Derek Ibbotson

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Derek Ibbotson medal table

Athletics pictogram.svg athletics

United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom
Olympic rings with white rims.svg Olympic games
bronze 1956 Melbourne 5000 m
AAA Championships
silver 1955 London 3 miles
gold 1956 London 3 miles
gold 1957 London 3 miles
bronze 1962 London 3 miles
gold 1962 Wembley 2 miles (hall)
silver 1963 Wembley 2 miles (hall)
Inter-Counties Championships
gold 1955 London 3 miles
gold 1961 London 3 miles

George Derek Ibbotson MBE (born June 17, 1932 in Huddersfield , Yorkshire , † February 23, 2017 in Wakefield , Yorkshire and the Humber ) was a British athlete who was successful in the late 1950s. He had specialized in the medium and long haul  - 1 mile , 5000 meters and 3 miles, respectively.

Career

Ibbotson started for the Longwood Harriers club . He was able to place himself at state championships several times:

year 1955 1955 * 1956 1957 1961 * 1962 1963
3 miles (min) 13: 37.0 (2nd) 13: 34.6 (1st) 13: 32.6 (1st) 13: 20.8 (1st) 13: 33.6 (1st) 13: 23.4 (3rd)
2 miles hall (min) 8: 55.2 (1st) 9: 00.0 (2.)

* Inter-Counties Championships

On the world's best list of the year, he made it into the top ten four times:

  • 1956: 5000 m (5th with 13: 54.4 min) and 1 mile (6th with 3: 59.4 min)
  • 1957: 1 mile (1st with 3: 57.2 min)
  • 1958: 1 mile (8th with 4: 00.0 min)

Three main events stand out from Ibbotson's career:

  • Winning the bronze medal at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne : Ibbotson started over 5000 meters and qualified for the final as fourth of his prelim in 14: 18.78 minutes. Times under 14 minutes were not achieved in any of the three preliminary runs. In the final, too, only the top three winners succeeded: the Ukrainian Volodymyr Kuz , who won the gold medal in the Olympic record time of 13: 39.86 minutes, Ibbotson's compatriot Gordon Pirie , who finished second with a clear gap in 13: 50.58 minutes came, and finally Derek Ibbotson himself, who finished third in 13: 54.16 minutes and won bronze.
  • World record over 1 mile: After the Briton Roger Bannister was the first person on earth to cover the mile in less than four minutes in 1954, a large number of runners were suddenly seized with the ambition to run a so-called “dream mile”. In 1956, when the world record was already 3: 58.0 minutes (set by the Australian John Landy on June 21, 1954), six runners succeeded in this feat, including Derek Ibbotson, who achieved 3: 59.4 minutes . A year later, on July 19 in London , his hour struck: in 3: 57.2 minutes he not only replaced John Landy as world record holder, but also pulled three other runners with Ron Delany , Stanislav Jungwirth and Kenneth Wood , all of which stayed under four minutes. Ibbotson was able to enjoy his performance for a full year before the Australian Herb Elliott set the world record of 3: 54.5 minutes in Dublin on August 7, 1958 .
  • World record over 4 times 1 mile in 16: 30.6 minutes, run on September 27, 1958 in an international match between Great Britain and Finland.

Otherwise Ibbotson was a decidedly hapless runner. He was unable to qualify for the European Championships in Stockholm in 1958 and in Budapest in 1962 , and at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff in 1958 and in Perth in 1962 , where he competed over the 3-mile distance, he achieved great success (Places 10 and 8) not out. Nevertheless, he was active well into the 1960s.

In 2008 he was inducted into the Order of the British Empire by the Queen and inducted into the England Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011. In the last years of his life he suffered from dementia and lived in a nursing home in Lupset, a district of Wakefield . Derek Ibbotson died there on February 23, 2017 at the age of 84.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Former mile world record holder Ibbotson dies. International Association of Athletics Federations , February 24, 2017, accessed March 3, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Mel Booth: Famous Huddersfield Olympic athlete Derek Ibbotson dies . Huddersfield Daily Examiner, February 24, 2017. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Ibbotson, Derek
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ibbotson, George Derek (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British middle and long distance runner
DATE OF BIRTH June 17, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Huddersfield , Yorkshire , England , United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH 23rd February 2017
Place of death Wakefield , Yorkshire and the Humber , England , United Kingdom