Jürgen May (athlete)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jürgen May (front) at the GDR championships in 1963

Jürgen May (born June 18, 1942 in Nordhausen ) is a former German medium-distance , long-distance and obstacle runner .

Life

May learned the profession of typesetter . He was initially a member of BSG Aktivist Nordhausen, then started for KJS Nordhausen and later switched to SC Turbine Erfurt . May became a member of the Erfurt District Assembly in 1963 . In 1965 he was named Sportsman of the Year in the GDR, a title that was withdrawn from him after he had fallen out of favor there (see: Escape and a new beginning in the Federal Republic of Germany ). In April 1966 he became a candidate for the SED .

Success in the GDR

May was GDR champion three times each over 1500 meters (1962, 1965, 1966) and in cross country (1962-1964). In 1965 and 1966 he won the GDR title over 1500 meters in the hall. In 1964, he qualified as a GDR participant for the all-German team at the Olympic Games in Tokyo , but was eliminated in the semifinals of the 1,500-meter run. In the post-Olympic year 1965, his best sporting season, he defeated the Olympic medalists over 1500 meters Peter Snell, Josef Odlozil and Johm Davis at the Rošický Memorial in Prague.

Jürgen May achieved the following records:

  • World record in the 4 × 1500 m relay : 14: 58.0 min on July 23, 1963 in Potsdam
  • World record in the 1000 meter run : 2: 16.2 min on July 20, 1965 in Erfurt
  • German record in the 1500 meter run: 3: 38.4 July 28, 1965 in Helsinki
  • European record in the 1500 meter run: 3: 36.4 min on July 14, 1965 in Erfurt
  • German record in the mile run : 3: 56.0 min on August 30th in London
  • German record in the mile run: 3: 53.8 min December 11th Wanganui
  • GDR record in the 800 meter run : 1: 46.5 minutes on July 30th in Salo
  • GDR record in the 800 meter run: 1: 46.5 min on August 18 in Potsdam
  • GDR record in the 800 meter run: 1: 46.3 min on August 25 in Potsdam

Furthermore, Jürgen May already set records in the GDR in the youth and junior classes, which were also all-German records. At the European Championships in Budapest in 1966 , he was fifth over 1500 meters and reached the semi-finals over 800 meters.

Lifelong ban in the GDR

At the European Championships in 1966 - at the height of the 'shoe war' between the two large German sports shoe companies - May persuaded his GDR teammate Jürgen Haase to buy Puma brand shoes for 500 dollars instead of the three-striped shoes from Adidas in his 10,000 meter - Final dressing. Jürgen Haase immediately admitted the deal when he was approached a short time later by the Secretary General of the GDR Athletics Association ( DVfL ) and handed over the cash he had received. As a young athlete, he was forgiven. Jürgen May, however, who was regarded as an experienced athlete and who had admitted that he had received 100 dollars for the mediation from Puma representatives Karl Eyerkaufer and Heinz Fütterer , was initially banned "for life". He also lost his job as an editorial assistant at the Erfurt daily Das Volk and from then on worked as an assistant sports teacher in a school. However, the SED leadership gave him the prospect that he would not have fallen out of favor in the long term. May was allowed to remain a candidate for the SED and become a member of the SED a few weeks before he fled.

Escape and a new beginning in the Federal Republic of Germany

In 1967 Jürgen May used the opportunity to be smuggled from the GDR to the Federal Republic of Germany. His friend Karl Sport Eyerkaufer had to contact with a student group of smugglers was added, the May 9000 upon payment of the D-Mark wanted to get over Budapest in the Federal Republic of Germany. As a Puma representative, Eyerkaufer initially assumed that his sports shoe company would assume the costs, but this turned out to be erroneous because the company feared for its eastern exports. Eyerkaufer made the money available through a loan.

There were further complications because Jürgen May had also brought his bride with him to Budapest, without whose good repute it would not have been possible for him to come to Hungary . This would actually have increased the costs because it was no longer about May alone. At this point there are two versions: According to the student escape helpers, it would have been too risky to leave Bärbel Holländer behind as a displaced bride in view of the escape route becoming known. So they would have had to persuade Jürgen May to take them with them. May says that he only pretended that he wanted to flee alone, because he was afraid that the group would otherwise have left him in Budapest. Bärbel Holländer then agreed to flee. Your child stayed in the GDR.

Immediately after May's arrival in West Berlin there was again trouble. He and Eyerkaufer flew to West Germany , contrary to the plan, only a short time later and also told details about May's escape, which, according to one escape helper, led to the fact that the escape route, over which they had already helped many people, was destroyed and its expansion / security with high levels Expenses was associated.

Jürgen May's records were subsequently canceled by the GDR Association and in GDR statistics after his escape, the second-placed footballer Peter Ducke was listed as the GDR athlete of the year 1965.

He continued his sports career in the Federal Republic of Germany. However, since he was officially not eligible to start, he ran regularly for the University of Mainz and the organizers also registered the races with the General German University Sports Association. In the Federal Republic he became champion in cross-country running in 1969 , in 1970 over 1500 meters and in 1971 over 3000 meters obstacle . In 1969 he won the 1500 meter title in the hall and the 3000 meter title three times from 1970 to 1972 . The DLV registered him for the European championships in 1969 , but May was banned until 1970 after a veto by the GDR association because of changing the association. The West German team then boycotted the European Championships and only symbolically took part in the relay competitions.

The Athletics European Cup Finals 1970 in Stockholm said May because of a dental surgery on short notice. At the European Championships in Helsinki in 1971 , he gave up over 3000 meters obstacle in the run. In 1972 he won bronze at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Grenoble over 1500 meters and was eliminated from the preliminary round at the Olympic Games in Munich over 5000 meters . He then resigned from competitive sports.

Jürgen May is 1.74 m tall and weighed 68 kg during his active time. He later became head of education, culture and sport in the Main-Kinzig district . In addition, he wrote a 72-page training work that is particularly suitable for young people with the title Modern Middle Distance Training Young People , in which he advocates a careful introduction to running and, above all, a very aerobically oriented training method in the spirit of Arthur Lydiard , which prevails long, constructive endurance training.

Personal bests

  • 800 m: 1: 46.3 min, August 25, 1965, Potsdam
  • 1000 m: 2: 16.2 min, July 20, 1965, Erfurt
  • 1500 m: 3: 36.4 min, July 14, 1965, Erfurt - Halle: 3: 41.4 min, February 23, 1969, Dortmund
  • 1 mile: 3: 53.8 min, December 11, 1965, Wanganui - Halle: 3: 58.2 min, February 20, 1966, East Berlin
  • 3000 m: 7: 54.6 min, July 15, 1969, Fulda
  • 5000 m: 13: 33.0 min, July 2nd, 1969, Stockholm
  • 10,000 m : 29: 32.0 min, May 1st 1966, Gera
  • 3000 m obstacle: 8: 32.4 min, July 11, 1971, Stuttgart

literature

  • Klaus Amrhein: Biographical manual on the history of German athletics 1898–2005 . 2 volumes. Darmstadt 2005, published on German Athletics Promotion and Project Society.

Web links

Commons : Jürgen May  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jürgen May (SC Turbine Erfurt). In: Neues Deutschland , January 3, 1966, p. 6
  2. ↑ May is also running. In: Berliner Zeitung , August 27, 1963, p. 7
  3. ↑ Jürgen May candidate of the SED. In: Berliner Zeitung , April 13, 1966, p. 8
  4. ^ Adolf Metzner: The War of Shoes , Die Zeit , February 3, 1967
  5. ^ Spikes in Gold , Der Spiegel , April 14, 1969
  6. ↑ Volker Kluge, Jürgen May ( Memento of the original from April 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , DURATION 11/1999, page 12/13  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.laufzeit.de
  7. ↑ a b Berlin / Fluchthilfe: Only with bride , Der Spiegel August 14, 1967
  8. ^ Ronny Blaschke : Refugee GDR athletes: In the Cadillac to the West . In: The time . July 26, 2010
  9. ^ Arnd Krüger : A Cultural Revolution? The Boycott of the European Athletics Championships by the West German Team in Athens 1969, in: CESH (Ed.): Proceedings Fourth Annual Conference . Volume 1. Florence: Universitá 1999, pp. 162–166.
  10. ^ Karl-Heinz Bergmann: A pair of shoes and a hundred dollars , Berliner Zeitung August 19, 1998
  11. ↑ Jürgen May: Modern middle distance training for young people , Verlag Bartels u. Wernitz, Berlin / Munich / Frankfurt am Main 1969.
personal data
SURNAME May, Jürgen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German medium-distance, long-distance and obstacle runner
DATE OF BIRTH June 18, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Nordhausen