Athletics at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon

Men's marathon at the Games of the XIV Olympiad
Venue	Start and finish at Wembley Stadium
Dates	August 7
Competitors	41 from 21 nations
Winning time	2:34:51.6
Medalists
Delfo Cabrera Argentina   Tom Richards Great Britain   Étienne Gailly Belgium

Official Video Highlights

Athletics at the 1948 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men
800 m		men
1500 m		men
5000 m		men
10,000 m		men
80 m hurdles				women
110 m hurdles		men
400 m hurdles		men
3000 m steeplechase		men
4×100 m relay		men		women
4×400 m relay		men
Road events
Marathon		men
10 km walk		men
50 km walk		men
Field events
Long jump		men		women
Triple jump		men
High jump		men		women
Pole vault		men
Shot put		men		women
Discus throw		men		women
Javelin throw		men		women
Hammer throw		men
Combined events
Decathlon		men

The men's marathon event at the 1948 Summer Olympic Games took place August 7. The final was won by Delfo Cabrera. Reminiscent of Dorando Pietri's final-lap ordeal when the Olympics were held in the same city 40 years earlier, Belgian Etienne Gailly entered the London stadium in first place, but was exhausted and running very slowly. He was passed first by Cabrera, then by Briton Tom Richards, but managed to hold on for the bronze medal. South African Johannes Coleman, who finished 4th in this race, had placed 6th in the last Olympic marathon in Berlin twelve years earlier.

Records

Prior to this event, the existing Olympic record stood as follows.

Olympic record

Son Kitei (JPN)

2:29:19.2

Berlin, Germany

9 August 1936

Schedule

All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1)

Date	Time	Round
Saturday, 7 August 1948	15:00	Final

Results

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Delfo Cabrera	Argentina	2:34:51.6
	Tom Richards	Great Britain	2:35:07.6
	Étienne Gailly	Belgium	2:35:33.6
4	Johannes Coleman	South Africa	2:36:06.0
5	Eusebio Guiñez	Argentina	2:36:36.0
6	Syd Luyt	South Africa	2:38:11.0
7	Gustav Östling	Sweden	2:38:40.6
8	John Systad	Norway	2:38:41.0
9	Alberto Sensini	Argentina	2:39:30.0
10	Henning Larsen	Denmark	2:41:22.0
11	Viljo Heino	Finland	2:41:32.0
12	Anders Melin	Sweden	2:42:20.0
13	Jussi Kurikkala	Finland	2:42:48.0
14	Ted Vogel	United States	2:45:27.0
15	Enrique Inostroza	Chile	2:47:48.0
16	Lloyd Evans	Canada	2:48:07.0
17	Gérard Côté	Canada	2:48:31.0
18	Stylianos Kyriakides	Greece	2:49:00.0
19	József Kiss	Hungary	2:50:20.0
20	Şevki Koru	Turkey	2:51:07.0
21	Johnny Kelley	United States	2:51:56.0
22	Kaspar Schiesser	Switzerland	2:52:09.0
23	Walter Fedorick	Canada	2:52:12.0
24	Ollie Manninen	United States	2:56:49.0
25	Hong Jong-O	South Korea	2:56:54.0
26	Paddy Mulvihill	Ireland	2:57:35.0
27	Suh Yun-Bok	South Korea	2:59:36.0
28	Sven Håkansson	Sweden	3:00:09.0
29	Jakob Jutz	Switzerland	3:03:55.0
30	Stan Jones	Great Britain	3:09:16.0
	Salvatore Constantino	Italy		DNF
	Pierre Cousin	France		DNF
	Hans Frischknecht	Switzerland		DNF
	Mikko Hietanen	Finland		DNF
	Jack Holden	Great Britain		DNF
	René Josset	France		DNF
	Luo Wenao	China		DNF
	Arsène Piesset	France		DNF
	Athanasios Ragazos	Greece		DNF
	Chhota Singh	India		DNF
	Choi Yun-Chil	South Korea		DNF

Key: DNF = Did not finish

External links

• 1948 Summer Olympics results: Men's marathon, from http://www.sports-reference.com/; retrieved 2010-09-05.
• Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad, The (1948). The Official Report of the Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad. LA84 Foundation. Retrieved 7 September 2016.