Jack Keller (athlete)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jack Keller (actually: John Alton Claude Keller ; born October 23, 1911 , † June 3, 1978 in Columbus , Ohio ) was an American hurdler .

The dominant US athlete in the 110-meter hurdles was Percy Beard in the run-up to the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles . He had not only equalized the world record on the metric course of 14.4, but also lowered the hurdle on the 120 yard course to 14.2.

The US trials for the games took place in Stanford. Here Keller set the metric world record with 14.4 and won the trials ahead of George Saling and Beard. In the semi-finals of the games, Saling set the world record. In the final, these three American world record holders faced two Britons and the German Willi Welscher . Beard took the lead but struggled on the sixth hurdle, so Saling won in 14.6 ahead of Beard in 14.7. Behind them three runners came in with 14.8: Brit Don Finlay in 3rd place, Keller in 4th place and Langhürdler Lord Burghley in 5th place. Welscher was disqualified.

While Beard still ran some world records and Saling had a fatal accident, Keller had another year in 1933 in which he ran 120 yards and 220 yards hurdles world records, which were not recognized. After that, his name will no longer appear in the leaderboards.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Basement, Jack
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Keller, John Alton Claude (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American hurdler
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1911
DATE OF DEATH June 3, 1978
Place of death Columbus (Ohio)