Emiel Puttemans

Puttemans (center) wins 1974 in an international match against the Netherlands and Germany B.

Emiel Adrien "Miel" Puttemans (born October 8, 1947 in Vossem ) is a former Belgian long-distance runner , world record holder and Olympic runner-up .

Start of career

At the age of 21, Emiel Puttemans was in an Olympic final for the first time when he was twelfth in the 5,000-meter run at the 1968 Games in Mexico City . At the European Championships in Athens in 1969 , he finished 7th. At the European Championships in Helsinki in 1971 , he finished 6th and was one place ahead of the Finn Lasse Virén . A few days after the European Championships, Puttemans set his first world record when he ran 8: 17.8 minutes over the distance of 2 miles. Puttemans belonged to Edmond Vanden Eynde's training group , who trained large volumes, loosened up with driving games . This laid the foundation for many races, which were again used as a training tool as part of the periodization of athletic training . As a trained gardener , he had been employed by the Belgian national administration of canals and waterways since 1965 and was thus able to optimally combine training and work.

The 1972 Olympic year

At the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich , on August 31, he won his preliminary run in the 10,000-meter run with a new Olympic record of 27: 53.4 minutes. The final on September 3, 1972 was won by Lasse Virus who, despite a fall, was able to beat the seven-year-old world record set by Ron Clarke with 27: 38.4 minutes . Puttemans finished second in 27: 39.6 minutes ahead of the Ethiopian Miruts Yifter in 27: 41.0 minutes. This put Puttemans and Yifter behind Viruses and Clarke in 3rd and 4th place on the all-time world best list. On September 7th, Puttemans set another Olympic record with 13: 31.8 minutes in the run-up to the 5000 meters. In the final on September 10th, five runners stayed below this record. While Lasse Virus won, Puttemans was fifth in 13: 30.8 minutes.

Four days after this run, Lasse Virus improved Ronald Clarke's six-year-old world record to 13: 16.4 minutes in Helsinki. On the same day in Arhus, Emiel Puttemans improved the seven-year-old world record over 3000 meters set by Kenyan Kipchoge Keino to 7: 37.6 minutes. On September 20, 1972 in Brussels, Puttemans improved two world records at once when he ran the 5000 meters in 13: 13.0 minutes and on the way improved the world record over 3 miles to 12: 47.8 minutes. The world record over 5000 meters was only to be broken in 1977 by New Zealander Dick Quax .

1973 to 1982

Puttemans started the year 1973 with the establishment of an indoor world record over 2 miles when he ran 8: 13.2 minutes in Berlin; on the way he improved the world best time over 3000 meters to 7: 39.2 min. In 1973 and 1974 Puttemans was the European indoor champion over 3000 meters. In 1975 he won bronze with the Belgian team at the World Cross Country Championships. At the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal , Puttemans gave up in the final of the 10,000 meter run. In 1978 Puttemans won silver again at the European Indoor Championships over 3000 meters. At the 1980 Games in Moscow he was eliminated in the semifinals over 5000 meters. In 1982 Puttemans won the Rome Marathon .

Data

Best times:

• 3000 meters: 7: 37.6 min (1972)
• 5000 meters: 13: 13.0 min (1972)
• 10,000 meters: 27: 39.6 min (1972)
• Marathon: 2:09:53 h (1982)

With a height of 1.71 m, his competition weight was 58 kg.

literature

• Manfred Holzhausen: world records and world record holder - 5,000m run - 10,000m run , Grevenbroich 2000
• Volker Kluge : Summer Olympic Games. The Chronicle III. Mexico City 1968 - Los Angeles 1984. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-328-00741-5 .
• Ekkehard zur Megede: The Modern Olympic Century 1896-1996 Track and Fields Athletics , Berlin 1999, published by the German Society for Athletics Documentation eV

Individual evidence

1. ↑ LP Matwejew: sports periodization. Berlin: Bartels & Wernitz 1972
2. ^ Arnd Krüger (1998). Many roads lead to Olympia. The changes in the training systems for middle and long distance runners (1850-1997), in: N. GISSEL (Hrsg.): Sportliche achievement im Wandel . Hamburg: Czwalina, pp. 41 - 56. ISBN 978-3-88020-322-8 .