1956 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Marathon (Men)
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| sport | athletics | ||||||||
| discipline | Marathon run | ||||||||
| gender | Men | ||||||||
| Attendees | 46 athletes from 23 countries | ||||||||
| Competition location |
Melbourne Cricket Ground (start and finish) |
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| Competition phase | 1st December 1956 | ||||||||
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The men's marathon at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne was held on December 1, 1956. 46 athletes took part, 33 of whom made it to the finish. Start and finish was the Melbourne Cricket Ground .
The French Alain Mimoun became Olympic champion . He won ahead of the Yugoslav Franjo Mihalić and the Finn Veikko Karvonen .
Swiss athletes did not take part. Two of the German starters crossed the finish line: Lothar Beckert in 19th place and Kurt Hartung in 28th place. Klaus Porbadnik had to give up the race. The Austrian Adolf Gruber reached the goal in 23rd place.
Existing records
| World best | 2: 17: 39.4 h |
Jim Peters ( Great Britain )
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Chiswick , UK | June 26, 1954 |
| Olympic record | 2: 23: 03.2 h |
Emil Zátopek ( Czechoslovakia )
 |
Helsinki , Finland | July 27, 1952 |
Note: World records were not set in the marathon until 2004 because of the different track conditions.
Routing
After two and a half laps of the stadium, the track led out of the stadium and turned onto Brunton Avenue . Then it went right into the Punt Road , on which the railway line was crossed directly at the train station in the Richmond district . Immediately after that, the route turned right onto Swan Street . On the Swan Street Bridge was Yarra River crossing. Via Linlithgow Avenue it went through the northern part of the Royal Botanic Gardens . The path continued on St. Kilda Road , where it went in a south-westerly direction. Then the route swung left west onto Dandenong Road . In the Malvern district, we continued southwest on Normanby Road . At the height of the racecourse in Caulfield, the railway line was crossed again on Queens Avenue , then it went immediately to the right again into Dandenong Road . From then on, the route ran gently uphill past Oakleigh in a south-westerly direction. The turning point was reached shortly before Clayton and the route took the same route back to the stadium.
The race
The Czechoslovak Emil Zátopek started in Melbourne only in the marathon and wanted to repeat his Olympic victory from 1952 here . But Zátopek suffered from the consequences of a hernia and was not in full possession of his strength. The favorite role fell to the French Alain Mimoun, who was already 35 years old. At the Olympic Games in 1948 and 1952 Mimoun was beaten three times (over 5000 and 10,000 meters, however) by Zátopek and each time had to be content with silver. Also at the European Championships in 1950 , the French were twice defeated by the Czechoslovaks. Zátopek made his marathon debut in Helsinki in 1952 , this time it was Mimoun who tackled this route for the first time.
The race started on December 1st at 3:15 pm. For the first time in Olympic history there was a false start in the marathon. In sunny weather (approx. 30 ° C) the race started quickly. At five kilometers the field had stretched out. The Kenyan Arap Sum Kanuti, the Korean Lee Chang-hoon and the South African Mercer Davies were in the lead. Mimoun stayed in the chase group. At ten kilometer the Finn Paavo Kotila took the lead, followed by the Soviet athletes Iwan Filin and Albert Iwanow, the Briton Fred Norris, his compatriot Veikko Karvonen, Mimoun and Kanuti.
The race was still determined by changes in leadership. At fifteen kilometer, Mimoun, Filine and US runner John Kelley were in the lead, but a group of 13 pursuers were close behind them. At the turning point, Mimoun attacked and took the lead. At kilometer 25 the chasing group consisted only of Karvonen and the Yugoslav Franjo Mihalić, they were just under a minute behind Mimoun. Twenty seconds behind came the Japanese Yoshiaki Kawashima, the Swede Evert Nyberg and Zátopek. At thirty kilometers, Mimoun's lead had grown to 72 seconds. Karvonen, Kawashima and Mihalić formed the first chasing group, another fifty seconds behind was Zátopek in 5th place.
At 35 km Mihalić was able to break away from Karvonen a little. Kawashima was 30 seconds behind, followed by Zátopek and Lee. At forty kilometers, the first four places were each just under a minute apart. Mimoun ran ahead of Mihalić and Karvonen. Lee and Zátopek had switched places. At the stadium, Mimoun was able to complete his final lap before Mihalić ran in. He too was able to run his lap before Karvonen got into the stadium. And again it took some time for the next runners to arrive. Kawashima came into the stadium, followed immediately by Lee, who was then able to overtake him on the home stretch. Zátopek reached the goal in sixth. Of the 33 runners who crossed the finish line, 32 took less than three hours.
Alain Mimoun achieved the first French Olympic victory in a marathon.
Franjo Mihalić won the first Yugoslav marathon medal in athletics.
Bottom line
Date: December 1, 1956, 3:15 p.m.
Split times:
- 5 km: 16:25 min - Arap Sum Kanuti
- 10 km: 33:30 min - Paavo Kotila
- 15 km: 50:37 min - Alain Mimoun
- 20 km: 1:08:03 h - Alain Mimoun
- 25 km: 1:24:35 h - Alain Mimoun
- 30 km: 1:41:47 h - Alain Mimoun
- 35 km: 1:59:34 h - Alain Mimoun
- 40 km: 2:27:30 h - Alain Mimoun
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literature
- Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 132f
Web links
- SportsReference Marathon
- Official report pp. 300-307, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 3, 2017
- Alain Mimoun Marathon Melbourne 1956 , published August 17, 2013 on youtube.com, accessed October 3, 2017
Individual evidence
- ↑ IAAF, World Records / German Records / | the best of all time, marathon men
- ↑ Official report p. 300, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 3, 2017
- ↑ SportsReference (English) ( Memento from February 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Official report p. 284, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 3, 2017
- ↑ Official Report, p 272/273 (Engl.)
- ↑ Official report p. 301, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 3, 2017
- ↑ Official report p. 302, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 3, 2017
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