Kurt Czekalla

Kurt Czekalla (born September 30, 1930 in Schönebeck ) is a German sports shooter who competed for the German Democratic Republic .

At the age of 29, the trained car mechanic took part in a company sports festival and was noticed by the GST supervisors at the shooting range . He found the trap by shooting with the small-bore rifle and slowly worked his way up to the top of the GDR in this sport. In 1967, starting for the GST Schönebeck, he finished second in the GDR championship and also competed in an international competition for the first time.

In the summer of 1968 he reached the Olympic standard somewhat surprisingly at the Baltic Sea Cup in Heiligendamm. As a result, he was briefly delegated to the leading shooting club in the GDR, the GST Club Leipzig and nominated for the Olympic Games. At the Olympic Games in Mexico City , Briton John Braithwaite won with 198 hits, followed by American Thomas Garrigus , Pāvels Seničevs from the Soviet Union and Kurt Czekalla each with 196 hits and shot the medals in one jump. In the first round, Senichev scored 22 targets, while Garrigus and Czekalla hit all 25 targets. In the second jump-off, the American prevailed with 25 to 23 targets; Czekalla received the bronze medal.

In 1969 and 1970 Czekalla won the title at the GDR championship, at the European championship in 1971 in Suhl he finished 21st. After Czekalla failed to qualify for the 1972 Olympic Games, he returned from Leipzig to Schönebeck and worked as a master mechanic.

literature

• Volker Kluge : Lexicon athletes in the GDR. New life, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-355-01759-6 .
• Volker Kluge: Summer Olympic Games. The Chronicle III. Mexico City 1968 - Los Angeles 1984. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-328-00741-5 .

Web links

• Kurt Czekalla in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• GDR championships