Eef Kamerbeek

Eef Kamerbeek, 1964

Evert "Eef" Kamerbeek (born March 17, 1934 in Eindhoven , † August 26, 2008 in Waalre ) was a Dutch athlete who was 1960 Sportsman of the Year in the Netherlands .

Career

Eef's father, Henk Kamerbeek , took part in the Olympic Games in 1924 and 1928 as a hammer thrower and was then chairman of PSV Eindhoven . Eef Kamerbeek was one of the best Dutch athletes even as a teenager. In 1954 he won his first Dutch championship title in the decathlon, by 1964 he won this title eleven times in a row. He set a total of 23 national records in the Netherlands, his last decathlon record of 7,724 points, set in 1962, 7500 points according to today's scoring, was surpassed in 1976, and his national record in the 100-meter hurdles of 14.2 seconds, which he set in 1963, was held until 1970.

In 1956 Kamerbeek traveled to Melbourne to take part in the 1956 Olympic Games . It was only in Melbourne that he learned that the Netherlands had canceled its participation because of the invasion of Hungary by the Soviet Union after the Hungarian uprising . Two years later at the European Championships in 1958 , he finished sixth in the decathlon. Over the 110-meter hurdle distance, he was eliminated in the intermediate run.

At the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960 , the Netherlands team won one silver medal and two bronze medals, all of which were won by the swimmers. Eef Kamerbeek took fifth place in the decathlon with 7236 points and was 573 points behind third-placed Vasily Kuznetsov from the Soviet Union and over 1000 points behind the first two. Nevertheless, the Dutch sports press voted him athlete of the year, even though the speed skater Jan Pesman and the swimmer Wieger Mensonides had won Olympic bronze medals.

At the European Championships in Belgrade in 1962 , Kamerbeek achieved the highest number of points of his career with 7724 points, he finished fourth, 111 points behind the German Manfred Bock in third place. Kamerbeek began his last major decathlon at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, but broke off the competition after the first day due to back problems.

Kamerbeek worked in various functions for the Philips group and was temporarily responsible for the athletics department at PSV Eindhoven.

With a height of 1.89 meters, his competition weight was 91 kilograms.

Championship title

• 110-meter hurdles: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964
• 200-meter hurdles: 1961, 1962
• Discus throw: 1967
• Javelin throw: 1962
• Decathlon: 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964

literature

• Peter Matthews (Ed.): Athletics 2009. SportsBooks, Cheltenham 2009, ISBN 978-1-899807-78-9 (obituary page 103f.).

Web links

Commons : Eef Kamerbeek  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Eef Kamerbeek in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )