Athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metres

Men's 1500 metres at the Games of the V Olympiad
The finish with Arnold Jackson setting a new Olympic record.
Venue	Stockholm Olympic Stadium
Dates	July 9 (semifinals) July 10 (final)
Competitors	45 from 14 nations
Medalists
Arnold Jackson  Great Britain Abel Kiviat  United States Norman Taber  United States

Athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m		men
200 m		men
400 m		men
800 m		men
1500 m		men
5000 m		men
10,000 m		men
110 m hurdles		men
4×100 m relay		men
4×400 m relay		men
3000 m team race		men
10 km walk		men
Road events
Marathon	men
Field events
Long jump	men
Triple jump	men
High jump	men
Pole vault	men
Standing long jump	men
Standing high jump	men
Shot put	men
Discus throw	men
Hammer throw	men
Javelin throw	men
2-hand shot put	men
2-hand discus	men
2-hand javelin	men
Combined events
Pentathlon	men
Decathlon	men
Cross-country events
Individual	men
Team	men

The men's 1500 metres was a track and field athletics event held as part of the athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics programme. It was the fifth appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The competition was held on Tuesday, July 9, 1912 and on Wednesday, July 10, 1912.

Forty-five runners from 14 nations competed, including the Olympic champion from 1908, Mel Sheppard.

Arnold Jackson won the final by 0.1 second, ahead of an American trio, who were strong favourites, in what was acclaimed at the time as "the greatest race ever run". Aged 21, he remains the youngest ever winner of this event. This was the last Olympics where "private entries" were allowed (i.e. not part of a country's officially selected team), and Jackson was one such.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1912 Summer Olympics.

World Record	3:55.8	Abel Kiviat	Cambridge, MA (USA)	June 8, 1912
Olympic Record	4:03.4(**)	Norman Hallows	London (GBR)	July 13, 1908
	4:03.4(**)	Mel Sheppard	London (GBR)	July 14, 1908

(**) This track was 536.45 metres=​¹⁄₃ mile in circumference.

Abel Kiviat finished his semifinal only 1 second off the Olympic record time of 4:03.4; he and all six other finalists whose times are known broke that mark in the final. Kiviat took second behind Arnold Jackson, who set the new record at 3:56.8.

Results

Semifinals

All semi-finals were held on Tuesday, July 9, 1912.

Semifinal 1

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Mel Sheppard (USA)	4:27.6	QF
2	Louis Madeira (USA)	4:27.9	QF
3	Albert Hare (GBR)	4:39.4

Semifinal 2

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Norman Taber (USA)	4:25.5	QF
2	Philip Baker (GBR)	4:26.0	QF
3	Georg Amberger (GER)	4:27.0
4-5	Teofil Savniky (HUN)
	22x20px Rūdolfs Vītols (RUS)
—	22x20px Dmitri Nazarov (RUS)	Did not finish

Semifinal 3

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Abel Kiviat (USA)	4:04.4	QF
2	Henri Arnaud (FRA)	4:05.4	QF
3	Norman Patterson (USA)	4:05.5
4	22x20px John Tait (CAN)
5	Ferenc Forgács (HUN)
6-7	François Delloye (BEL)
	Jacob Pedersen (NOR)
—	Edward Owen (GBR)	Did not finish

Semifinal 4

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Arnold Jackson (GBR)	4:10.8	QF
2	John Paul Jones (USA)	4:12.4	QF
3	22x20px John Victor (RSA)	4:12.7
4	Lewis Anderson (USA)
5	Oscar Larsen (NOR)
6	22x20px Arnolds Indriksons (RUS)
7	22x20px Alfrēds Ruks (RUS)

Semifinal 5

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	John Zander (SWE)	4:05.5	QF
2	Evert Björn (SWE)	4:07.2	QF
3	Herbert Putnam (USA)	4:07.6
4	Richard Yorke (GBR)
5	Georg Mickler (GER)
6	22x20px Aleksandr Elizarov (RUS)
7	22x20px Nikolay Kharkov (RUS)
—	Charles Ruffell (GBR)	Did not finish

Semifinal 6

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Erwin von Sigel (GER)	4:09.3	QF
2	Oscar Hedlund (USA)	4:10.8	QF
3	William Moore (GBR)	4:11.2
4	Nils Frykberg (SWE)	4:11.2
5-6	Frederick Hulford (GBR)
	22x20px Andrejs Krūkliņš (RUS)
—	Guido Calvi (ITA)	Did not finish

Semifinal 7

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Ernst Wide (SWE)	4:06.0	QF
2	Walter McClure (USA)	4:07.3	QF
3	Joe Cottrill (GBR)
4	Matti Harju (FIN)
5	22x20px Yevgeni Petrov (RUS)
—	Vahram Papazian (TUR)	Did not finish

Final

The start of the final.

The final was held on Wednesday, July 10, 1912.

Place	Athlete	Time
1	Arnold Jackson (GBR)	3:56.8 OR
2	Abel Kiviat (USA)	3:56.9
3	Norman Taber (USA)	3:56.9
4	John Paul Jones (USA)	3:57.2
5	Ernst Wide (SWE)	3:57.6
6	Philip Baker (GBR)	4:01.0
7	John Zander (SWE)	4:02.0
8	Walter McClure (USA)
9-14	Henri Arnaud (FRA)
	Evert Björn (SWE)
	Oscar Hedlund (USA)
	Louis Madeira (USA)
	Mel Sheppard (USA)
	Erwin von Sigel (GER)

References

• sports-reference.com