1908 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Javelin throw center grip (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Javelin throw (center grip)
gender	Men
place	White City Stadium
Attendees	15 athletes from 6 countries
Competition phase	July 14, 1908
Medalist
gold	Eric Lemming ( SWE )
silver	Arne Halse ( NOR )
bronze	Otto Nilsson ( SWE )

The men's javelin throw at the 1908 Olympic Games in London , using today's central grip technique , was decided on July 17, 1908 in the White City Stadium . On the morning of the same day, a qualification took place from which three throwers qualified for the competition.

The javelin was first part of the Olympic program in London . There were even two different javelin competitions. With the “center grip” variant described here, the thrower had to hold the spear in the middle and throw it from this grip position, which corresponds to the throwing style commonly used today.

In this discipline, the athletes from Scandinavia dominated. The Swede Eric Lemming became Olympic champion, the Norwegian Arne Halse won the silver medal. Bronze went to Lemming's compatriot Otto Nilsson .

Records

The world records that existed at the time were still unofficial. Since the javelin throw was Olympic for the first time, there was actually no Olympic record yet . However, a javelin competition was held at the Athens Intermediate Games in 1906 . The victory distance achieved in this way is named here as the Olympic record.

World record	56.55 m	Sweden	Eric Lemming	Falun ( Sweden ), September 29, 1907
Olympic record - achieved in the interludes	53.90 m			Athens Final ( Greece ), April 26, 1906

The following records were broken or set in the javelin throw (center grip) at the 1908 Olympic Games:

OR

54.83 m

Sweden

Eric Lemming

final

Results

The information on the achieved widths differ in the individual sources. Sometimes the deviations are as little as an inch, but in some cases there are more pronounced differences. The overviews below illustrate these differences.

qualification

The qualification was held in two staggered groups. The results of these groups were combined. Only the best three throwers in the qualification - highlighted in light green - could contest the final competition. However, the performance achieved in the qualification was taken into account in the evaluation of the final result. In both the qualification and the final, the participants had three attempts each.

Group A

Result according to Kluge and Sports Reference Surname country Width (m) Otto Nilsson  Sweden 47.11 Aarne Salovaara  Finland 46.81 Arma's people  Finland 45.71 Carl Bechler  Germany k. A. John Johansen  Norway Juho Halme  Finland Charalambos Zouras  Greece Henry Leeke  Great Britain Hugo Wieslander  Sweden Jimmy Tremeer  Great Britain

Result to the Megede Surname country Width (m) Otto Nilsson  Sweden 47.10 Aarne Salovaara  Finland 45.89 Arma's people  Finland 45.18 Juho Halme  Finland 44.96 Carl Bechler  Germany k. A. John Johansen  Norway Charalambos Zouras  Greece Henry Leeke  Great Britain Hugo Wieslander  Sweden Jimmy Tremeer  Great Britain

For Aarne Salovaara two different widths are given in two different tables for the same result in Sports-Reference . In addition to the 46.81 m listed above, there are also 45.89 m. However, this has no effect on the placement in the qualification or the final result.

Group B

athlete	country	Width (m)
Eric Lemming	Sweden	53.69
Arne Halse	Norway	50.57
Evert Jakobsson	Finland	k. A.
Jarl Jakobsson	Finland
Ernest May	Great Britain

Final and final result

The best five according to Kluge and Sports-Reference space Surname country Width (m) 1 Eric Lemming  Sweden 54.83 OR 2 Arne Halse  Norway 50.57 3 Otto Nilsson  Sweden 47.11 4th Aarne Salovaara  Finland 46.81 5 Arma's people  Finland 45.17 All other throwers including Juho Halme named without width

The best six after the Megede space Surname country Width (m) 1 Eric Lemming  Sweden 54.83 OR 2 Arne Halse  Norway 50.57 3 Otto Nilsson  Sweden 47.10 4th Aarne Salovaara  Finland 45.89 5 Arma's people  Finland 45.18 6th Juho Halme  Finland 44.96

The Swede Eric Lemming took part in his third Olympic Games here since 1900 , not counting the Athens Intermediate Games of 1906 . So far, his Olympic appearances have been of rather moderate success. In Athens, Lemming's special discipline was on the program for the first time. There he had won with a new world record . Here in London , Lemming had already won the first free-style javelin throwing competition and has now won his second gold medal in the competition based on today's grip variant. In doing so, he set a new Olympic record . The spelling of his first name is not clear despite his success - he won Olympic gold again in 1912 . In the various sources there is a “c” at the end with “Eric”, but often it is also called “Erik” with a “k” at the end.

Overall, there was a great Scandinavian superiority in this competition. The first six were exclusively Swedes, Norwegians and Finns.

• 

  The double javelin thrower from London , Eric Lemming, Sweden

• 

  The Finnish Olympic champion Aarne Salovaara

• 

  The Finn Armas Pesonen - here in a recording from 1909 - took fifth place

• 

  Juho Halme from Finland - here in the shot put - was sixth in the Olympics

• 

  Evert Jakobsson, another Finn, did not reach the final

• 

  Jarl Jakobsson, also from Finland, was eliminated from the qualification

• 

  The Swedish decathlon Olympic champion from 1912 Hugo Wieslander did not get beyond the qualification

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 Javelin Throw , accessed September 2, 2018
• Olympic Games London 1908, Athletics , IOC page on athletics at the 1908 Olympic Games at olympic.org, English, accessed September 2, 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. 91