Athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics – Men's 800 metres
| Men's 800 metres at the Games of the V Olympiad
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The finish with Ted Meredith setting a new world record.
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| Venue | |||||||||||||
| Dates | July 6 (heats) July 7 (semifinals) July 8 (final) |
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| Competitors | 48 from 16 nations | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
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Ted Meredith |
 United States
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Mel Sheppard |
United States
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Ira Davenport |
United States
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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.
These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1912 Summer Olympics.
(*) 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.
All heats were held on Saturday, July 6, 1912.
Heat 1
Heat 2
Heat 3
Heat 4
Heat 5
Heat 6
Heat 7
Heat 8
Heat 9
Both semi-finals were held on Sunday, July 7, 1912.
Semifinal 1
Semifinal 2
The final took place on Monday, July 8, 1912.
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Wikipedia