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 .

• 

  Charles Bacon and Harry Hillman shortly before the finish line of the 400 meter hurdles final

• 

  Olympic Champion Charles Bacon, USA

• 

  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

1. ↑ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896–1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, p. 84