On the days before, there were preliminary and intermediate runs to determine the final field.

The Olympic champion was the Briton Wyndham Halswelle , who single-handedly contested the repeated final after the first final was canceled due to inadmissible hindrances by a US runner. No other medals were awarded.

Records

The world record was still unofficial and was set in a race over 440  yards , which corresponds to 402.336 meters.

World record	47.8 s	United States	Maxwell Long	Travers Island ( USA ), September 29, 1900
Olympic record	49.2 s	United States	Harry Hillman	St. Louis Finale ( USA ), August 29, 1904

The following records were broken or set at these Olympic Games over 400 meters :

OR

48.4 s

Great Britain

Wyndham neck shaft

Intermediate run

Results

Preliminary runs (July 21)

The relatively large number of preliminary races can only be explained by the fact that significantly more runners were registered, but then did not start. In one case, there was only a single runner left who progressed without a fight. There was no further lead.

Only the respective race winners qualified for the intermediate runs.

The times given in brackets come from the literature by zur Megede mentioned below and are probably estimated.

1. Forward

space	athlete	country	Time (s)
1	Edwin Montague	Great Britain	50.2
2	Paul Pilgrim	United States	k. A.

Montague clearly won the prelim with an eight- yard lead.

2. Forward

The second run was completely omitted because apparently all of the runners who were scheduled canceled.

3. Forward

space	athlete	country	Time (s)
	Edward Ryle	Great Britain	k. A.

Ryle competed single-handedly.

4. Forward

space	athlete	country	Time (s)
1	John Taylor	United States	50.8
2	Roberto Penna	Italy	k. A.
3	Sven Låftman	Sweden

Taylor clearly won his run by twelve yards.

5. Forward

space	athlete	country	Time (s)
1	George Nicol	Great Britain	50.8
2	Oscar Guttormsen	Norway	k. A.

Nicol clearly won his run by twelve yards.

6. Forward

space	athlete	country	Time (s)
1	Georges Malfait	France	50.0
2	Donald Buddo	Canada	k. A.

Malfait was eight yards from Buddo.

7. Forward

space	athlete	country	Time (s)
1	William Robbins	United States	50.4
2	József Nagy	Hungary	k. A.
3	Noel Chavasse	Great Britain
4th	Victor Henry	Netherlands

Robbins won very clearly by a margin of twelve yards.

8. Forward

space	athlete	country	Time (s)
1	William C. Prout	United States	50.4
2	Christopher Chavasse	Great Britain	k. A.

There was a two-yard gap between the two runners.

9. Forward

space	athlete	country	Time (s)
1	Horace Ramey	United States	51.0
2	Arthur Astley	Great Britain	(50.7)

There was a yard and a half between the two runners.

10. Forward

space	athlete	country	Time (s)
1	Lou Sebert	Canada	50.2
2	Massimo Cartasegna	Italy	(51.4)
	Victor Jacquemin	Belgium	DNF

Sebert won by a margin of 20 yards.

11. Forward

space	athlete	country	Time (s)
1	John Atlee	United States	50.4
2	Alan Patterson	Great Britain	(50.6)
3	Giuseppe Tarella	Italy	k. A.

Atlee won by a yard.

12. Forward

space	athlete	country	Time (s)
1	Charles Davies	Great Britain	50.4
2	Cornelis the hero	Netherlands	k. A.

Davies won by four yards.

13. Forward

space	athlete	country	Time (s)
1	Ned Merriam	United States	52.2
2	Robert Robb	Great Britain	k. A.

There were two yards between the two runners.

14. Forward

space	athlete	country	Time (s)
1	John Carpenter	United States	49.6
2	Otto Trieloff	Germany	(50.9)
3	Arvid ring beach	Sweden	k. A.
4th	Henk van der Wal	Netherlands

Carpenter was ten yards ahead of Trieloff at the finish.

15. Forward

space	athlete	country	Time (s)
1	Wyndham neck shaft	Great Britain	49.4
2	Fred de Selding	United States	(50.8)
3	Bram Evers	Netherlands	k. A.

In the fastest forward, Neck Wave had a lead of ten yards.

16. Forward

space	athlete	country	Time (s)
1	George W. Young	Great Britain	52.4
2	Jacobus Hoogveld	Netherlands	k. A.

Despite a bad time, Young won by a margin of 30 yards.

Intermediate runs (July 22nd)

Only the respective race winners qualified for the final.

The times given in brackets come from the literature by zur Megede mentioned below and are probably estimated.

1st intermediate run

space	athlete	country	Time (s)
1	John Carpenter	United States	49.4
2	Charles Davies	Great Britain	(49.8)
3	Ned Merriam	United States	k. A.
4th	George W. Young	Great Britain

Davies followed, three yards behind Carpenter.

2nd intermediate run

space	athlete	country	Time (s)
1	Wyndham neck shaft	Great Britain	48.4 OR
2	Edwin Montague	Great Britain	(49.8)
3	George Nicol	Great Britain	k. A.
4th	William C. Prout	United States

Neck shaft had a lead of twelve yards in his record run.

3rd intermediate run

space	athlete	country	Time (s)
1	John Taylor	United States	49.8
2	Horace Ramey	United States	(50.5)
3	Edward Ryle	Great Britain	k. A.
4th	Georges Malfait	France

Taylor won by five yards.

4. Intermediate run

space	athlete	country	Time (s)
1	William Robbins	United States	49.0
2	Lou Sebert	Canada	(49.5)
3	John Atlee	United States	k. A.

Robbins had a lead of three yards at the finish.

final

First canceled final run (July 23)

space	athlete	country	Time (s)
1	John Carpenter	United States	48.4
2	Wyndham neck shaft	Great Britain	k. A.
3	William Robbins	United States
4th	John Taylor	United States

At the beginning of the home stretch, the American Robbins led, but was overtaken by his compatriot Carpenter and the Brit Halswelle. Carpenter now pushed Halswelle violently to the outside and crossed the finish line first. This was allowed under American rules, but the relevant British rules provided for a strict ban on disabilities. After heated discussions and a hearing in the evening, Carpenter was disqualified.

The winning time mentioned above comes from the information at SportsReference . In the literature by Kluge listed below , instead, a time of 47.8 s is found, which would have meant setting the world record . Since Carpenter was disqualified, a possible record would not hold anyway. According to the Megede , these deviating information go back to different sources. After that, no official time was announced. The English daily Sporting Life mentions 48.4 s, while the German lawyer Mehlkopf stopped for 47.8 s.

Rerun (July 25)

space	athlete	country	Time (s)
1	Wyndham neck shaft	Great Britain	50.0

The final was rescheduled two days later. In contrast to the previous runs, the route was marked with four individual lanes. The two Americans William Robbins and John Taylor expressed their solidarity with their disqualified compatriot John Carpenter and decided not to start to protest the jury's decision. Thus Wyndham Halswelle was the only participant, crossed the finish line in an easy 50.0 seconds and received the gold medal. No other medals were awarded.

• 

  Single-handed Olympic champion: Wyndham Halswelle from Great Britain

• 

  The fourth of the canceled final run John Taylor, USA

• 

  The American Paul Pilgrim - here as the leader at the Athens Interludes in 1906 - retired as second in his preliminary run

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 400 meters , English, accessed August 25, 2018
• Olympic Games London 1908, Athletics , IOC page on athletics at the 1908 Olympic Games at olympic.org, English, accessed 25 August 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, p. 75
2. ^ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896–1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, pp. 73 f