Cycling at the 1908 Summer Olympics – Men's 660 yards

The men's 660 yards was one of seven track cycling events on the Cycling at the 1908 Summer Olympics programme. It was the shortest of the events. The 1908 Games was the only time when the 660 yards event was part of the Olympic cycling program. Each nation could enter a maximum of 12 cyclists.

Men's 660 yards at the Games of the IV Olympiad
Venue	White City Stadium
Dates	July 14–15
Competitors	48 from 9 nations
Medalists
Victor Johnson  Great Britain Émile Demangel  France Karl Neumer  Germany

Competition format

The 660 yards race was a sprint-style race that consisted of a single lap around the track. The time limit for the race was 1 minute, 10 seconds. The competition was conducted in three rounds (heats, semifinals, and a final). The first round featured 16 heats, with up to 4 cyclists each. The winning cyclist advanced to the semifinals, provided that the time limit was not exceeded. The semifinal round comprised 4 semifinals, each with 4 cyclists except that 1 was reduced to 3 cyclists because one of the heats had resulted in no winner under the time limit. Again, the winning cyclist in each semifinal advanced to the final.

Results

First round

One cyclist from each of the 16 heats advanced to the semifinal round.

Heat 1

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Benjamin Jones	Great Britain	59.0	Q
2	Dorus Nijland	Netherlands	Unknown

Heat 2

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	William Bailey	Great Britain	50.8	Q
2	Frederick McCarthy	Canada	Unknown
3	Pierre Seginaud	France	Unknown

Heat 3

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Clarence Kingsbury	Great Britain	57.4	Q
2	Rudolf Katzer	Germany	Unknown
3	Georgius Damen	Netherlands	Unknown

Heat 4

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Victor Johnson	Great Britain	56.2	Q
2	Jules Patou	Belgium	Unknown
3	Richard Villepontoux	France	Unknown

Heat 5

The fifth heat was voided due to the two cyclists both exceeding the time limit of 70 seconds.

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
—	Maurice Schilles	France	No time
	Frank Shore	South Africa	No time

Heat 6

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Émile Demangel	France	59.8	Q
2	George Summers	Great Britain	Unknown
3	Andrew Hansson	Sweden	Unknown

Heat 7

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Johannes van Spengen	Netherlands	58.2	Q
2	Hermann Martens	Germany	Unknown
3	Joe Lavery	Great Britain	Unknown

Heat 8

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Walter Andrews	Canada	55.8	Q
2	Joseph Werbrouck	Belgium	Unknown
3	Gaston Delaplane	France	Unknown

Heat 9

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Paul Texier	France	1:01.6	Q
2	Thomas Passmore	South Africa	Unknown

Heat 10

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Floris Venter	South Africa	1:03.2	Q
2	Georges Perrin	France	Unknown
3	Bruno Götze	Germany	Unknown

Heat 11

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Karl Neumer	Germany	54.2	Q
2	Willie Mage	Great Britain	Unknown
3	Émile Maréchal	France	Unknown
4	Antonie Gerrits	Netherlands	Unknown

Heat 12

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Ernest Payne	Great Britain	57.2	Q
2	André Poulain	France	Unknown
3	Jean Van Benthem	Belgium	Unknown

Heat 13

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Daniel Flynn	Great Britain	55.0	Q
2	Gerard Bosch van Drakenstein	Netherlands	Unknown
3	Paul Schulze	Germany	Unknown

Heat 14

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Lucien Renard	Belgium	55.2	Q
2	Gaston Dreyfus	France	Unknown
3	William Morton	Canada	Unknown
4	George Anderson	Great Britain	Unknown

Heat 15

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	George Cameron	United States	1:05.2	Q
2	Léon Coeckelberg	Belgium	Unknown

Heat 16

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	André Auffray	France	58.4	Q
2	Albert Denny	Great Britain	Unknown
3	Philipus Freylinck	South Africa	Unknown

Semifinals

The fastest cyclist in each of the 4 semifinals advanced to the final.

Semifinal 1

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Victor Johnson	Great Britain	59.2	Q
2	Johannes van Spengen	Netherlands	Unknown
3	Paul Texier	France	Unknown
4	Walter Andrews	Canada	Unknown

Semifinal 2

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Émile Demangel	France	51.6	Q
2	Clarence Kingsbury	Great Britain	Unknown
3	William Bailey	Great Britain	Unknown
4	Floris Venter	South Africa	Unknown

Semifinal 3

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Daniel Flynn	Great Britain	54.8	Q
2	André Auffray	France	Unknown
3	George Cameron	United States	Unknown
4	Ernest Payne	Great Britain	Unknown

Semifinal 4

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Karl Neumer	Germany	1:05.6	Q
2	Lucien Renard	Belgium	Unknown
3	Benjamin Jones	Great Britain	Unknown

Final

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time
	Victor Johnson	Great Britain	51.2
	Émile Demangel	France	Unknown
	Karl Neumer	Germany	Unknown
4	Daniel Flynn	Great Britain	Unknown

Sources

• Cook, Theodore Andrea (1908). The Fourth Olympiad, Being the Official Report. London: British Olympic Association.
• De Wael, Herman. Herman's Full Olympians: "Cycling 1908". Accessed 7 April 2006. Available electronically at [1] Archived 2014-05-05 at the Wayback Machine.