Adolf Gruber

Adolf Gruber
Pawson (2), Kantorek (1) and Gruber (3), Enschede Marathon (1959)
nation	Austria
birthday	May 15, 1920
place of birth	Vienna, Austria
date of death	January 7, 1994
Place of death	Vienna, Austria
Career
discipline	Long distance running
society	LCC Vienna
End of career	1965

Adolf "Dolfi" Gruber (born May 15, 1920 in Vienna ; † January 7, 1994 there ) was an Austrian long-distance runner .

After graduating from hotel management school, he was drafted into World War II. On the Russian front, he was seriously wounded in the left upper arm by machine gun fire. Originally a cyclist, he switched to running after the war due to the long-term effects of this injury.

From 1952 to 1963 he was Austrian marathon champion twelve times in a row , he also won eight national titles in the 25 km road race (1953, 1955–1958, 1960, 1961, 1965), two over 5000 m (1956, 1957), five over 10,000 m (1956, 1957, 1959, 1961, 1962) and two in the 3000 meter obstacle course (1958, 1959).

In 1952 he came in 39th place in the marathon of the Olympic Games in Helsinki and was seventh in the Košice marathon . A fifth place in the Enschede Marathon in 1953 was followed by a 16th place in the marathon of the European Athletics Championships in 1954 in Bern. In Košice he set an Austrian record in seventh place with 2:33:41 h. The following year he improved this mark to 2:31:45 h as eighth in Košice.

In 1956, two more records followed: in a run in Vienna on May 20, he achieved a time of 2:25:18 hours, four weeks later he was sixth in the Polytechnic Marathon in 2:24:48 hours. At the marathon of the Olympic Games in Melbourne he ran in 23rd place.

In 1958 he won the Paderborn Easter run over 30 km. As second in the Polytechnic Marathon, he set his fifth national record over the 42.195 km distance: 2:23:30 h. At the marathon of the European Championships in Stockholm he finished 16th, in Košice he was eighth. A third place in Enschede in 1959 was followed by victory at the International Friendship Marathon in Szeged in 1960 , a 52nd place at the Olympic Games in Rome and a fifth place in Košice.

In 1961 he was eighth in the Boston Marathon and sixth in Enschede. In 1963 he won four marathons in the United States, twice with times under 2:30 hours (on July 4th in Bridgeport with 2:27:15 hours and on November 3 in Atlantic City with 2:27:59 hours) . His winning time at the Shanahan Catholic Club Marathon in Philadelphia in early 1964 (2:20:06 h) was just as little recognized by the Austrian federation as the 2:13:56 h in the open race that was clearly too short (40.6 km) Belgian championship in June, and so he was denied a fourth participation in the Olympics.

After the end of his active career, Gruber tried to work as a tobacconist in 1965 , but soon failed because he could not hide his displeasure with his customers' tobacco smoking habit . He then followed up on the profession he had learned after the war as a state-certified sports teacher and worked as a fitness advisor and trainer . In 1977 he was one of the co-founders of the LCC Vienna . His tireless efforts to recruit running talent for his club and to provide advice to the recreational runners who cavort on the main avenue of the Prater earned him the reputation of a Viennese original . His grave is at the Hernalser Friedhof (group 58, row 8, number 6).

Grave of Adolf Gruber

In the Vienna district of Donaustadt , the Dolfi-Gruber-Weg in Kagran was named after him in 1995.

Personal bests

• 5000 m: 15: 06.0 min, August 3, 1956, Vienna
• 10,000 m: 31: 48.2 min, August 2, 1957, Leoben
• 25 km road race: 1:24:30 h, May 8, 1960, Mattersburg
• Marathon: 2:23:30 h, June 27, 1958, Chiswick
• 3000 m obstacle: 9: 32.0 min, July 24, 1959, Feldkirch-Gisingen

literature

• Heiner Boberski : The Marathon Myth. Fates - Legends - Highlights. 2500 years of long-distance running. NP-Buchverlag, St. Pölten 2004, ISBN 3-85326-235-X , p. 87 f.

Web links

• Adolf Gruber in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Athlete portrait at the ÖLV
• Running legend Adolf Gruber , short biography on MaxFun.cc, June 2, 2009