Ira Murchison

Ira Murchison (born February 6, 1933 in Chicago , Illinois , † March 28, 1994 in Harvey , Illinois) was an American athlete who was successful in the second half of the 1950s over the 100 meters.

Career

As a student at Western Michigan University, he won the NCAA championship over 100 yards (9.5 s) in 1958 .

His year of success was 1956. First he equalized on June 1 in Compton as 10th runner the world record set by Jesse Owens in 1936 of 10.2 seconds and repeated this performance on June 29 in Los Angeles . When he set the world record, improved by Willie Williams to 10.1 s the day before in Berlin on August 4th, he was considered one of the favorites for the XIII. 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne , where he was only fourth (10.6 s). For this he secured the gold medal and the world record in 39.5 seconds as the starting runner of the 4 x 100 meter relay for his team.

In 1957 he equalized another world record when he ran the 100 yards in 9.3 s.

At the student world games in Paris in the same year he won the silver medal in 10.6 s behind the German Manfred Germar, who was victorious in 10.5 s .

In 1959, when he was 26 years old, he developed colon cancer, which marked the end of his career. However, four years later, at the Pan American Games in Caracas , he made a comeback when he won bronze over 100 meters (10.62 s) and gold in the 4 x 100 meter relay (40.40 s) .

With a height of only 1.57 m, Ira Murchison was the smallest sprint world record holder in history. Its high take-off speed earned it the name "Sputnik".

Ira Murchison left three brothers (Gerald, Robert, and Norman), a son, also named Ira, and stepson Kenneth.

Web links

• query.nytimes.com