George Saling

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George Saling ( George J. Saling Jr .; born July 24, 1909 in Memphis , Missouri , † April 15, 1933 in St. Charles , Missouri) was an American hurdler whose special route was the 110-meter distance .

In the run-up to the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, the dominant athlete in this discipline was Saling's compatriot Percy Beard . He had not only equalized the world record on the metric course of 14.4, but also lowered the hurdle on the 120 yard course to 14.2.

The US trials for the games took place in Stanford. Here Jack Keller set the metric world record and won the trials ahead of Saling and Beard. In the semi-finals of the games, Saling set the world record. In the final, these three American world record holders faced two Britons and the German Willi Welscher . Beard took the lead but struggled on the sixth hurdle, so Saling won in 14.6 ahead of Beard in 14.7. Behind them three runners came in with 14.8: Brit Don Finlay in 3rd place, Keller in 4th place and Langhürdler Lord Burghley in 5th place. Welscher was disqualified.

While Beard was still setting some world records, Saling's career ended abruptly when he had a fatal car accident at the age of 23 in Missouri the following spring.

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