1908 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Free Style Javelin Throw (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Javelin throw (free style)
gender	Men
place	White City Stadium
Attendees	33 athletes from 9 countries
Competition phase	July 15, 1908
Medalist
gold	Eric Lemming ( SWE )
silver	Michalis Dorizas ( GRE )
bronze	Arne Halse ( NOR )

The men's javelin throw in the free style at the 1908 London Olympics was decided on July 15, 1908 at White City Stadium . On the morning of the same day, a qualification took place from which three throwers qualified for the competition.

This competition was only on the program at the 1908 Olympic Games. As with the discus throw , Greek style, there are different representations to carry out this throwing .

• In his literature below, Kluge states that the majority of the participants used the “middle grip” that is common today and that no special technique was prescribed.
• According to the book by zur Megede mentioned below , the throwers held the spear at the rear end with an outstretched arm. During the approach, the throwing device was leaned against the front shoulder and held with the free hand - hence the term "free technique". When it was thrown, the athlete finally hurled the javelin from the back of his arm, which was still extended, up and forward. The technique is hinted at in the photo below with Imre Mudin.

Records

Since this discipline disappeared from the competition calendar soon after these games and, unlike the javelin throwing with a center grip, never played a major role, there were no official world records and no Olympic record either , because the competition had never been in the Olympic program before.

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

OR	46.04 m	Finland	Arma's people	qualification
	51.36 m	Greece	Michalis Dorizas
	54.44 m	Sweden	Eric Lemming

Results

qualification

The qualification was held in five staggered groups. The results of these groups were combined. Only the three best throwers in the qualification - highlighted in light green - were able to 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

athlete	country	Width (m)
Arma's people	Finland	46.04 OR
Jalmari Sauli	Finland	43.30
Juho Halme	Finland	39.88
Henry Leeke	Great Britain	k. A.
Walter Henderson	Great Britain
Ernest May	Great Britain

Group B

athlete	country	Width (m)
Michalis Dorizas	Greece	51.36 OR
Arne Halse	Norway	49.73
Charalambos Zouras	Greece	48.61
Nikolaos Georgandas	Greece	k. A.
Conrad Carlsrud	Norway
Istvan Mudin	Hungary
Alfred Flaxman	Great Britain
Edward Barrett	Great Britain

Group C

athlete	country	Width (m)
Imre Mudin	Hungary	45.96
Johan Kemp	Finland	k. A.
Aarne Salovaara	Finland
Evert Jakobsson	Finland
Ferenc Jesina	Hungary
György Luntzer	Hungary

Group D

athlete	country	Width (m)
Eric Lemming	Sweden	54.44 OR
Bruno Söderström	Sweden	k. A.
Knut Lindberg	Sweden
Otto Nilsson	Sweden
František Souček	Bohemia

Group E

athlete	country	Width (m)
Hugo Wieslander	Sweden	47.56
Jarl Jakobsson	Finland	k. A.
Verner Järvinen	Finland
Ludwig Uettwiller	Germany
Emil Welz	Germany
Mór Kóczán	Hungary
Emilio Brambilla	Italy
John Johansen	Norway

Final and final result of the best nine

space	athlete	country	Width (m)
1	Eric Lemming	Sweden	54.44 OR
2	Michalis Dorizas	Greece	51.36
3	Arne Halse	Norway	49.73
4th	Charalambos Zouras	GRE	48.61
5	Hugo Wieslander	SWE	47.55
6th	Arma's people	FIN	46.04
7th	Imre Mudin	HUN	45.96
8th	Jalmari Sauli	FIN	43.30
9	Juho Halme	FIN	39.88

None of the three finalists managed to improve on the first three rounds. Eric Lemming won over and won his first gold medal. Two days later he was also Olympic champion in the middle grip competition and in 1912 won Olympic gold in the javelin throw for the third time in Stockholm . Second place went to the Greek Michalis Dorizas, ahead of the Norwegian silver medalist for javelin throwing with a center grip, Arne Halse. Another Greek came in fourth with Charalambos Zouras. The Swedish decathlon Olympic champion of 1912, Hugo Wieslander, achieved his best placement at the London Games with fifth place . Behind him, the Finn Armas Pesonen took sixth place.

• 

  The Swedish double javelin thrower from London Eric Lemming, 1912 Olympic champion again

• 

  The Swedish decathlon Olympic champion from 1912 Hugo Wieslander finished fifth

• 

  The Finn Armas Pesonen, fifth in the javelin throw with center grip, was sixth in the Olympics

• 

  The Hungarian Imre Mudin - here performing a real attempt in the free throw technique - came in seventh place

• 

  The Finnish Olympic eighth Jalmari Sauli - here in a picture from around 1929 - was also seventh in the  shot put

• 

  The Finn Juho Halme, also sixth in the javelin throw with a center grip, was an Olympic sub

• 

  The Hungarian István Mudin - here at the hammer throw - also seventh in the discus throw , Greek style, was eliminated in the qualification

• 

  The Finn Johan Kemp did not reach the final

• 

  Aarne Salovaara from Finland did not get beyond the qualification either

• 

  Everet Jakobsson from Sweden failed in the qualification as in the javelin throw with a central grip

• 

  The Hungarian György Luntzer, also seventh in the discus throw in free style, did not make it to the final

• 

  The Swedish bronze medalist in the pole vault Bruno Söderström was eliminated from the qualification

• 

  The Swedish sprinter Knut Lindberg - over 100 meters second in his heat - also failed in the qualification

• 

  The Finnish third in the Greek-style discus throw, Verner Järvinen, also tried in vain to reach the final of this competition

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: Javelin Throw, Freestyle , English, accessed September 3, 2018
• Olympic Games London 1908, Athletics , IOC page on athletics at the 1908 Olympic Games at olympic.org, English, accessed 3 September 2018