Lei Derichs

Leo Jozef Willem Derichs (born May 19, 1922 in Roermond ; † September 3, 2010 ibid; nickname: Leo , Lei , Ley ) was a Dutch athlete in the disciplines of discus throw and shot put . In the course of his career he was six times Dutch champion, four times in the shot put and twice in the discus throw. In addition, he initially did high jump .

Life

Youth and the beginning of the athletics career

Derichs was born the son of a miller . Due to the hard physical work in his father's company, he had already been physically well trained from a young age, which was useful for discus and shot put. In the first years of his athletics career, however, he operated the high jump discipline. In 1941, at the age of nineteen, he improved the Limburg record with a jump over 1.74 m. In 1946 he became champion of Zuid-Holland in this sport . At the national level he was particularly noticeable in discus throwing. At the national championships of 1942 he stood on the podium for the first time. With a throw of 39.36 m he won a silver medal .

Sports academy

In the meantime, Derichs began studying at the Sports Academy in Tilburg , which he graduated with a diploma in 1943, in the middle of World War II . He then worked for a few years at a school in Amsterdam , where he was a member of the athletics association AV 1923 from 1943 to 1945 inclusive . From 1948 he worked as a physical education teacher at Bisschoppelijk College in Roermond. Here he directed the athletics training of the college's boarding students, who had their own athletics association, Hellas 1943 . Many Hellas athletes later became members of Swift Atletiek .

Athlete, trainer and chairman

Lei Derichs represented the Netherlands eleven times in national competitions. Once he was captain of the Dutch team. In 1950 he is also placed in the Benelux team, which competed in London against the teams from England and America. In these competitions he came third twice, both with the ball and with the discus. During this time Derichs was also chairman and trainer at the Swift athletics association . Many athletes have been trained by him. Thanks to his merit, Swift was primarily a throwers' association during the 1950s and 1960s.

title

After the war, Lei Derichs won bronze and silver for the first time on a national level in 1946 and 1949 , with a disc and ball. In Rotterdam in 1950 he became Dutch champion for the first time with a distance of 14.50 m in the shot put. He came second in discus throwing that year. After he repeated his shot put title in 1951, his most successful year followed in 1952. That year the championships were again in Rotterdam. He won both the shot put and the discus and came back to Roermond as a two-time Dutch champion with two gold medals . His master throw with the discus is his best throw ever. He threw a distance of 43.85 m. He delivered this result on his last attempt and left all his competitors, including the fourteen-time discus throwing champion Aad de Bruyn, behind. This distance was also a southern Dutch record and the fourth time that he broke this record. He captured his fourth national title in the shot put in 1953 and came third in the discus. Finally in Tilburg, 1954, he was again Dutch champion with a discus throw of 43.11 m. During his career, Derichs was thirteen times the South Holland champion in discus and shot put. For his two-time national achievement in 1952, Lei Derichs received the bronze medal of the municipality of Roermond.

Athletics lecturer and author

Derichs taught as an athletics lecturer at the Academie voor Lichamelijke Opvoeding (Academy for Physical Education) in Tilburg from 1953 . In this capacity, he and Bram Leeuwenhoek wrote a standard work on athletics. In the second part of the three books he dealt with the throwing group. In 1981 Derichs retired for health reasons, both at Bisschoppelijk College in Roermond and at the teacher training course in Tilburg.

Offices

Lei Derichs has held various positions with the Swift Athletic Association, the association he has been a member of since his early days as an athlete, through the war years and beyond. He was there coach, secretary, chairman, member of the jury and referee. In 1959 he was made an honorary member of the South District of the KNAU (Royal Netherlands Athletics Union).

Awards

• Municipality of Roermond: Bronze Medal - 1952
• District South KNAU: Honorary Member - 1959

Sources, notes and / or references

• Red. AW (1952) Fanny Blankers, Puck Brouwer, Wil Lust, Theo Saat and Henk Visser in topvorm de Athletiekwereld no. 11: KNAU
• Haitsma, J. en Moerman, J. (1961) Supplement op het Gouden boek from KNAUNV Drukkerij 't Koggeschip
• Heere, A. en Kappenburg, B. (2000) 1870 - 2000, 130 jaar atletiek in Nederland Groenevelt bv ISBN 90-90-12867-0
• Willemse, P. (2011) Jubileumboek atletiekvereniging Swift. on-line