Athletics at the 1930 British Empire Games

The now-modernised Civic Stadium in Hamilton

At the 1930 British Empire Games, the athletics events were held at the Civic Stadium in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The programme featured 21 men's events, with all measurements being done in imperial units.

England came away with the most medals in the athletics competition, winning nine gold medals and twenty-five medals overall. The hosts, Canada, were the next most successful and won 19 medals altogether, six of which were gold. South Africa were the other nation to take away a large athletics medal haul, having three golds and ten medals in total. Eight nations featured on the medal tally at the first British Empire Games.

South African Harry Hart was highly successful in the throwing events and he came away from the games as the champion in the shot put and discus throw, as well as being the javelin throw bronze medallist. David Burghley took a hurdles double for England, winning both the 110-yard and 440-yard races. Reg Thomas won the mile run and was the 880 yards silver medallist. John Fitzpatrick of Canada won a medal of each colour in the sprinting events, winning his gold with the Canadian 4×100 metres relay team. Englishman Reg Revans won silver medals in the horizontal jumps, while Canadian Len Hutton won long jump gold, but only a bronze in the triple jump. Johannes Viljoen of South Africa showed his versatility by winning the high jump and reaching the podium in the long jump as well.

Medal summary

Percy Williams, men's 100 yards champion

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 yards	Percy Williams  Canada	9.9	Ernie Page  England	10.2e	John Fitzpatrick  Canada	10.2e
220 yards	Stanley Engelhart  England	21.8	John Fitzpatrick  Canada		Willie Walters  South Africa
440 yards	Alex Wilson  Canada	48.8	Willie Walters  South Africa	48.9e	George Golding  Australia
880 yards	Tommy Hampson  England	1:52.4	Reg Thomas  England	1:55.5e	Alex Wilson  Canada	1:55.6e
1 mile	Reg Thomas  England	4:14.0	William Whyte  Australia	4:17.0e	Jerry Cornes  England
3 miles	Stan Tomlin  England	14:27.4	Alex Hillhouse  Australia	14:27.6e	Jack Winfield  England	14:29.0e
6 miles	Billy Savidan  New Zealand	30:49.6	Ernie Harper  England	31:01.6e	Tom Evenson  England
Marathon	Dunky Wright  Scotland	2:43:43	Sam Ferris  England	2:47.13e	Johnny Miles  Canada	2:48:23e
2 mile steeplechase	George Bailey  England	9:52.0	Alex Hillhouse  Australia		Vernon Morgan  England
120 yards hurdles	David Burghley  England	14.6	Howard Davies  South Africa	14.7e	Fred Gaby  England
440 yards hurdles	David Burghley  England	54.4	Roger Leigh-Wood  England	55.9e	Douglas Neame  England
High jump	Johannes Viljoen  South Africa	6' 3" (1.905 m)	Colin Gordon  British Guiana	6' 2" (1.88 m)	William Stargratt  Canada	6' 1" (1.855 m)
Pole vault	Victor Pickard  Canada	12' 3" (3.73 m)	Howard Ford  England	12' 3" (3.73 m)	Robert Stoddard  Canada	12' 0" (3.655 m)
Long jump	Len Hutton  Canada	23' 7½" (7.20 m)	Reg Revans  England	22' 6" (6.86 m)	Johannes Viljoen  South Africa	22' 6" (6.86 m)
Triple jump	Gordon Smallacombe  Canada	48' 5" (14.755 m)	Reg Revans  England	46' 10¾" (14.29 m)	Len Hutton  Canada	45' 7¼" (13.90 m)
Shot putt	Harry Hart  South Africa	47' 10" (14.58 m)	Robert Howland  England	44' 2" (13.46 m)	Charles Hermann  Canada	42' 7" (12.98 m)
Discus throw	Harry Hart  South Africa	135' 11" (41.425 m)	Charles Hermann  Canada	135' 3" (41.22 m)	Abe Zvonkin  Canada	135' 1" (41.17 m)
Hammer Throw	Malcolm Nokes  England	154' 7" (47.12 m)	Bill Britton  Ireland	153' 10" (46.89 m)	John Cameron  Canada	145' 10" (44.45 m)
Javelin throw	Stan Lay  New Zealand	207' 1½" (63.13 m)	Doral Pilling  Canada	183' 6" (55.93 m)	Harry Hart  South Africa	174' 7" (53.21 m)
4x110 yards relay	Canada (CAN) Jim Brown John Fitzpatrick Leigh Miller Ralph Adams	42.2	England (ENG) James Cohen John Heap John Hanlon Stanley Engelhart	42.7e	South Africa (SAF) Howard Davies Werner Gerhardt Wilfred Legg Willie Walters
4x440 yards relay	England (ENG) David Burghley Stuart Townend Kenneth Brangwin Roger Leigh-Wood	3:19.4	Canada (CAN) Alex Wilson Art Scott Jimmy Ball Stanley Glover	3:19.8e	South Africa (SAF) John Chandler Werner Gerhardt Wilfred Legg Willie Walters

Medal table

Key

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	England	9	10	6	25
2	Canada	6	4	9	19
3	South Africa	3	2	5	10
4	New Zealand	2	0	0	2
5	Scotland	1	0	0	1
6	Australia	0	3	1	4
7=	British Guiana	0	1	0	1
7=	Ireland	0	1	0	1
Total		21	21	21	63

References

• Commonwealth Games Medalists (Men). GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2010-07-21.

Athletics at the Commonwealth Games
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Commonwealth Games records