New world record set in marathon

Antwerp, 22 Aug 1920 - Hannes Kolehmainen, of Finland, set a new world record time for the marathon, the highlight of the Olympic programme today.

48 men lined up in brightly coloured jerseys on the start line and at precisely 12 minutes past 4 o’clock the pistol fired and off they went. The weather was ideal for a marathon, cool and dull with a slight breeze and Kolehmainen completed the 42.75km in 2 hours 32 minutes 35.8 seconds.

Left: Winner of the gold medal Hannes Kolehmainen. Right: the US team that one the men's 4x100 relay final (Images: Illustrated London News, 28 August 1920)

Another world record was broken today, in the men's 4x100 metre final. The U.S. team – comprising Jackson Scholz, Loren Murchison, Morris Kirksey, and Charley Paddock, who won the individual event – took the gold, with a time of 42.2 seconds, beating the previous record by one tenth of a second.

Another feature of this afternoon's activities was a demonstration game of korfball by two young Dutch teams, one from Amsterdam and one from South Holland. The teams barely arrived on time, as their driver initially took them to a fairground in the city called 'The Olympic Games', but fortunately they arrived with 10 minutes to spare. The game bears similarities to basketball and netball and teams are mixed, consisting of six men and six women.

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]