1908 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 400 m hurdles (men)
|
|
sport | athletics |
discipline | 400 meter hurdles |
gender | Men |
place | White City Stadium |
Attendees | 15 athletes from 6 countries |
Competition phase | 20./21./22. July 1908 |
Medalist | |
---|---|
gold | Charles Bacon ( USA ) |
silver | Harry Hillman ( USA ) |
bronze | Jimmy Tremeer ( GBR ) |
The 400-meter hurdles of the men at the 1908 Olympic Games in London on 22 July 1908 in the White City Stadium decided. On the two days before there were preliminary and intermediate runs to determine the final field. After numerous resignations of registered runners, the prelims turned into a farce. There was only competition in four of the twelve scheduled runs.
The American Charles Bacon became Olympic champion . His compatriot Harry Hillman won the silver medal. Jimmy Tremeer from Great Britain won bronze.
Records
The world record was still unofficial at the time.
World record | 55.8 s | United States | Charles Bacon | 1908 |
---|---|---|---|---|
Olympic record | 57.6 s | United States | Walter Tewksbury | Paris finals ( FRA ), July 15, 1900 |
Comment on the Olympic record: The significantly faster times of 1904 were not recognized as a record because the hurdles were too low.
The following records were broken or set at these Olympic Games over 400 meter hurdles :
OR | 57.0 s | United States | Charles Bacon | leader |
56.4 s | United States | Harry Hillman | Intermediate run | |
WR | 55.0 s | United States | Charles Bacon | Final run |
Results
Prelim (July 20th)
This competition shows how senseless the practice was to draw the preliminary runs after the registrations were received. 14 preliminary runs were planned, but there were only 15 runners from six countries at the start. There was only one participant in seven runs, and no one at all showed up for one run. There were therefore only real eliminations in four preliminary runs.
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) |
---|---|---|---|
Evert Koops | Netherlands | single-handedly |
2. Forward
space | athlete | country | Time (s) |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Harry Coe | United States | 58.8 |
2 | John Densham | Great Britain | (59.2) |
The closest preliminary decision was made at a distance of one and a half yards.
3. Forward
space | athlete | country | Time (s) |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Charles Bacon | United States | 57.0 OR |
2 | Henry St Aubyn Murray | Australasia | k. A. |
Although he was not challenged with a lead of 20 yards, the world record holder ran the Olympic record in the run-up .
4. Forward
space | athlete | country | Time (s) |
---|---|---|---|
Frederick Harmer | Great Britain | single-handedly |
5. Forward
space | athlete | country | Time (s) |
---|---|---|---|
Geoffrey Burton | Great Britain | single-handedly |
6. Forward
space | athlete | country | Time (s) |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Harry Hillman | United States | 59.2 |
Georges Dubois | France | DNF |
7. Forward
space | athlete | country | Time (s) |
---|---|---|---|
Oswald Groenings | Great Britain | single-handedly |
8. Forward
space | athlete | country | Time (s) |
---|---|---|---|
Wyatt Gould | Great Britain | single-handedly |
9. Forward
space | athlete | country | Time (s) |
---|---|---|---|
Nándor Kovács | Hungary | single-handedly |
10. Forward
space | athlete | country | Time (s) |
---|---|---|---|
Jimmy Tremeer | Great Britain | single-handedly |
11. Forward
For the eleventh run, none of the registered runners started, so this was completely omitted.
12. Forward
space | athlete | country | Time (s) |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Leslie Burton | Great Britain | 60.6 |
2 | Henri Meslot | France | k. A. |
Burton won by two yards.
Intermediate runs (July 21)
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 | Harry Hillman | United States | 56.4 OR |
2 | Harry Coe | United States | (57.0) |
Evert Koops | Netherlands | DNF |
The Olympic champion of 1904 won with a new Olympic record. Coe missed the final, although his time of an estimated 57.0 s was in the range of Bacon's record from the prelim.
2nd intermediate run
space | athlete | country | Time (s) |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Charles Bacon | United States | 58.8 |
Oswald Groenings | Great Britain | DNF | |
Nándor Kovács | Hungary |
3rd intermediate run
space | athlete | country | Time (s) |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Leslie Burton | Great Britain | 59.8 |
2 | Frederick Harmer | Great Britain | k. A. |
3 | Wyatt Gould | Great Britain |
Burton won by six yards.
4. Intermediate run
space | athlete | country | Time (s) |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Jimmy Tremeer | Great Britain | 60.6 |
Geoffrey Burton | Great Britain | DNF |
Final (July 22nd)
The times given in brackets come from the literature by zur Megede listed below and are estimated.
space | athlete | country | Time (s) |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Charles Bacon | United States | 55.0 WR |
2 | Harry Hillman | United States | (55.4) |
3 | Jimmy Tremeer | Great Britain | (57.0) |
4th | Leslie Burton | Great Britain | k. A. |
Two Britons and two Americans met in the final. After about half the distance it was clear that the Americans would fight for victory among themselves. On the home stretch, Charles Bacon pulled away and won the run ahead of his predecessor Harry Hillman. Bacon improved his own world record by eight tenths of a second. Hillman's deficit is given as two yards, so he ran the second fastest time ever achieved. Even Tremeer's 20 yards gap suggests a time of around 57 seconds, which is also given as an estimated time for the Megede and Sports-Reference . There was irritation because Bacon had taken a hurdle on the wrong track. The jury decided, however, that this had not given him an advantage because it had actually covered a longer distance. According to the rules that apply today, he would certainly have been disqualified.
Third place Jimmy Tremeer was almost 40 years old. In 1897 he had competed in the British championships over 100 yards.
In Sports-Reference , the estimated time of 57.3 s for the second is given a tenth of a second better than for the Megede .
Silver medalist Harry Hillman from the USA, 1904 Olympic champion
The American Harry Coe - here as second from the right in the Michigan Four-Mile Relay Team - was eliminated despite a strong performance in the intermediate run. He was also a participant in the 800 and 1500 meters .
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 Hurdles , accessed August 27, 2018
- Olympic Games London 1908, Athletics , IOC page on athletics at the 1908 Olympic Games at olympic.org, English, accessed August 27, 2018
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896–1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, p. 84