John Whetton

John Whetton (1964)

John Whetton (born September 6, 1941 in Mansfield ) is a former British middle -distance runner who specialized in the 1,500 meter distance .

Career

In 1963 he won the AAA indoor championship in the mile run for the first time . By 1968 he won six indoor titles over the mile or the 1500 m. At the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964 Whetton was eighth over 1500 m in 3: 42.4 minutes. At the 1966 European Indoor Games in Dortmund , he won over 1500 meters with a three-second lead. In 1966 he was not able to qualify outdoors for the European Championships in Budapest or for the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Kingston .

At the European Indoor Games in 1967 in Prague, he won by almost a second over Josef Odložil . Also in 1968 in Madrid he won the indoor games. That year he also won his only outdoor title at the AAA championship. At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City he was fifth in 3: 43.8 minutes, but he was four seconds behind the winner of the bronze medal Bodo Tümmler .

In Athens at the European Championships in 1969 Whetton won his only major outdoor title. In 3: 39.4 min he defeated the Irish Frank Murphy in the final sprint , against whom he had just lost at the AAA championship. In 1970 Whetton, starting for England , was fifth at the British Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh .

John Whetton is 1.79 m and weighed 68 kg during his playing days.

Personal bests

• 1000 m : 2: 19.7 min, September 6, 1969, London
• 1500 m: 3: 39.45 min, September 20, 1969, Athens
  • Hall: 3: 43.0 min, February 26, 1967, Lyon
• 1 mile: 3: 57.68 min, July 3, 1965, London
• 2000 m (hall): 5: 12.2 min, April 18, 1964, Wembley

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede: The Modern Olympic Century 1896-1996. Track and Field Athletics. Berlin 1999 (published by the German Society for Athletics Documentation eV )

Web links

• Athlete portrait at The Power of Ten
• John Whetton (1) and (2) on sporting-heroes.net