The first round of the competition saw several false starts and disqualifications, partly due to the athletes lack of familiarity with the local starter's orders, which were called in Greek. After the first round this issue was rectified.[1] There was no individual timing for each runner and only the winners of each race had their times recorded. Other athletes were ranked visually and in some instances the remaining distance between an athlete and the one behind him was documented.[2]
Four of the six finalists were Americans and two of them took first and second place – Archie Hahn and Fay Moulton. Australia's Nigel Barker came third. Hahn's win built upon his victory from the 1904 Olympic Games. He is sometimes credited with being the first man to retain the Olympic 100 m, but this is disputed as the Intercalated Games have not received official recognition as part of the Olympic series from the International Olympic Committee. Some sports historians argue that the events should be considered part of the true Olympic series as their success helped sustain the modern Olympic movement – the 1900 Summer Olympics and 1904 Summer Olympics were less international and were largely overshadowed by the World's Fairs that the host cities incorporated the games into.[1][3]
Schedule
Date
Round
Wednesday, 25 April 1906
HeatsSemi-final
Friday, 27 April 1906
Finals
Records
These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1906 Intercalated Games.
Qualification: First 2 in each heat (Q) advance to the semi-finals. There were ten heats: seven of them contained five runners, while the remaining three had two or three entrants.
From the smaller heats, only Fay Moulton (first in the three-man third heat) and Axel Ljung (second in the two-man seventh heat) participated in the semi-final. In heats eight and ten, the second-placed athletes Vincent Duncker and Meyer Prinstein, did not compete in the semi-final.[5]
Qualification: First 2 in each heat (Q) advance to the Final. The semi-finals were divided into three races: heat one with five runners, heat two with three, and heat three with six.[6]
