Jack Buckner

Jack Buckner ( Jack Richard Buckner ; born September 22, 1961 in Wells , Somerset ) is a former British medium and long-distance runner who won three international medals in the 5000 meter run in 1986 and 1987 .

While studying geography at Loughborough University , Buckner was part of the extended top of the British middle distance athletes, but had no chance to qualify for international championships in the era of Sebastian Coe , Steve Cram and Steve Ovett . After completing his studies, he qualified in 1986 over 5000 meters for participation in the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh . Here the English runners achieved a triple victory. Steve Ovett won in 13: 24.11 minutes ahead of Buckner in 13: 25.87 minutes and Tim Hutchings in 13: 26.84 minutes.

Four weeks later, in the final of the European Championships in Stuttgart , the three Englishmen faced the three Italians Stefano Mei , Alberto Cova and Salvatore Antibo , who had won the medals in the 10,000 meter run in Stuttgart . The tactic of the English now consisted of outpacing the strong Italians with a very fast race. The fastest 5000 meter race that has been held at European championships to date (as of 2007) developed. With a final lap of 56.22 seconds, Jack Buckner won in 13: 10.15 minutes ahead of Mei and Hutchings. With this time Buckner improved his personal best by over six seconds.

At the World Athletics Championships in Rome in 1987 , the race developed considerably more slowly. Saïd Aouita won in 13: 26.44 minutes ahead of Domingos Castro and Jack Buckner, who was 1.3 seconds behind Aouita and 0.15 seconds behind Castro at the finish.

At the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul , Kenyan John Ngugi ran away from the field while the crowd of other runners was preparing to race for the medals. After Hansjörg Kunze surprised the chasing field with a very long final sprint, Buckner could no longer follow. He finished sixth in 13: 23.85 min.

After a fall, he was only twelfth in the 1990 Commonwealth Games . At the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, ​​he was eliminated in the preliminary stages.

Jack Buckner is 1.73 m tall and weighed 59 kg at competition times. After his career he tried his hand at growing apples in New Zealand, but quickly returned to England. On his return he worked for the British Athletics Federation and was a lecturer at the University of Exeter . His younger brother Tom Buckner also took part in the 1992 Olympic Games and reached the semi-finals in the 3,000-meter obstacle course.

Personal bests

• 1000 m : 2: 18.88 min, August 7, 1982, London
• 1500 m : 3: 35.28 min, July 1st 1986, Stockholm
  • Hall: 3: 41.7 min, January 8, 1983, Cosford
• 1 mile : 3: 51.57 min, August 29, 1984, Koblenz
  • Hall: 3: 58.07 min, 3: 58.07 min, February 8, 1985, Inglewood
• 2000 m : 4: 53.06 min, September 15, 1987, Lausanne
• 3000 m : 7: 40.43 min, July 5th 1986, Oslo
  • Hall: 7: 46.1 min, February 15, 1985, San Diego
• 5000 m: 13: 10.15 min, August 31, 1986, Stuttgart
• 10,000 m : 28: 13.36 min, September 13, 1991, Brussels
• 10K road run : 28:03 min, February 28, 1987, Phoenix

literature

• Peter Matthews (Ed.): Athletics 1990. London 1990, ISBN 1-871396-02-6 .
• Ekkehard zur Megede : The Modern Olympic Century 1896-1996 Track and Field Athletics. Berlin 1999.
• Bob Phillips: Honor of Empire, Glory of Sport. The History of Athletics at The Commonwealth Games. Parrs Wood Press, Manchester 2000, ISBN 1-903158-09-5 .

Web links

• Jack Buckner in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Athlete portrait at The Power of Ten
• Jack Buckner on sporting-heroes.net
• Jack Buckner in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )