1920 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 5000 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	5000 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	38 athletes from 16 countries
Competition location	Antwerp Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 16, 1920 (preliminary round) August 17, 1920 (final)
Medalist Joseph Guillemot ( FRA )   Paavo Nurmi ( FIN )   Eric Backman ( SWE )

The men's 5000 meter run at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp was held on August 16 and 17, 1920 in the Antwerp Olympic Stadium. 38 athletes took part.

The Olympic champion was the French Joseph Guillemot ahead of the Finnish Paavo Nurmi and the Swede Eric Backman .

The Swiss Alfred Gaschen retired in 16: 03.0 min as leading fifth.
Germany and Austria were excluded from participating in these games in 1920.

Existing records

World record	Hannes Kolehmainen ( Grand Duchy of Finland )	14: 36.6 min	Stockholm	July 10, 1912
Olympic record

Conducting the competition

A total of four preliminary runs were carried out on August 16 (10:00 a.m. local time). The first four runners qualified for the finals on August 17th at 3:15 pm.

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

The Italian Carlo Speroni reached the final and finished seventh

Failed in the preliminary round: Henri Smets (BEL)

Prelims

Date: August 16, 1920, 10:00 a.m. local time

The times are not completely handed down.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Rudolf Falk	Sweden	15: 17.8 min
2	Herbert Irwin	Great Britain	15: 17.8 min
3	Teodor Koskenniemi	Finland	15: 22.0 min
4th	Clifford C. Furnas	United States	15: 23.8 min
5	Alfred Gaschen	Switzerland	16: 03.0 min
6th	Augusto Maccario	Italy	k. A.
7th	Jean-Baptiste Manhès	France	16: 07.8 min
DNF	Pierre Trullemans	Belgium
	Panagiotis Retelas	Greece
	Tommy Town	Canada

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Joe Blewitt	Great Britain	15: 19.8 min
2	Julien Van Campenhout	Belgium	15: 22.6 min
3	Horace Brown	United States	15: 31.8 min
4th	Nils Bergström	Sweden	15.39.4 min
5	Lucien Duquesne	France	16:08.2 min
6th	Juan Muguerza	Spain	k. A.
7th	Konosuke Sano	Japan	k. A.
DNF	Artur Nielsen	Denmark
	Teodoro Pons	Spain
	Carlo Martinenghi	Italy

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Carlo Speroni	Italy	15: 27.6 min
2	Paavo Nurmi	Finland	15: 33.0 min
3	William Seagrove	Great Britain	15: 53.6 min
4th	Emanuel Lundström	Sweden	16:04.2 min
5	Charles Hunter	United States	k. A.
6th	Alexandros Kranis	Greece	k. A.
7th	François Vyncke	Belgium	k. A.
8th	Karel Pacák	Czechoslovakia	k. A.
9	Abdel Ali Maghoub	Egypt	k. A.

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Joseph Guillemot	France	15: 33.0 min
2	Eric Backman	Sweden	15: 34.0 min
3	Ivan Dresser	United States	15: 41.8 min
4th	Alfred Nichols	Great Britain	15: 54.0 min
5	Ilmari Vesamaa	Finland	15: 54.4 min
6th	Tomeichi Oura	Japan	k. A.
7th	Jón Jónsen	Denmark	k. A.
8th	Henri Smets	Belgium	k. A.
9	Gerardus van der Wel	Netherlands	k. A.

The first of 12 Olympic medals: Silver for Paavo Nurmi (FIN)

final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Joseph Guillemot	France	14: 55.6 min
2	Paavo Nurmi	Finland	15: 00.0 min
3	Eric Backman	Sweden	15: 13.0 min
4th	Teodor Koskenniemi	Finland	15: 17.0 min
5	Joe Blewitt	Great Britain	15: 19.0 min
6th	William Seagrove	Great Britain	15: 21.0 min
7th	Carlo Speroni	Italy	k. A.
8th	Alfred Nichols	Great Britain	k. A.
9	Julien Van Campenhout	Belgium	k. A.
10	Nils Bergström	Sweden	k. A.
11	Rudolf Falk	Sweden	k. A.
12	Herbert Irwin	Great Britain	k. A.
13	Emanuel Lundström	Sweden	k. A.
DNF	Clifford C. Furnas	United States
	Horace Brown	United States
	Ivan Dresser	United States

Date: August 17, 1920 at 11:15 a.m. local time

Joseph Guillemot and Paavo Nurmi took the lead after two laps and ran the race together with an ever increasing advantage over the rest of the field. With 200 meters to go, the Frenchman, who had suffered severe mustard gas poisoning in the First World War , took the final sprint and won ahead of the Finn.

For Paavo Nurmi it was the first of a total of twelve Olympic medals that he was able to win between 1920 and 1928.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, pp. 137f

Web links

• SportsReference 5000 m , accessed August 30, 2017
• Official report , French (PDF), accessed on August 30, 2017

Video

• Joseph Guillemot Beats Paavo Nurmi To 5,000m Gold - Antwerp 1920 Olympics , published July 18, 2013 on youtube.com, accessed August 30, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009, page 551 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ Official report, page 96 (French) ( Memento of October 7, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ Description of the finals on SportsReference