Ken McArthur
Ken McArthur | |||||||
Full name | Kennedy Kane McArthur | ||||||
nation | South African Union | ||||||
birthday | February 10, 1881 or 1882 | ||||||
place of birth | Ballymoney , UK | ||||||
size | 188 cm | ||||||
Weight | 77 kg | ||||||
date of death | June 13, 1960 | ||||||
Place of death | Potchefstroom , South Africa | ||||||
Career | |||||||
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discipline | Long distance running | ||||||
Best performance | Marathon: 2: 36: 54.8 h | ||||||
Medal table | |||||||
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Ken McArthur (actually: Kennedy Kane McArthur ; born February 10, 1881 or 1882 in Ballymoney , Northern Ireland , † June 13, 1960 in Potchefstroom ) was a South African marathon runner and Olympic champion .
McArthur, whose first name is often incorrectly given as Kenneth , was discovered as a promising athlete in his youth. In 1901 he emigrated to South Africa.
The marathon at the Olympic Games in Stockholm in 1912 took place in great heat; the Portuguese Francisco Lázaro died of heat stroke . McArthur and fellow countryman Christopher Gitsham ran together and quickly took the lead. Sure of victory, Gitsham stopped to drink and expected his colleague to join as agreed. Instead, McArthur kept running, increasing his lead and finishing 58 seconds earlier than Gitsham.
The next season, McArthur injured his foot in an accident and was forced to retire from athletics . He ran a total of six marathons in his career and finished all of them as the winner.
Web links
- Kennedy McArthur in the South African Sport and Arts Hall of Fame ( Memento August 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- Article about the 1912 Olympic marathon on marathoninfo.free.fr (French)
- Ken McArthur in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
personal data | |
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SURNAME | McArthur, Ken |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | McArthur, Kennedy Kane (full name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | South African long distance runner |
DATE OF BIRTH | February 10, 1881 or February 10, 1882 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Ballymoney |
DATE OF DEATH | June 13, 1960 |
Place of death | Potchefstroom |