Marathon, Men1

For the first time since 1908, the Olympic marathon was held over the 42.195 km. distance which would become the marathon standard. The course began and ended in the Colombes Stadium and run over an out-and-back course into the French country to the northwest of Paris. The defending champion, Hannes Kolehmainen, competed in 1924, although he had not run any of the Finnish trial races. The Finnish Olympic trial was won by Willie Kyrönen with Albin Stenroos second. Also highly considered was the British runner, Duncan Wright. The top American runner was probably Clarence DeMar who had run in the 1912 Olympic marathon, and would eventually win seven Boston marathons.

The race started at 5:23 PM, delayed for two hours because the officials were concerned about the heat that had so affected the cross-country race the previous day. The early lead was taken by Greece’s Alexandros Kranis, but France’s Georges Verger took over the lead at about 20 km. But just before the turnaround, Stenroos took the lead from Verger and powered ahead to an easy victory, winning by almost six minutes. By 27 km. a small pack of DeMar, Finland’s Lauri Halonen, and Italy’s Romeo Bertini had settled into the race for the other medals. Bertini won the silver medal, a minute of DeMar who took the bronze.