1912 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 1500 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	1500 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	45 athletes from 14 countries
Competition location	Stockholm Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	July 9, 1912 (preliminary round) July 10, 1912 (final)
Medalist Arnold Jackson ( GBR )   Abel Kiviat ( USA )   Norman Taber ( USA )

The men's 1500-meter race at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm was held on July 9 and 10, 1912 in the Stockholm Olympic Stadium. 45 athletes took part.

The Olympic champion was the Briton Arnold Jackson ahead of the world record holder Abel Kiviat (USA) and his compatriot Norman Taber .

The German Erwin von Sigel reached the final and was 14th. The other Germans, Georg Mickler and Georg Amberger were eliminated in their preliminary stages.

Austrian and Swiss athletes did not take part.

Existing records

World record	Abel Kiviat ( USA )	3: 55.8 min	Cambridge, Massachusetts	June 8, 1912
Olympic record	Norman Hallows ( Great Britain )	4: 03.4 min (track with a length of 536 m)	London	July 13, 1908

Olympic Champion Arnold Jackson (GBR)

Norman Taber (USA), bronze medal winner

Vahram Papazyan, the first Turkish Olympic participant

Conducting the competition

A total of seven preliminary runs were carried out on July 9th. The athletes who finished in the first two places qualified for the final, which took place the following day.

Note: The runners qualified for the next round are highlighted in light blue.

leader

Date: July 9, 1912
The first two runners qualified for the next round. The times of the individual starters are not completely recorded.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Mel Sheppard	United States	4: 27.6 min
2	Louis Madeira	United States	4: 27.9 min
3	Albert Hare	Great Britain	4: 39.4 min

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Norman Taber	United States	4: 25.5 min
2	Philip Noel-Baker	Great Britain	4: 26.0 min
3	Georg Amberger	German Empire	4: 27.0 min
4th	Teofil Savniky	Hungary	k. A.
5	Rūdolfs Vītols	Russia	k. A.
DNF	Dmitri Nazarov	Russia

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Abel Kiviat	United States	4: 04.4 min
2	Henri Arnaud	France	4: 05.4 min
3	Norman Patterson	United States	4: 05.5 min
4th	John Tait	Canada	k. A.
5	Ferenc Forgács	Hungary	k. A.
6th	François Delloye	Belgium	k. A.
7th	Jacob Pedersen	Norway	k. A.
DNF	Edward Owen	Great Britain

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Arnold Jackson	Great Britain	4: 10.8 min
2	John Paul Jones	United States	4: 12.4 min
3	John Victor	South African Union	4: 12.7 min
4th	Lewis Anderson	United States	k. A.
5	Oscar Larsen	Norway	k. A.
6th	Arnold's Indriksons	Russia	k. A.
7th	Alfrēds Ruks	Russia	k. A.
DNF	Matias de Carvalho	Portugal

Forward 5

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	John Zander	Sweden	4: 05.5 min
2	Evert Bjorn	Sweden	4: 07.2 min
3	Herbert Putnam	United States	4: 07.6 min
4th	Richard Yorke	Great Britain	k. A.
5	Georg Mickler	German Empire	k. A.
6th	Alexander Yelisarov	Russia	k. A.
7th	Nikolai Kharkov	Russia	k. A.
DNF	Charles Ruffell	Great Britain

Forward 6

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Erwin von Sigel	German Empire	4: 09.3 min
2	Oscar Hedlund	United States	4: 10.8 min
3	William Moore	Great Britain	4: 11.2 min
4th	Nils Frykberg	Sweden	4: 11.2 min
5	Frederick Hulford	Great Britain	k. A.
6th	Andrejs Krūkliņš	Russia	k. A.
DNF	Guido Calvi	Italy

Forward 7

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Ernst Wide	Sweden	4: 06.0 min
2	Walter McClure	United States	4: 07.3 min
3	Joe Cottrill	Great Britain	k. A.
4th	Ephraim Harju	Grand Duchy of Finland	k. A.
5	Yevgeny Petrov	Russia	k. A.
DNF	Vahram Papazyan	Ottoman Empire

final

Shortly after the start of the finals

Crossing the finish line with the winner Jackson

Date: July 10, 1912

In the final, the 1908 Olympic champion , Mel Sheppard, took the lead. In the meantime, Henri Arnaud moved forward. At the beginning of the last lap Abel Kiviat pushed hard, but Norman Taber, Arnold Jackson, John Paul Jones and initially Sheppard, who then fell behind, were able to follow. It got dramatic in the last 50 meters. The three Americans were ahead, then left a gap in which Jackson, who ultimately fought for victory with Taber, came up. Only the target photograph could then decide which of the two had won. This technique was first used in this race at the Olympic Games to determine the winner.

Arnold Jackson improved the previous Olympic record by one second with 3: 56.8 minutes . The runners up to and including fifth place undercut the old Olympic record.

There are different results for this race in the various sources from sixth place onwards. Partly look completely different than shown here. What is actually true is hardly comprehensible any more. Since, according to the variant selected here, there are also time specifications, it could be the one with the highest probability of a reasonably correctness.

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Arnold Jackson	Great Britain	3: 56.8 min	OR
2	Abel Kiviat	United States	3: 56.9 min
3	Norman Taber	United States	3: 56.9 min
4th	John Paul Jones	United States	3: 57.2 min
5	Ernst Wide	Sweden	3: 57.6 min
6th	Philip Noel-Baker	Great Britain	4: 01.0 min
7th	John Zander	Sweden	4: 02.0 min
8th	Henri Arnaud	France	4: 02.2 min
k. A.	Walter McClure	United States	k. A.
	Evert Bjorn	Sweden
	Oscar Hedlund	United States
	Louis Madeira	United States
	Mel Sheppard	United States
	Erwin von Sigel	German Empire

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, pp. 105f

Web links

• SportsReference 1500m , accessed August 25, 2017
• Official report , engl. (PDF), accessed on August 25, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, pp. 105f