Athletics at the 1936 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metres

The men's 1500 metres event at the 1936 Olympic Games was on August 4 and August 6. There were 43 athletes. These athletes were from 27 different nations. Each nation could have up to 3 athletes in this event. This rule was set in the 1930 Olympic Congress. The final was won by Kiwi Jack Lovelock. He beat the world record time. This was New Zealand's first medal in this event. Glenn Cunningham of the United States won 2nd place. This was the first time that the United States was in the top 3 since 1920. Luigi Beccali of Italy won the event in 1932. In this race, he came in 3rd. He became the first man to have 2 medals in this event.

Background

This was the 10th time this event was run. It was one of 12 athletics that has been at every Summer Olympics. The event had many fast runners. 6 of the 7 fastest runners from 1932 raced. All of the medalists from 1932 raced. The winner in 1932 was Luigi Beccali of Italy. Jerry Cornes of Great Britain was in 2nd. Phil Edwards of Canada was in 3rd. Glenn Cunningham of the United States was in 4th. Eric Ny of Sweden was in 5th place. Jack Lovelock of New Zealand was in 7th place. All 6 of these people ran in both 1932 and 1936. Sydney Wooderson of Great Britain, Archie San Romani of the United States, and Gene Venzke of the United States also ran in both 1932 and 1936. The world record was 3:48.8 by Bill Bonthron. In the Olympic qualification races, he lost to 3 other American runners. This meant that he was not in the team.

This was the first time that Chile, China, Colombia, Luxembourg, and Peru were in the Olympic games. This was the 10th time that the United States was in the Olympics. The United States was the only nation that was in every men's 1500 metres until 1936.

Competition

The competition had 2 rounds. This format was used since 1908. There were now 4 semifinals rounds again. Each semifinal had either 10 or 11 runners. The 3 fastest runners in each heat went to the final. This meant that there was 12 people in the final round.Official Report, vol. 1, pp. 632–33.

Records

The graph shows the world record and Olympic records before the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Jack Lovelock beat the World Record. His time was 3:47.8. Lovelock and Glenn Cunningham were both under the old world record The 5 fastest runners all beat the old Olympic record.

Schedule

 Date Time Round Wednesday, 5 August 1936  17:00  Semifinals Thursday, 6 August 1936  16:15  Final

Results

Semifinals

The 3 fastest runners in each heat went to the final rounds.

Semifinal 1
 Rank  Athlete  Nation  Time  Notes 1  Eric Ny    3:54.8   2  Glenn Cunningham   3:54.8   3 Werner Böttcher   3:55.0   4Ossi Teileri  3:55.6  5Mihály Iglói  3:56.0  6Grigorios Georgakopoulos  4:01.4  7René Geeraert  Unknown  8Børge Larsen  Unknown  9Pierre Hemmer  Unknown  10Paul Martin  Unknown  — Kumao Aochi     

Semifinal 2
 Rank  Athlete  Nation  Time  Notes 1  Gene Venzke    4:00.4   2  Jerry Cornes   4:00.6   3 Jack Lovelock   4:00.6   4Pierre Leichtnam  4:01.0  5Clarke Scholtz  4:02.0  6Kiyoshi Nakamura  4:04.8  7Emil Goršek 4:13.0 8Emil Hübscher  Unknown  9Jack Liddle  Unknown  10Miguel Castro  Unknown  — Martti Matilainen     — Pat Boot     Stavros Velkopoulos     

Semifinal 3
 Rank  Athlete  Nation  Time  Notes 1  Luigi Beccali    3:55.6   2  Miklós Szabó   3:55.6   3 Phil Edwards   3:56.2   4Bobby Graham  3:56.6  5Bedřich Hošek  3:59.4  6André Glatigny  3:59.6  7Gerald Backhouse  Unknown  8Harry Mehlhose  Unknown  9Reginald Uba  4:26.2  10Jia Lianren  Unknown  11Emilio Torres  Unknown  — Ivan Krevs     

Semifinal 4
 Rank  Athlete  Nation  Time  Notes 1  Robert Goix    3:54.0   2  Archie San Romani   3:55.0   3 Fritz Schaumburg   3:55.2   4Joseph Mostert  3:56.6  5Niilo Hartikka  3:59.0  6Franz Eichberger  3:59.2  7Ragnar Ekholdt  Unknown  8 Sydney Wooderson  Unknown   9 Hugh Thompson  Unknown  10 Charles Stein  Unknown  11 Francisco Váldez  Unknown   — Toshinao Tomie     

Final

 Rank  Athlete  Nation  Time  Notes Jack Lovelock    3:47.8   Glenn Cunningham    3:48.4    Luigi Beccali    3:49.2  4  Archie San Romani    3:50.0  5  Phil Edwards    3:50.4    6  Jerry Cornes    3:51.4  7  Miklós Szabó    3:53.0  8  Robert Goix    3:53.8  9  Gene Venzke    3:55.0  10  Fritz Schaumburg    3:56.2  11  Eric Ny    3:57.6  12  Werner Böttcher    4:04.2 

References

Category:Athletics at the 1936 Summer Olympics
Category:Men's events at the 1936 Summer Olympics
Category:1500 metres at the Olympics