Athletics at the 1908 Summer Olympics – Men's 3 miles team race


The men's 3 miles team race was a unique event featured only at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London. In the team race, each competing nation sent five athletes. For each heat, the top three athletes from each nation had their placings counted as part of the team score, though good performances by the other two could also help the team by worsening the scores of other teams. Team scores were arrived at by adding the rankings of the top three runners from the team, with low scores being desirable. Thus, a team that took the first three places in a heat would receive 1+2+3=6 points, the best possible score.

Results

First round

There were two heats in the first round, with three teams competing in each. The top two teams from each heat advanced to the final.

Heat 1

The four British athletes finished the race hand-in-hand; official reports give them a joint first place in the heat though assigning points to the team as if they had placed first through fourth. Thus, Great Britain received 1+2+3=6 points. Neither Italy nor the Netherlands had three men finish the race, and thus they had no score and were unable to advance to the final.
; Individual standings
RankNameNationTimePoints
1William Coales15:05.61
1Joe Deakin15:05.62
1Archie Robertson15:05.63
1Harold A. Wilson15:05.6
5Pericle Pagliani15:22.65
6Massimo Cartasegna16:26.06
7Arie Vosbergen17:15.87
8Willem Wakker17:46.48
Wilhelmus Braams
Dorando Pietri
Emilio Giovanoli
Norman Hallows
Emilio Lunghi

; Team standings

Heat 2

The United States team finished with 10 points, France had 15, and Sweden had 21. The top six runners finished in proximity, but the fact that three of the runners were American ensured the top spot to the United States.
; Individual standings
RankNameNationTimePoints
1Jean Bouin14:53.01
2John Eisele14:55.02
3Herbert Trube14:55.03
4Louis Bonniot de Fleurac14:56.04
5George Bonhag14:56.45
6John Svanberg14:57.06
7Georg Peterson15:14.47
8Edward Dahl15:21.08
9Axel Wiegandt15:33.0
10Joseph Dréher15:37.210
11Gayle Dull15:37.4
12Seth Landqvist15:46.4
13Alexandre Fayollat15:52.2
14Paul Lizandier15:56.6
Harvey Cohn

; Team standings

Final

; Individual standings
RankNameNationTimePoints
1Joe Deakin14:39.61
2Archie Robertson14:41.02
3William Coales14:41.63
4John Eisele14:41.84
5Harold A. Wilson14:57.0
6George Bonhag15:05.06
7Norman Hallows15:08.0
8Louis Bonniot de Fleurac15:08.48
9Herb Trube15:11.09
10Gayle Dull15:27.0
11Joseph Dréher15:40.011
12Harvey Cohn15:40.2
13Paul Lizandier16:03.013
Jean Bouin
Alexandre Fayollat

; Team standings