Athletics at the 1900 Summer Olympics – Men's 5000 metres team race

The men's 5000 metres team race was the last track and field event on the in the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris. It was the team race in the Olympics. It was on July 22, 1900. 

There was 2 teams. In each team, there was 5 athletes. The Racing Club de France from France had a team. There was also a team from the Amateur Athletic Association of England. This team had 4 British athletes and Stan Rowley of Australia. 

The AAA team won. Their team had 26 points. 

Background

This was the first Olympic team race. This was the only time this event was 5000 metres long. In 1904, the distance was 4 miles. In 1908, the event was 3 miles. In 1912, 1920, and 1924, the distance would be 3000 metres. 

After 1924, the Olympics did not have the team race.

Competition

The event had one heat. Each of the runners ran 10 laps around the track. The track was 500 metres long. The place that a runner ran was the number of points they got. For example, if a runner was in 2nd place, they were given 2 points. The team with the lowest number of points won.

Records

This was the first big 5000 metre race with team scoring. It was also one of the first big 5000 metres races. 

The fastest time for this race was 15:54. This was for 3 miles (5230m). That race was actually a 4-mile race by Walter George in 1884. However, the wrote down the time at that distance. The actual 5000m time was not written down. However, this time is about the same as 15:12 for 5000 metres.

Charles Bennett beat the Olympic record and the World record. His time was 15:29.2.

Schedule

 Date Time Round Sunday, 22 July 1900   Final

Summary

Rimmer and Bennett were in front for most of the race. The French runners Deloge, Ragueneau, and Chastanié were not very far behind. Tysoe and Robinson stayed with Castanet and Champoudry. Rowley was injured. He started to walk after the first lap. 

On the last lap, Bennett started to beat Rimmer.

Champoudry finished the race in 9th place. Rowley had just ran his 7th lap. He was in pain. The rules said that all 5 team members had to finish the race for the team to score. However, the officials let Rowley to stop the race.

 Results 
 Rank  Athlete  Team  Nation  Time  Points 1  Charles Bennett  Amateur Athletic Association of England    15:29.2  1 2  John Rimmer  Amateur Athletic Association of England    Unknown  2 3  Henri Deloge  Racing Club de France    Unknown  3 4  Gaston Ragueneau  Racing Club de France    Unknown  4  5  Jacques Chastanié  Racing Club de France    Unknown  5 6  Sidney Robinson  Amateur Athletic Association of England    Unknown  6 7  Alfred Tysoe  Amateur Athletic Association of England    Unknown  7 8  André Castanet  Racing Club de France    Unknown  8 9  Michel Champoudry  Racing Club de France    Unknown  9 —  Stan Rowley  Amateur Athletic Association of England      10

Team standings

 Rank  Team  Nation  Points   Amateur Athletic Association of England    26   Racing Club de France    29

References

 International Olympic Committee.
 De Wael, Herman. Herman's Full Olympians: "Athletics 1900".  Accessed 18 March 2006. Available electronically at  .


Men's team 5000 metres