Ken Matthews

Ken Matthews (actually: Kenneth Joseph Matthews ; born June 21, 1934 in Birmingham ; † June 2, 2019 in Wrexham ) was a British walker and Olympic champion .

Matthews won the gold medal in the 20 km walk at the European Championships in Belgrade in 1962 . With this victory, he went into the race as the clear favorite at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo . He won the race in a time of 1:29:34 hours with a lead of 1:39 minutes on the runner-up, the German Dieter Lindner . Third place went to Volodymyr Holubnytschyj from the Soviet Union . Matthews also set an Olympic record during this time.

In the following years he held the unofficial world record over 5 miles with a time of 34:21 min and over 10 miles, as well as every British record over 5 miles. From 1959 to 1964 he won every RWA title over 10 miles in a row. A victory at the Commonwealth Games was denied him, as this discipline was not played during his playing days.

Web links

Ken Matthews in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

^ Mari Jones: Tributes paid to Olympic gold medalist who died in Wrexham. Report on dailypost.co.uk of June 4, 2019. Accessed June 4, 2019.

personal data
SURNAME	Matthews, Ken
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Matthews, Kenneth Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British walker and Olympic champion
DATE OF BIRTH	June 21, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH	Birmingham
DATE OF DEATH	2nd June 2019
Place of death	Wrexham

[1] Mari Jones: Tributes paid to Olympic gold medalist who died in Wrexham. Report on dailypost.co.uk of June 4, 2019. Accessed June 4, 2019.