Eugene Ray

Eugen Ray (1977)

Eugen Ray (born July 26, 1957 in Gerbstedt , † January 16, 1986 in Leipzig ) was a track and field athlete and Olympic participant from the GDR who was successful as a 100-meter runner in the late 1970s . His greatest success is winning two silver medals at the 1978 European Championships : in the 100-meter run (10.36 s) and with the GDR's 4 x 100-meter relay (38.78 s, together with Manfred Kokot , Olaf Prenzler and Alexander Thieme ). In 1977, 1978 and 1980 Eugen Ray became East German champion in the 100-meter run.

At the Olympic Games in 1980 he reached fifth place with the 4 x 100 meter relay, in the 100 meter run he was eliminated in the semifinals.

In 1977 he won the 100-meter run of the European Cup final in Helsinki with a new GDR record (10.12 s, August 13, 1977). At the Athletics World Cup in the same year he came second (10.15 s). On August 7, 1977, he set a GDR record in the 200-meter run in Dresden with 20.37 seconds .

In the winter of 1982/1983 he tried unsuccessfully at SG Dynamo Zinnwald in bobsleigh .

Eugen Ray belonged to the SC Chemie Halle . In his playing days he was 1.83 m tall and weighed 86 kg. His second wife Marlies Helbig from the GST Leipzig shooting club was world champion in air rifle shooting in 1982 and 1983.

He first became an electrician and later the main sergeant in the People's Police in Leipzig. He died on duty at the age of 28 after driving a blue light to a scene of an accident in which there was a collision with another vehicle at an intersection.

literature

• Klaus Amrhein: Biographical manual on the history of German athletics 1898–2005 . 2 volumes. Darmstadt 2005 published on German Athletics Promotion and Project Society
• Eugen Ray in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)