1896 Olympics

[OliDegu2008]

France's Eugene-Henri Gravelotte takes gold in the Men's foil in fencing

Fencing Men's foil - The first event of Tuesday, the Men's foil event in fencing commenced at 10 a.m. and featured eight competitors, three from France and five from Greece.

Format - The event featured two pools of four fencers each, with each pool fencing a round-robin.

The winner of each pool advanced to the final, which was a single bout between the fencers.

Standard foil rules were used, including that touches had to be made with the tip of the foil, the target area was limited to the torso, and priority determined the winner of double touches. One unusual rule was that the president could award a touch for an off-target strike if the defender had improperly obscured the target area.

Results - Pool A saw Greece's Perikles Pierrakos-Mavromichalis complete a perfect 3-0 record in pool play, defeating his competitors 3-1, 3-1 and then 3-2 to advance to the final bout.

Pool B needed extra bouts to decide who would move on and be declared the winner of the pool as three fencers, Eugene-Henri Gravelotte, Athanasios Vouros and Konstantinos Komninos-Miliotis all finished with a 2-1 record with 8 touches for and 6 touches against.

The extra bout round was drawn randomly and heavily favored Gravelotte who drew the 0-3 Georgios Balakakis.

Gravelotte dispatched of Balakakis 3-0 and moved onto the final game against Mavromichalis just barely as Athanasios Vouros surrendered a touch against in his bout against Konstantinos Komninos-Miliotis.

In the final Eugene-Henri Gravelotte took down Perikle Pierrakos-Mavromichalis with ease 3-1 and become the first ever Olympic Men's Foil gold medalist.

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Next up: April 7 continues with fencing with the Men's masters foil competition

[OliDegu2008]

Joanni Perronet grabs gold in Men's fencing masters foil

Men's masters foil - The Men's masters foil in fencing was the only event at the Olympic Games for professional athletes and was held immediately following the amateur competition.

It consisted of a single match, between Leonidas Pyrgos of Greece and Joanni Perronet of France.

Format - With only two fencers, the competition consisted of a single bout. The bout was to three touches.

Standard foil rules were used, including that touches had to be made with the tip of the foil, the target area was limited to the torso.

Results - In a very brief event, France's Joanni Perronet defeated Greece's Leonidas Pyrgos 3-2 to win the gold, leaving Pyrgos with the silver.

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Next up: We continue on into the afternoon of April 7 with the heats for the Men's 110 metres hurdles event.

[OliDegu2008]

Goulding, Curtis top the field in the Men's 110 metres hurdles heats

Men's 110 metres hurdles - The Men's 110 metres hurdles semifinal heats were held at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Panathinaiko Stadium.

Format - The two heats consisted of four runners and the top two finishers of each heat advanced to the final which will be held April 10.

Results - In the first heat, Grantley Goulding ran an outstanding 17.80 (Olympic Record) advancing easily to the final. Also advancing was Frantz Reichel of France.

The second heat saw the United States Thomas Curtis cross the line first followed by Germany's Kurt Doerry.

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Next up: The Men's long jump competition.

[OliDegu2008]

Ellery Clark tops James Connolly by 2 inches to win gold in Men's long jump

Men's long jump - The Men's long jump competition started immediately after the heats of Men's 110 metres hurdles in the Panathinaiko Stadium.

There are several discrepancies about the number of jumpers in the competition. There were eight jumpers from five nations that have recorded results that have been upheld through history.

Format - There was a single round of jumping with each athlete making three jumps.

Results - The first round of jumping saw American James Connolly top his competitors with a jump that measured 6.08 metres.

The bigger news from the first round of jumping was the withdraw of medal favorite Robert Garrett due to a shoulder injury. Garrett exited the field and sought treatment right away after experiencing discomfort during a practice throw.

The second round of jumps yet again saw Connolly nail the top distance as the rest of the field posted very short jumps.

On the third round of jumping Ellery Clark boosted himself into the gold medal position with a recorded distance of 6.28 metres. The only jumper who could realistically top him was fellow American James Connolly.

However, Connolly never got the chance as he fouled on his final attempt, losing out to Clark by a mere three inches for the gold medal.

France's Alexandre Tufferi took home bronze with a personal best jump of 5.95 metres.

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Next up: The final of the Men's 400 metres.

[OliDegu2008]

American Thomas Burke is crowned the 400 metre champion

Men's 400 metres final - The final saw two Americans, Thomas Burke and Herbert Jamison line up alongside Englishman Charles Gmelin and German Fritz Hofmann.

Jamison and Hofmann qualified via Heat 1 while Burke and Gmelin punched their tickets by being the fastest in Heat 2.

Results - No surprise here as Thomas Burke won by a decent margin over rival countryman Herbert Jamison. The two Americans were nearly two seconds faster than Charles Gmelin and Fritz Hofmann.

Gmelin just managed to cross the finish line before Hofmann to give Great Britain its first medal ever.

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Next up: The Men's shot put competition.

[OliDegu2008]

Robert Garrett secures gold for the USA in Men's shot put

Men's shot put - The Men's shot put or more commonly known (in 1896) as the Men's putting the weight competition took place at 3:40 p.m. Tuesday afternoon in the Panathinaiko Stadium.

According to history, fifteen athletes entered and seven started but there's only true registered data for five throwers during the competition. The world recorder holder at the time George Gray of Canada and the best thrower of 1896, Irishman Denis Horgan did not participate.

Format - There is a single round of throwing with each thrower receiving three throws and the top four after that receiving three more throws. The athlete that achieves the farthest distance thrown will be crowned Olympic Champion.

Results - American Robert Garrett secured the gold medal with a distance of 11.16 metres on his fifth throw.

Finishing a close second to Garrett was Miltiadis Gouskos of Greece who registered a throw of 11.02 metres, also on his fifth throw.

Another Greek, Georgios Papasideris won the bronze medal with a throw of 10.43 metres on his third throw of the competition.

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Next up: The Men's 1500 metres.

[OliDegu2008]

Edwin Flack narrowly edges Arthur Blake in the Men's 1500 metres

Men's 1500 metres - The Men's 1500 metres race was the final athletics competition of Tuesday and took place at 4:30 p.m. in the Panathenaic Stadium.

The front runners coming into the race were France's Albin Lermusiaux, USA's Arthur Blake and Edwin Flack of Australia.

Results - In a very close race, Edwin Flack just edged Arthur Blake by two tenths of a second to win the 1500 metres gold medal.

France's Albin Lermusiaux finished third and won the bronze, finishing more than a second behind Flack and Blake. Lermusiaux just beat out Greece's Dimitrios Tomprof for the final medal spot.

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Next up: The Men's two hand lift weightlifting competition.

[OliDegu2008]

Denmark's Viggo Jenson wins gold in weightlifting - Men's two hand lift

Men's two hand lift - The Men's two hand lift started at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon at the Panathinaiko Stadium.

Six athletes took part in the competition with Denmark's Viggo Jensen and Great Britain's Launceston Elliott the favorites for gold.

Format - Single round of lifts with each lifter receiving three lifts and the top three after that receiving three more lifts.

The type of lift used is similar to the modern day clean and jerk, using a barbell.

Ties were to be broken by judging the style of the lift.

Results - As anticipated it was a fight for the gold and silver medals between Viggo Jensen and Launceston Elliot. Jensen edged out the Englishman by a lift of 4 kilograms to win the gold medal.

Jensen's best lift was 117 kg while Elliot's was 113 kg.

Oddly enough the bronze medalist, Georgios Papasideris from Greece was not able to have a recorded throw in the final three after he exited the grounds with a serious injury after his third throw.

Papasideris was able to still advance to the final three because of his second lift of 99 kg.

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Next up: The final event of Tuesday, the Men's one handed weightlifting competition.