5 miles, Men

Only twice has a 5-mile race been contested at the Olympics, in 1906 and 1908. The world record for this distance was 24:33.4, set by Britain’s Alfred Shrubb in London on 12 May 1904. Shrubb was the greatest long distance runner in the world but had since turned professional and could not compete at the 1908 Olympics. The Olympic record had been set in 1906 at Athens by another British runner, Henry Hawtrey, who had recorded 26:11.8 on the tight Athens track. With Shrubb not eligible no real favorite existed. America had no top distance runners, and Britain had failed to produce a dominant distance man to replace Shrubb.

Eddie Owen (GBR), Charles Hefferon (RSA), who was later to finish second in the marathon, and John Svanberg (SWE) shared the early lead but 700 yards from home, Emil Voigt made his move and left the pack to win by 70 yards, although his winning time was almost 40 seconds outside Shrubb’s world record. The splits and leaders were as follows: 1 mile - 4:26.2 [Owen]; 2 miles - 9:54.2 [Hefferon]; 3 miles - 15:05,6 [Hefferon]; 4 miles - 20:19.2 [Svanberg].

Four athletes who had competed in the final of the 3-mile Team Race also started in the heats of the 5 miles which began less than three hours after the team race final. Joe Deakin and William Coales (both GBR) and Herb Trube (USA) failed to finish in the heats but Arthur Robertson (GBR), who had individually finished 2nd in the team race final, won his heat in the 5 miles and then finished 5th in the final three days later.

Emil Voigt had won the AAA title at 4 miles only ten days before the Olympics. He repeated as AAA champion in 1909 and then won the one mile race in 1910 before retiring from competition. He claimed his athletic success was due to his vegetarianism.