Athletics at the 1900 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metres

Men's 1500 metres
at the Games of the II Olympiad
Finish of the race
VenueBois de Boulogne
DateJuly 15
Competitors9 from 6 nations
Winning time4:06.2 WR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Charles Bennett
 Great Britain
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Henri Deloge
 France
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) John Bray
 United States
← 1896
1904 →

The men's 1500 metres was a middle-distance running event on the athletics programme at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris. It was held on July 15, 1900. The race was held on a track of 500 metres in circumference. Nine athletes from six nations competed.[1] The event was won by Charles Bennett of Great Britain, the nation's first medal in the brief history of the event.

Background

This was the second appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. None of the runners from 1896 returned. John Bray of the United States was the unofficial world record holder, but the field was otherwise undistinguished. John Cregan, Alexander Grant, and George Orton were among the top runners at the distance and competed in the 1900 Games in other events, but did not run the 1500 metres (possibly due to the event being held on a Sunday.)[2]

Austria, Bohemia, Denmark, and Great Britain made their first appearance in the event. France and the United States were the only two countries to have previously competed in 1896 and return in 1900.

Competition format

The competition consisted of a single round, with one three-lap race around the 500-metre stadium.[2]

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1900 Summer Olympics.

World record  John Bray (USA) 4:09.0 (u) Bayonne, France 30 May 1900
Olympic record  Edwin Flack (AUS) 4:33.2 Athens, Greece 7 April 1896

Charles Bennett set a new Olympic record and a new unofficial world record at 4:06.2.

Schedule

Date Time Round
Sunday, 15 July 1900 15:30 Final

Results

Bennett, who had led the entire distance by a small margin over Deloge, broke off in the final lap, and ran last 500 metres in a time of 1:10.2 to set an unofficial world record, finishing five yards ahead of Deloge. John Bray edged out David Hall by two yards.

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s) Charles Bennett  Great Britain 4:06.2 WR
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Henri Deloge  France 4:06.6
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) John Bray  United States 4:07.2
4 David Hall  United States 4:07.5
5 Christian Christensen  Denmark Unknown
6 Hermann Wraschtil  Austria Unknown
7–9 Ondřej Pukl  Bohemia Unknown
John Rimmer  Great Britain Unknown
Louis Segondi  France Unknown

References

  1. ^ "Athletics at the 1900 Paris Games: Men's 1500 metres". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  2. ^ a b "1500 metres, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 11 August 2020.

Sources