Anatoly Kurjan

Anatoli Kurjan (born February 11, 1942 in Irkutsk ) is a former track and field athlete who competed for the Soviet Union. In 1966 he came second at the European Championships in the 3000 meter obstacle course .

Kurjan finished in 1966 in the Soviet championship in 8: 31.6 minutes in second place behind Viktor Kudinski . At the European Championships in Budapest in 1966 , Kurjan was fourth in his preliminary run in 8: 49.6 minutes and qualified for the final. The Belgian favorite Gaston Roelants had improved the world record to 8: 26.4 minutes in 1965 and had not lost an obstacle final since 1961. In the final in Budapest, Roelants took the lead after two laps and quickly got a lead over the other runners. At the beginning of the last lap, Roelants was still in the lead, Kudinski and Kurjan tried to close the gap. Kudinski passed Roelants at the last moat and Kurjan was able to overtake Roelants just before the finish. Kudinski won in 8: 26.6 minutes, the second fastest time ever, Kurjan ran the fastest time of his career in 8: 28.0 minutes and won silver ahead of Roelants. Four national records were improved in places 4 to 7.

In 1967 Kurjan won the European Athletics Cup in 8: 38.8 minutes . The following year he finished fourth in the Soviet championship in 8: 55.8 minutes and could not qualify for the Olympic Games. With a height of 1.69 meters, his competition weight was 58 kilograms.

literature

• ATFS (ed): USSR Athletics Statistics . London 1988
• Report in the professional journal Leichtathletik (BRD) from 1966, reprinted in Klaus Amrhein / Axel Schäfer: 60 years of the European Athletics Championships 1998 Groß-Zimmer / Bochum