Men's 800 metres at the Games of the V Olympiad
The finish with Ted Meredith setting a new world record.
Venue	Stockholm Olympic Stadium
Dates	July 6 (heats) July 7 (semifinals) July 8 (final)
Competitors	48 from 16 nations
Medalists
Ted Meredith   United States   Mel Sheppard   United States   Ira Davenport   United States
«1908	1920»

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
10000 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 800 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 from Saturday, July 6, 1912 to Monday, July 8, 1912.

Forty-eight runners from 16 nations competed. Including all three medalists from 1908, Olympic champion Mel Sheppard, the silver medalists Emilio Lunghi, and the bronze medalist Hanns Braun.

Contents 1 Records 2 Results 2.1 Heats 2.2 Semifinals 2.3 Final 3 References

[edit] Records

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

World Record	1:52.8(*)	Mel Sheppard	London (GBR)	July 21, 1908
	1:52.1(**)	Emilio Lunghi	Montreal (CAN)	September 15, 1909
Olympic Record	1:52.8(***)	Mel Sheppard	London (GBR)	July 21, 1908

(*) unofficial

(**) 880 yards (= 804.68 m)

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

The world record of 1:52.8, which had seemed fairly safe through the first two rounds of competition, was broken by all three medalists and tied by the fourth-place runner in the final. Mel Sheppard, the previous record-holder, and Ira Davenport beat the old record by .8 seconds at 1:52.0, taking silver and bronze behind Ted Meredith and his new record of 1:51.9. This record became the first official world record for the 800 metres.

[edit] Results

[edit] Heats

All heats were held on Saturday, July 6, 1912.

Heat 1

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	David Caldwell (USA)	1:58.6	QS
2	Emilio Lunghi (ITA)		QS
3	Walter McClure (USA)
4	Eric Lindholm (SWE)	2:01.5
5	Joseph Caullé (FRA)

Heat 2

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Percy Mann (GBR)	1:56.0	QS
2	Herbert Putnam (USA)		QS
3	Jacob Pedersen (NOR)
4	Leopoldo Palma (CHI)

Heat 3

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	John Paul Jones (USA)	2:01.8	QS
2	Armando Cortesão (POR)		QS
3	Oscar Larsen (NOR)
4	Guido Calvi (ITA)

Heat 4

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Clarence Edmundson (USA)	1:56.5	QS
2	John Tait (CAN)		QS
3	Charles Poulenard (FRA)
4	Richard Jahn (GER)	2:02.0
—	Robert Burton (GBR)	Did not finish

Heat 5

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Ira Davenport (USA)	1:59.0	QS
2	Frederick Hulford (GBR)		QS
3	Ödön Bodor (HUN)
4	Julius Person (GER)
5	Dmitri Nazarov (RUS)
—	Zdeněk Městecký (BOH)	Did not finish
	Philip Baker (GBR)	Did not finish

Heat 6

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Harlan Holden (USA)	1:58.1	QS
2	Evert Björn (SWE)		QS
3	Richard Yorke (GBR)
4	Karl Haglund (SWE)	2:01.2
5-7	Ferenc Forgács (HUN)
	Aleksandr Elizarov (RUS)
	Federico Mueller (CHI)
—	Vahran Papazyan (TUR)	Did not finish

Heat 7

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	James Soutter (GBR)	2:00.4	QS
2	Mel Sheppard (USA)		QS
3	Erich Lehmann (GER)
—	János Antal (HUN)	Did not finish
	Johannes Leopold Villemson (RUS)	Did not start

Heat 8

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	George Brock (CAN)	1:57.0	QS
2	Ted Meredith (USA)		QS
3	John Victor (RSA)
—	Alan Patterson (GBR)	Did not finish

Heat 9

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Ernest Henley (GBR)	1:57.6	QS
2	Hanns Braun (GER)		QS
3	Erik Frisell (SWE)	1:59.2
4	Thomas Halpin (USA)	1:59.2
—	Lauri Pihkala (FIN)	Did not finish
	Károly Radóczy (HUN)	Did not finish

[edit] Semifinals

Both semi-finals were held on Sunday, July 7, 1912.

Semifinal 1

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Ted Meredith (USA)	1:54.4	QF
2	Hanns Braun (GER)	1:54.6	QF
3	Mel Sheppard (USA)	1:54.8	QF
4	Herbert Putnam (USA)	1:55.0	QF
5	John Tait (CAN)
6	Percy Mann (GBR)
—	Frederick Hulford (GBR)	Did not finish
	James Soutter (GBR)	Did not finish
	John Paul Jones (USA)	Did not start

Semifinal 2

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	George Brock (CAN)	1:55.7	QF
2	Clarence Edmundson (USA)	1:55.8	QF
3	David Caldwell (USA)	1:55.9	QF
4	Ira Davenport (USA)	1:55.9	QF
5	Emilio Lunghi (ITA)
6-9	Evert Björn (SWE)
	Ernest Henley (GBR)
	Harlan Holden (USA)
	Armando Cortesão (POR)

[edit] Final

The final took place on Monday, July 8, 1912.

Place	Athlete	Time
1	Ted Meredith (USA)	1:51.9 WR
2	Mel Sheppard (USA)	1:52.0
3	Ira Davenport (USA)	1:52.0
4	David Caldwell (USA)	1:52.8
5	George Brock (CAN)	1:53.0
6	Hanns Braun (GER)	1:53.0
7	Clarence Edmundson (USA)
8	Herbert Putnam (USA)

[edit] References

• sports-reference.com
• Bergvall, Erik (ed.) (1913). Adams-Ray, Edward (trans.).. ed. The Official Report of the Olympic Games of Stockholm 1912. Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand. 
• Wudarski, Pawel (1999). "Wyniki Igrzysk Olimpijskich". http://olympic.w.interia.pl/. Retrieved 27 August 2006.  (Polish)

v • d • e Olympic Champions in Men's 800 m 1896: Edwin Flack · 1900: Alfred Tysoe · 1904: Jim Lightbody · 1906: Paul Pilgrim · 1908: Mel Sheppard · 1912: Ted Meredith · 1920: Albert Hill · 1924: Douglas Lowe · 1928: Douglas Lowe · 1932: Tommy Hampson · 1936: John Woodruff · 1948: Mal Whitfield · 1952: Mal Whitfield · 1956: Tom Courtney · 1960: Peter Snell · 1964: Peter Snell · 1968: Ralph Doubell · 1972: Dave Wottle · 1976: Alberto Juantorena · 1980: Steve Ovett · 1984: Joaquim Cruz · 1988: Paul Ereng · 1992: William Tanui · 1996: Vebjørn Rodal · 2000: Nils Schumann · 2004: Yuriy Borzakovskiy · 2008: Wilfred Bungei