Gunnar Höckert

Gunnar Höckert 1936

Gunnar Mikael Höckert (born February 12, 1910 in Helsinki ; † February 11, 1940 in Karelia ) was a Finnish athlete and was Olympic champion over 5000 meters in 1936 .

biography

His family was very wealthy and belonged to the Finnish Swedes minority . Höckert only had one successful season as a track and field athlete, namely in 1936. At the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin , Höckert started over 5000 meters. He started the race at a brisk pace. After two kilometers, the race developed into a duel between Höckert and Lauri Lehtinen , the 1932 Olympic champion and world record holder. In the last lap, Höckert was able to overtake his compatriot and won the race with a world best time of the year (14: 32.2 min).

On September 16, 1936, Höckert set a new world record over 3000 meters in Stockholm (8: 14.8 min). A week later, a world record over 2 miles (8: 57.4 min) followed on the same track. A week later he equalized the world record over 2000 meters (5: 21.8 min) in Malmö . The rest of Höckert's career was less successful because he suffered from rheumatism . He was never able to match the times he had run in 1936. He volunteered for service in the Finnish army and fought as a reserve lieutenant in the winter war against the Soviet Union . The day before his 30th birthday, he fell in Karelia .

Web links

• Gunnar Höckert in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )