Henry Jonsson

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Henry Kälarne

Henry Jonsson (born May 12, 1912 in Håsjö , Jämtland , † March 9, 2001 in Stockholm ) was a Swedish middle and long-distance runner who was successful in the late 1930s.

He started for the following clubs: Kälarne IK, SolK Hellas and Brandkårens IF.

He was 1.81 m tall and weighed 70 kg in his active time.

From 1940 he carried the name Henry Kälarne.

He was a firefighter by profession.

Career

Henry Jonsson won a total of thirteen national championships:

year 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940
1500 m (min) 3: 51.4 3: 52.2 3: 48.8
5000 m (min) 14: 44.6 14: 29.0 14: 37.2 14: 27.4 14: 18.8

In addition, there are five titles (from 1935 to 1939 in a row) in cross-country running (the route was 8,000 meters long).

In addition, Henry Jonsson took part in two international events - the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin and the 1938 European Championships in Paris with medal success .

  • In Berlin he achieved the fastest lead time with 14: 54.0 minutes and relegated Lauri Lehtinen to fourth place. The Olympic champion of 1932 had just as little exhausted his potential as Gunnar Höckert . In the final (which took place without German participation), the two Finns made strong gains. In the new Olympic record time of 14: 22.2 minutes, Höckert won the gold medal, well ahead of Lehtinen (silver in 14: 25.8 minutes). Jonsson didn't have a chance, but ran a personal best in 14: 29.0 minutes and was able to look forward to the bronze medal.
  • Jonsson met two Finns again in Paris: Taisto Mäki and Kauko Pekuri fought a three-way battle with the Swede, which Mäki won in 14: 26.8 minutes. In his wake, Jonsson again achieved a personal best in 14: 27.4 minutes and won silver ahead of Pekuri (bronze in 14: 29.2 minutes). The Briton Jack Emery followed in fourth place 17 seconds behind .

Henry Jonsson was a multiple record runner.

  • In 1940 he set the national record set by Arne Andersson the year before with 3: 48.8 minutes over 1500 meters .
  • Between 1936 and 1939 he improved the national record four times over 5000 meters. The first record (14: 29.0 min), with which he undercut Edvin Wide's previous record by more than 10 seconds, earned him the Olympic bronze medal. The last record (14: 18.8 min) was exactly 6 seconds below that of its predecessor Thore Tillman and lasted two years (until 1941).
  • Jonsson was also allowed to enter himself in the list of world record runners:
    • 5: 18.4 min over 2000 meters , achieved on July 2, 1937 in Stockholm. With this, Jonsson improved the almost one year old record of the Hungarian Miklós Szabó by exactly 2 seconds. One month later, however, Archie San Romani managed to improve again to 5: 16.8 min (today's (2011) best performance: 4: 44.79 min, run in 1999 by Hicham El Guerrouj ).
    • 8: 09.9 min over 3000 meters , achieved on August 14, 1940 in Stockholm. Jonsson improved the four-year-old record of the Finn Gunnar Höckert by 5.8 seconds. The record lasted exactly 2 years before Gunder Hägg pushed it down to 8: 01.2 min (today's (2011) best: 7: 20.67 min , run in 1996 by Daniel Komen ).

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personal data
SURNAME Jonsson, Henry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kälarne, Henry (name from 1940)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish athlete
DATE OF BIRTH May 12, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Håsjö , Jämtland
DATE OF DEATH March 9, 2001
Place of death Stockholm