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.
Records This was the Olympic debut of this event. The world record for the 3 miles individual event at the time was 14:17 .
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
Rank Name Nation Time Points 1 William Coales 15:05.6 1 Joe Deakin 15:05.6 2 Archie Robertson 15:05.6 3 Harold A. Wilson 15:05.6 5 Pericle Pagliani 15:22.6 5 6 Massimo Cartasegna 16:26.0 6 7 Arie Vosbergen 17:15.8 7 8 Willem Wakker 17:46.4 8 Wilhelmus Braams Dorando Pietri Emilio Giovanoli Norman Hallows Emilio Lunghi
Team standings
Rank Nation Athletes Score Notes Ind. Team 1 William Coales 1 6 Joe Deakin 2 Archie Robertson 3 Pericle Pagliani 5 Massimo Cartasegna 6 No third finisher Arie Vosbergen 7 Willem Wakker 8 No third finisher
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
Rank Name Nation Time Points 1 Jean Bouin 14:53.0 1 2 John Eisele 14:55.0 2 3 Herbert Trube 14:55.0 3 4 Louis Bonniot de Fleurac 14:56.0 4 5 George Bonhag 14:56.4 5 6 John Svanberg 14:57.0 6 7 Georg Peterson 15:14.4 7 8 Edward Dahl 15:21.0 8 9 Axel Wiegandt 15:33.0 10 Joseph Dréher 15:37.2 10 11 Gayle Dull 15:37.4 12 Seth Landqvist 15:46.4 13 Alexandre Fayollat 15:52.2 14 Paul Lizandier 15:56.6 Harvey Cohn
Team standings
Rank Nation Athletes Score Notes Ind. Team 1 John Eisele 2 10 Herbert Trube 3 George Bonhag 5 2 Jean Bouin 1 15 Louis Bonniot de Fleurac 4 Joseph Dréher 10 3 John Svanberg 6 21 Georg Peterson 7 Edward Dahl 8
Final
Individual standings
Rank Name Nation Time Points 1 Joe Deakin 14:39.6 1 2 Arthur Robertson 14:41.0 2 3 William Coales 14:41.6 3 4 John Eisele 14:41.8 4 5 Harold A. Wilson 14:57.0 6 George Bonhag 15:05.0 6 7 Norman Hallows 15:08.0 8 Louis Bonniot de Fleurac 15:08.4 8 9 Herbert Trube 15:11.0 9 10 Gayle Dull 15:27.0 11 Joseph Dréher 15:40.0 11 12 Harvey Cohn 15:40.2 13 Paul Lizandier 16:03.0 13 Jean Bouin Alexandre Fayollat
Team standings
Rank Nation Athletes Score Ind. Team Joe Deakin 1 6 Arthur Robertson 2 William Coales 3 John Eisele 4 19 George Bonhag 6 Herbert Trube 9 Louis Bonniot de Fleurac 8 32 Joseph Dréher 11 Paul Lizandier 13
References