1920 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 10,000 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	10,000 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	34 athletes from 17 countries
Competition location	Antwerp Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 19, 1920 (preliminary round) August 20, 1920 (final)
Medalist Paavo Nurmi ( FIN )   Joseph Guillemot ( FRA )   James Wilson ( GBR )

The men's 10,000-meter run at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp was held on August 19 and 20, 1920 in the Antwerp Olympic Stadium. 34 athletes took part.

The Olympic champion was Paavo Nurmi from Finland, ahead of Joseph Guillemot from France and James Wilson from Britain .

Austrians and Germans were excluded from participating in these games.
Two Swiss athletes were represented and both reached the final. Oscar Garin finished ninth there, his team colleague Alfred Gaschen did not start in the final race.

Existing records

World record	Jean Bouin ( France )	30: 58.8 min	Colombes	November 6, 1911
Olympic record	Hannes Kolehmainen ( Grand Duchy of Finland )	31: 20.8 min	Stockholm	July 8, 1912

Conducting the competition

A total of three preliminary runs were carried out on August 19 (10:00 a.m. local time). The first five runners qualified for the final on August 20 at 4.30 p.m.

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

Prelims

The Italian Carlo Speroni reached the final but had to give up

The times are not completely handed down. Date: August 19, 1920, 10:00 a.m. local time

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	James Wilson	Great Britain	33: 40.2 min
2	Paavo Nurmi	Finland	33: 46.3 min
3	Augusto Maccario	Italy	34: 06.8 min
4th	Jean-Baptiste Manhès	France	34: 12.0 min
5	Alfred Gaschen	Switzerland	34: 38.4 min
6th	Werner Magnusson	Sweden	34: 49.2 min
7th	Lucien Duquesne	France	35: 06.6 min
8th	Pierre Deveaux	Belgium	36: 38.3 min
DNF	Jüri Lossman	Estonia
	Phadeppa Dareppa Chaugule	British India
	Julius Ebert	Denmark
	Amisoli Patasoni	United States

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Joseph Guillemot	France	32: 41.6 min
2	Eric Backman	Sweden	32: 48.5 min
3	Albert Andersen	Denmark	32: 58.4 min
4th	Fred Faller	United States	33: 02.4 min
5	Oscar Garin	Switzerland	33: 04.4 min
6th	Edward Lawrence	Canada	33: 08.5 min
7th	Teodoro Pons	Spain	k. A.
8th	Konosuke Sano	Japan	k. A.
9	Aimé Proot	Belgium	k. A.
10	Sinton Hewitt	Australia	k. A.

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Heikki Liimatainen	Finland	32: 08.2 min
2	Charles Clibbon	Great Britain	32: 08.8 min
3	Gaston Hay	France	32: 11.1 min
4th	Carlo Speroni	Italy	32: 13.1 min
5	James Hatton	Great Britain	32: 23.0 min
6th	Nils Bergström	Sweden	33: 38.0 min
7th	Alexandros Kranis	Greece	k. A.
8th	Earl Johnson	United States	k. A.
9	George Cornetta	United States	k. A.
10	Costante Lussana	Italy	k. A.
11	Karel Pacák	Czechoslovakia	k. A.
12	Zensaku Motegi	Japan	k. A.

The first of nine Olympic victories for Paavo Nurmi (FIN)

final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Paavo Nurmi	Finland	31: 45.8 min
2	Joseph Guillemot	France	31: 47.2 min
3	James Wilson	Great Britain	31: 50.8 min
4th	Augusto Maccario	Italy	32: 02.0 min
5	James Hatton	Great Britain	32: 14.0 min
6th	Jean-Baptiste Manhès	France	32: 26.0 min
7th	Heikki Liimatainen	Finland	32: 28.0 min
8th	Fred Faller	United States	32: 38.0 min
9	Oscar Garin	Switzerland	k. A.
DNS	Charles Clibbon	Great Britain
	Alfred Gaschen	Switzerland
	Eric Backman	Sweden
	Albert Andersen	Denmark
	Carlo Speroni	Italy
	Gaston Hay	France

Date: August 20, 1920 at 4:30 p.m. local time

Only nine of the 15 runners qualified from the previous day's heats entered the finals. The expected renewed duel between Joseph Guillemot and Paavo Nurmi did not take place in the initial phase. Guillemot pulled out together with the later third James Wilson and Nurmi was at times up to 20 meters behind. But the two leaders slowed down and Nurmi caught up again. Guillemot accelerated 2000 meters from the target, but could not get rid of his two opponents. At the beginning of the last lap, Nurmi started to sprint and Wilson lost touch. Guillemot and Nurmi were now running towards the goal with changing leadership. In the end, the Finn prevailed and reversed the order of the 5000 meter run . Three days after his victory over the 5000 meter distance, the Guillemot had to admit defeat to his opponent Nurmi this time.

For Paavo Nurmi it was the first of a total of nine Olympic victories in his career.

Web links

• SportsReference 10,000m , accessed August 30, 2017
• Official report French (PDF), accessed on August 30, 2017

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, p. 138

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009, page 551 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Official report, page 98 (French) ( Memento of October 7, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
3. ^ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, p. 138