Frank Baumgartl

Frank Baumgartl (born May 29, 1955 in Schneeberg (Ore Mountains) ; † August 26, 2010 at Lake Como ) was a German athlete who was among the world's top obstacle course athletes in the 1970s . At the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal he started for the GDR and on July 28th came third in the 3,000-meter obstacle course.

In this race he was in a promising position next to the eventual winner Anders Gärderud ( Sweden ) when he fell on the last obstacle. He ran bravely, however, and managed to save the bronze medal. With his time of 8: 10.36 minutes, he even set a GDR record (the German U23 junior record still valid at the end of 2006). Frank Baumgartl is the only German runner besides Alfred Dompert who won a medal at the Olympic Games in the obstacle course .

Besides the Olympic medal, his only international success was the title of Junior European Champion 1973 in the 2000 meter obstacle course (world record in 5: 28.14 min). This time was the still valid German U20 junior record in June 2008.

Frank Baumgartl started for SC Karl-Marx-Stadt and trained with Klaus Kretschmann . At a height of 1.74 m, he had a competition weight of 60 kg.

In 1980 he ended his career as an athlete due to an injury before the Olympic Games . He studied automation technology and received his doctorate in 1989 at the Technical University of Karl-Marx-Stadt on the subject of developing a consulting system for controlling a municipal district heating supply system . He later moved to Baden-Württemberg , where he worked in Stuttgart as a development engineer for vehicle software. On August 26, 2010 he died of a heart failure while cycling on Lake Como.

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