Jump to content

Cycling at the 1908 Summer Olympics – Men's sprint

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Men's sprint
at the Games of the IV Olympiad
Maurice Schilles
VenueWhite City Stadium
DateJuly 16
Competitors42 from 10 nations
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Not awarded
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Not awarded
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Not awarded
← 1900
1920 →

The men's 1000 metre sprint was one of seven track cycling events on the Cycling at the 1908 Summer Olympics programme. Its distance was the second shortest of the individual event distances. Each nation could enter up to 12 cyclists.[1]

Background

[edit]

This was the third appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1904 and 1912. None of the finalists from 1900 returned.[2]

Canada, Great Britain, the Netherlands, South Africa, and Sweden each made their debut in the men's sprint. France and Germany made their third appearance, having competed in both previous editions of the event.

Competition format

[edit]

The 1000 metre sprint race consisted of approximately 1 23 laps of the 660 yard track. The time limit for the race was 1 minute and 45 seconds. The competition was conducted in three rounds (quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final). The quarterfinals featured 16 heats, with up to 4 cyclists each. The winning cyclist in each heat advanced to the semifinals, provided that the time limit was not exceeded. The semifinal round comprised 4 semifinals, each with 4 cyclists except that 2 were reduced to 3 cyclists because two of the heats had resulted in no winner under the time limit. Again, the winning cyclist in each semifinal advanced to the final.

Records

[edit]

The records for the sprint are 200 metre flying time trial records, kept for the qualifying round in later Games as well as for the finish of races.

World record Unknown Unknown* Unknown Unknown
Olympic record  Albert Taillandier (FRA) 12.6 Paris, France 13 September 1900

* World records were not tracked by the UCI until 1954.

The 200 metre sprint splits were not tracked for this Games, so no new records were set.

Schedule

[edit]
Date Time Round
Thursday, 16 July 1908 15:00
16:45
17:30
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Final

Results

[edit]

Quarterfinals

[edit]

Quarterfinal 1

[edit]

Johnson won by two lengths.[2]

Rank Cyclist Nation Time Notes
1 Victor Johnson  Great Britain 1:33.8 Q
2 Gerard Bosch van Drakenstein  Netherlands Unknown
3 Guglielmo Malatesta  Italy Unknown

Quarterfinal 2

[edit]

Poulain was a wheel behind Venter.[2]

Rank Cyclist Nation Time Notes
1 Floris Venter  South Africa 1:33.2 Q
2 André Poulain  France Unknown
3 Thomas Matthews  Great Britain Unknown

Quarterfinal 3

[edit]

Hansson was one length behind Schilles.[2]

Rank Cyclist Nation Time Notes
1 Maurice Schilles  France 1:38.4 Q
2 Andrew Hansson  Sweden Unknown

Quarterfinal 4

[edit]

Flynn won by two lengths.[2]

Rank Cyclist Nation Time Notes
1 Daniel Flynn  Great Britain 1:30.2 Q
2 Pierre Seginaud  France Unknown
3 Paul Schulze  Germany Unknown
4 Frederick McCarthy  Canada Unknown

Quarterfinal 5

[edit]

Nijland trailed Payne by a length and a half.[2]

Rank Cyclist Nation Time Notes
1 Ernest Payne  Great Britain 1:32.0 Q
2 Dorus Nijland  Netherlands Unknown

Quarterfinal 6

[edit]
Rank Cyclist Nation Time Notes
W. F. Magee  Great Britain Time limit exceeded
Hermann Martens  Germany
Johannes van Spengen  Netherlands

Quarterfinal 7

[edit]

Neumer won by two lengths.[2]

Rank Cyclist Nation Time Notes
1 Karl Neumer  Germany 1:33.2 Q
2 Richard Villepontoux  France Unknown
3 William Bailey  Great Britain Unknown

Quarterfinal 8

[edit]

Cameron won by two lengths.[2]

Rank Cyclist Nation Time Notes
1 George Cameron  United States 1:29.4 Q
2 Philipus Freylinck  South Africa Unknown
3 Herbert Crowther  Great Britain Unknown
4 Gaston Dreyfus  France Unknown

Quarterfinal 9

[edit]

Morton was two and a half lengths behind Demangel.[2]

Rank Cyclist Nation Time Notes
1 Émile Demangel  France 1:35.2 Q
2 William Morton  Canada Unknown

Quarterfinal 10

[edit]

Auffray was the only starter in the heat.

Rank Cyclist Nation Time Notes
1 André Auffray  France 1:23.6 Q

Quarterfinal 11

[edit]

Morisetti was the only starter in the heat.

Rank Cyclist Nation Time Notes
1 Guglielmo Morisetti  Italy 1:21.4 Q

Quarterfinal 12

[edit]

Marechal was one length behind Jones.[2]

Rank Cyclist Nation Time Notes
1 Benjamin Jones  Great Britain 1:35.0 Q
2 Émile Marechal  France Unknown
3 Bruno Götze  Germany Unknown

Quarterfinal 13

[edit]

Summers was nearly two lengths behind Texier.[2]

Rank Cyclist Nation Time Notes
1 Pierre Texier  France 1:31.0 Q
2 George Summers  Great Britain Unknown
3 Louis Weintz  United States Unknown

Quarterfinal 14

[edit]

Lavery won easily.[2]

Rank Cyclist Nation Time Notes
1 Joe Lavery  Great Britain 1:41.0 Q
2 Antonie Gerrits  Netherlands Unknown

Quarterfinal 15

[edit]
Rank Cyclist Nation Time Notes
1 Clarence Kingsbury  Great Britain 1:27.4 Q
2 Gaston Delaplane  France Unknown

Quarterfinal 16

[edit]
Rank Cyclist Nation Time Notes
Georges Perrin  France Time limit exceeded
Frank Shore  South Africa

Semifinals

[edit]

Semifinal 1

[edit]

Neumer was inches behind Johnson.[2]

Rank Cyclist Nation Time Notes
1 Victor Johnson  Great Britain 1:27.4 Q
2 Karl Neumer  Germany Unknown
3 Floris Venter  South Africa Unknown
4 Pierre Texier  France Unknown

Semifinal 2

[edit]

Payne was over a length behind Schilles; placement of the three non-qualifiers is unclear.

Rank Cyclist Nation Time Notes
1 Maurice Schilles  France 1:38.8 Q
2–4 George Cameron  United States Unknown
Daniel Flynn  Great Britain Unknown
Ernest Payne  Great Britain Unknown

Semifinal 3

[edit]

Jones won by half a wheel.[2]

Rank Cyclist Nation Time Notes
1 Benjamin Jones  Great Britain 1:40.8 Q
2 Émile Demangel  France Unknown
3 J. L. Lavery  Great Britain Unknown

Semifinal 4

[edit]

Morisetti was two lengths behind Kingsbury.[2]

Rank Cyclist Nation Time Notes
1 Clarence Kingsbury  Great Britain 1:35.6 Q
2 Guglielmo Morisetti  Italy Unknown
3 André Auffray  France Unknown

Final

[edit]

Johnson suffered a punctured wheel shortly after the start, and retired. The other three riders crawled around the track, jockeying for position. When the final sprint occurred on the last lap, Kingsbury also punctured a tyre when entering the main straight. Jones and Schilles raced to the finish line, with Schilles winning by a couple of inches. However the race took longer than the 1 minute 45 second time limit, and was declared void. Much to the surprise of spectators and the competitors, the National Cyclists Union refused to allow the race to be rerun.[3] According to the Official Report, "the Frenchman apparently won by inches, but the Judge did not officially place the riders.[4]"

Rank Cyclist Nation Time
Victor Johnson  Great Britain NMR
Benjamin Jones  Great Britain
Clarence Kingsbury  Great Britain
Maurice Schilles  France

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Official Report, p. 33.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "Sprint, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  3. ^ Wallechinsky, David (1984). The Complete Book of the Olympics. England: Penguin Books. p. 199. ISBN 978-0140066326.
  4. ^ Cook, p. 116

Sources

[edit]
  • Cook, Theodore Andrea (1908). The Fourth Olympiad, Being the Official Report. London: British Olympic Association.
  • De Wael, Herman. Herman's Full Olympians: "Cycling 1908". Accessed 7 April 2006. Available electronically at [1] Archived 2014-05-05 at the Wayback Machine.