Marathon, Men

For the first time in several years, the Olympic marathon had a favorite in the person of Britain’s Jim Peters. Peters had run the 10K at the London Olympics but had since turned to the marathon. He had won the 1951 Polytechnic race in 2-29:24 and in June 1952, he ran the Windsor-to-Chiswick marathon, the British trial race, in 2-20:42.2, shattering the world record. In Helsinki he faced a straight out-and-back course, starting and finishing at the Olympic Stadium.

The race started at 3:28 PM on a fairly cool day. In the race, making his marathon début, was Czechoslovakian Emil Zátopek. Zátopek had been the star of the Helsinki Olympics, winning the 5,000 and 10K on the track. He had also won the 10K at the 1948 Olympics. Although he had never run the marathon before, his presence was auspicious. As the race started, Peters took the field thru a suicidal pace for 5 km. Zátopek stayed back. Peters led thru 20 km. when he was caught by Zátopek and Sweden’s Gustaf Jansson. At just after two hours, Peters had to withdraw with a muscle cramp. Zátopek never looked back and gradually pulled away from Jansson to the finish, completing his remarkable distance Triple Crown with a margin of 2½ minutes. Argentina’s Reinaldo Gorno passed Jansson at about 39 km. and won the silver medal, with Jansson third.