1932 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 1500 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	1500 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	24 athletes from 14 countries
Competition location	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Competition phase	August 3, 1932 (preliminary) August 4, 1932 (final)
Medalist Luigi Beccali ( ITA )   Jerry Cornes ( GBR )   Phil Edwards ( CAN )

The men's 1,500-meter run at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles was held on August 3 and 4, 1932 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum . 24 athletes took part.

The Olympic champion was the Italian Luigi Beccali ahead of the Briton Jerry Cornes and the Canadian Phil Edwards .

Existing records

• World record : 3: 49.2 min - Jules Ladoumègue ( France ), Paris , October 5, 1930
• Olympic record : 3: 53.2 min - Harri Larva ( Finland ), Amsterdam final , August 2, 1928

Conducting the competition

The runners started three heats on August 3rd. The four first placed qualified for the final on August 4th.

Note: The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue.

Prelims

Date: August 3, 1932

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Glenn Cunningham	United States	3: 55.8 min
2	Jerry Cornes	Great Britain	4: 01.0 min
3	Martti Luomanen	Finland	4: 01.5 min
4th	Phil Edwards	Canada	4: 03.5 min
5	Hermenegildo del Rosso	Argentina	4: 06.0 min
6th	Christian Markersen	Denmark	4: 06.5 min
7th	Amilio Rodríguez	Mexico	k. A.

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Jack Lovelock	New Zealand	3: 58.0 min
2	Norwood Hallowell	United States	3: 58.1 min
3	Clyde Edward King	Canada	3: 58.6 min
4th	Harri Larva	Finland	3: 58.8 min
5	Paul Martin	Switzerland	3: 59.1 min
6th	Folke Skoog	Sweden	3: 59.6 min
7th	Ernest Barwick	Australia	4: 03.5 min
DNF	Armando Brea	Brazil

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Luigi Beccali	Italy	3: 59.6 min
2	Eino Purje	Finland	3: 59.7 min
3	Eric Ny	Sweden	3: 59.9 min
4th	Frank Crowley	United States	4: 00.0 min
5	Les Wade	Canada	4: 00.5 min
6th	Pedro Ortíz	Mexico	4: 18.0 min
DNF	Nestor Gomes	Brazil
	Otto Peltzer	German Empire
	Reg Thomas	Great Britain

final

Olympic Champion Luigi Beccali (ITA)

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Luigi Beccali	Italy	3: 51.2 min	OR
2	Jerry Cornes	Great Britain	3: 52.6 min
3	Phil Edwards	Canada	3: 52.8 min
4th	Glenn Cunningham	United States	3: 53.4 min
5	Eric Ny	Sweden	3: 54.6 min
6th	Norwood Hallowell	United States	3: 55.0 min
7th	Jack Lovelock	New Zealand	3: 57.8 min
8th	Frank Crowley	United States	3: 58.1 min
9	Martti Luomanen	Finland	3: 58.4 min
10	Harri Larva	Finland	3: 58.4 min
DNF	Eino Purje	Finland
DNS	Clyde Edward King	Canada

Date: August 4, 1932

New Zealander Jack Lovelock, Italian Luigi Beccali and American Glenn Cunningham were considered favorites. The first round was led by Lovelock and the second by Cunningham. But even before the 800-meter mark, it was too slow for the Canadian 800-meter Olympic third party Phil Edwards. He now set the pace with split times of 2: 04.5 min for 800 meters and 3: 07.0 min for 1200 meters. Only Cunningham followed. At the beginning of the last lap, the two had worked out a lead of about 20 meters over Beccali and the Briton Jerry Cornes, everyone else was even further behind. On the exit of the last corner, Edwards was still ahead of Cunningham, but Beccali and Cornes had caught up. At the start of the home stretch, Beccali easily passed the exhausted Edwards and Cunningham and became Olympic champion with a new Olympic record . Cornes finished second, not far behind Edwards won his second bronze medal. The time of Cunningham - here in fourth place - and Lovelock - here seventh - should come four years later in Berlin .

Beccali won the first Olympic victory over 1500 meters for Italy. It was Italy's first gold medal in a running discipline.

Phil Edwards won the first Canadian medal in this discipline.

Picture gallery

• 

  The Canadian Phil Edwards won bronze.

• 

  Glenn Cunningham (USA) finished fourth in the final.

• 

  Otto Peltzer (DEU) did not finish in the third heat.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, p. 249f

Web links

• SportsReference 1500 m , accessed September 16, 2017
• Official report pp. 417-419, engl. (PDF), accessed on September 16, 2017
• Los Angeles, SUA Gli "Atleti azzurri" mirabili ambasciatori d'italianità fascista conquistano , published on June 15, 2012 on youtube.com, accessed on September 16, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 page 548 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)