This Day in Track & Field-July 19, Michel Théato wins Paris Olympic Marathon (1900), by Walt Murphy News and Results Service

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This Day in Track & Field–July 19

1900— Michel Théato (2:59:45), a native of Luxembourg who was representing France, used his knowledge of the city’s streets gained while working as a baker’s delivery boy to help him win the Marathon at the Paris Olympics. Silver and bronze went to France’s Émile Champion (3:04:17) and Sweden’s Ernst Fast (3:37:14/took a wrong turn). Because some of Théato’s competitors accused him of taking shortcuts along the course, it wasn’t until 1912, after the allegations were disproved, that he finally received his gold medal.

With temperatures reaching 100 degrees (39c), only 6 of the 13 entries finished the race.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Théato

https://www.olympedia.org/results/56066

1953—The Soviet Union’s Leonid Shcherbakov set a World Record of 53-3 (16.23) in the Triple Jump in Moscow.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_jump_world_record_progression

1957–Only three years earlier, Roger Bannister became the first man in history to break four-minutes for the Mile. In this race in London’s White City Stadium, a planned world-record attempt, four men broke the once-impenetrable barrier, led by Great Britain’s Derek Ibbotson, who broke John Landy’s mark of 3:58.0 with his winning time of 3:57.2. Ibbotson, the 1956 Olympic bronze medalist at 5000-meters, was followed across the line by Ireland’s Ron Delany (3:58.8), the gold medalist in the 1500-meters at the Melbourne Olympics, Czech Stanislav Jungwirth (3:59.1), who had set a great World Record of 3:38.1 for 1500-meters just a week earlier, and Brit Ken Wood (3:59.3). (In 1955, 3 men-László Tábori, Chris Chataway and Brian Hewson-had broken 4-minutes on this same track).

            At Ibbotson’s request, fellow Brit Ken Blagrove set a fast pace, running splits of 55.3 and 1:55.8, with Jungwirth and Ibbotson following close behind. After Blagrove dropped out, Jungwirth…