 In the extremely hot and demanding conditions, more than half of the participants failed to finish, including Sipilä and two other members of the Finnish team, Berg and Eino Rastas; Finland only barely got a valid team result, even though its stars Paavo Nurmi and Ritola placed a clear first and second.Sipilä was in fourth place in the 6.2 km intermediate standings, ahead of eventual individual bronze medalist Earl Johnson of the United States, but had to drop out shortly after that point.In 1925 Sipilä broke the world record at the unusual distance of 20,000 metres, running 1