István Rózsavölgyi

István Rózsavölgyi

István Rózsavölgyi [ ˈiʃtvaːn ˈroːʒɒvølɟi ] (born March 30, 1929 in Budapest ; † January 27, 2012 ) was a Hungarian athlete . The middle-distance runner set three individual world records and four relay world records. In 1960 he won the Olympic bronze medal in the 1,500 meter run .

Career

In the middle of the 1950s, numerous Hungarian athletes achieved the breakthrough to the top of the world in the middle distance. Most of them trained under Mihály Iglói at Honvéd Budapest . The runners supervised by Iglói set the first world record on September 23, 1953 in the 4 x 1,500 meter relay. At the European Athletics Championships in 1954 in Bern, Rózsavölgyi was eliminated in advance.

On July 28, 1955, an international match between Finland and Hungary took place in Helsinki. On the 1500 meter course, the Hungarian Sándor Iharos undercut the existing world record of the Australian John Landy by one second to 3: 40.8 minutes, Rózsavölgyi came second in this run in 3: 42.8 minutes. On September 5th, this world record was set by the Hungarian László Tábori and the Dane Gunnar Nielsen . From mid-September 1955 the Hungarian runners met for joint training and competitions in order to simulate the extended 1956 season with the Olympic Games in November. During this phase, Rózsavölgyi set three world records on non-Olympic courses, one of them with the 4 × 1500 meter relay.

On August 3, 1956, he improved the existing world record over 1500 meters in Tata to 3: 40.6 minutes, second in this race was László Tábori ahead of Sándor Rozsnyói . Shortly before the Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956 , the Hungarian uprising was suppressed. The Hungarian runners did not start in Melbourne physically in top form and mentally attacked. Nevertheless, Sándor Rosznyói and József Kovács won two silver medals, László Tábori was fourth over 1500 meters. Rózsavölgyi, however, was far from his form and was eliminated in the run-up. After the games Mihály Iglói did not return to Hungary with some runners from his training group. As the father of a family, Rózsavölgyi immediately moved back from Melbourne to Budapest, Iharos followed later, Iglói and Tábori stayed in the USA.

After a poor year in 1957, in which he lost his 1500 meter world record, Rózsavölgyi returned in 1958. At the EM in 1958 in Stockholm, the Finn Olavi Vuorisalo won the first and fastest heat in 3: 40.8 minutes ahead of the Britons Brian Hewson and Rózsavölgyi. The second run was won by the Irish Olympic Champion Ron Delany , the Swede Dan Waern prevailed in the third run. In the final on August 24th, Waern ensured a fairly high pace and at the beginning of the last lap he and Vuorisalo pulled away slightly from the field, Rózsavölgyi led the rest of the field and ensured that the two leaders could not break away decisively. Waern kept his pace on the home stretch, Vuorisalo could not follow and Hewson and Delany sprinted forward out of the field. Hewson finally won ahead of Waern and Delany, Rózsavölgyi was fourth in 3: 42.7 minutes from Vuorisola.

In 1959 Rózsavölgyi undercut the mark of 3:40 minutes on the 1,500-meter course for the first time, with 3: 38.9 minutes he led the world's best of the year. However, the Australian world record holder Herb Elliott did not start on the metric route in 1959, but only in mile races.

At the 1960 Olympics , the undefeated Herb Elliott was the clear favorite. He won the first heat safely before Rózsavölgyi. The Frenchman Michel Bernard won the second heat . In the third run, Dan Waern prevailed ahead of Frenchman Michel Jazy . In the final on September 6, 1960, Bernard and Waern ensured a high pace and led up to the 800-meter mark. Then Elliott took the lead and stood out clearly from the rest of the field. In the world record time of 3: 35.6 minutes he had a lead of around 20 meters over Michel Jazy at the finish. Another five meters behind, Rózsavölgyi won bronze in 3: 39.2 minutes.

In 1960, Rózsavölgyis was among the best in the world last year. After the 1962 season, he ended his career.

With a height of 1.77 m, his competition weight was 58 kg.

World records

• September 23, 1953 in Budapest: 4 × 1500 meters in 15: 29.2 minutes with Sándor Garay , Ernő Béres , Istvan Rózsavölgyi, Sándor Iharos
• July 14, 1954 in Budapest: 4 × 1500 meters in 15: 21.2 minutes with László Tábori , Istvan Rózsavölgyi, Ferenc Mikes , Sándor Iharos
• September 21, 1955 in Tata : 1000 meters in 2: 19.0 minutes
• September 29, 1955 in Budapest: 4 × 1500 meters in 15: 14.8 minutes with Ferenc Mikes, László Tábori, István Rózsavölgyi, Sándor Iharos
• October 2, 1955 in Budapest: 2000 meters in 5: 02.2 minutes
• August 3, 1956 in Tata: 1500 meters in 3: 40.6 minutes
• September 29, 1959 in Budapest: 4 × 1 mile in 16: 25.2 minutes with Lajos Kovács, Béla Szekeres, Sándor Iharos, István Rózsavölgyi

Best times

• 800 m : 1: 48.4 min
• 1000 m : 2: 19.0 min, 1955
• 1500 m: 3: 38.8 min, 1960
• 1 mile : 3: 59.0 min,
• 2000 m : 5: 05.2 min, 1955
• 3000 m : 7: 53.4 min, 1956
• 5000 m : 13: 59.8 min, 1961

literature

• Manfred Holzhausen: world records and world record holder. 800m / 880y run 1000m run. Grevenbroich 1997
• ders .: World records and world record holder. 1500m run, 1 mile run. Grevenbroich 1998
• Ekkehard zur Megede: The Modern Olympic Century 1896-1996 Track and Field Athletics. Berlin 1999 (published by the German Society for Athletics Documentation eV )
• Arnd Krüger (1998). Many roads lead to Olympia. The changes in the training systems for middle and long distance runners (1850-1997), in: N. GISSEL (Hrsg.): Sportliche achievement im Wandel. Hamburg: Czwalina, pp. 41 - 56. ISBN 978-3-88020-322-8
• Report in the professional journal Leichtathletik (Germany) from 1958, reprint in Klaus Amrhein / Axel Schäfer: 60 years of the European Athletics Championships 1998. Groß-Zimmer / Bochum

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Elhunyt Rózsavölgyi István

Web links

• István Rózsavölgyi in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )