Lennart Atterwall

Lennart Folke Alfons Atterwall (born March 26, 1911 in Perstorp ; † April 23, 2001 in Sjöbo ) was a Swedish athlete who was active as a javelin thrower in the years before and after the Second World War . He started in a colorful sequence for several clubs, including IFK Vendelsö and Malmö AI.

Atterwall won a total of eight national championships:

year	1934	1935	1937	1938	1939	1940	1941	1946
Width (m)	62.38	65.95	69.74	65.16	68.56	66.06	65.12	68.10

On September 20, 1936, in Copenhagen , he improved the Swedish record held by Erik Lundqvist from 71.01 m to 71.72 m, and a year later, on October 17, 1937 in Stockholm , to 74.77 m. This record lasted for almost 14 years: Per-Arne Berglund only reached 75.25 m in 1951 .

Lennart Atterwall took part in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin and two European championships - in 1938 in Paris and 1946 in Oslo .

• In Berlin he was clearly beaten with 69.20 m - the third placed, the Finn Kalervo Toivonen , had thrown 70.72 m - in 4th place.
• Two years later, in 1938 in Paris, where the first five throwers exceeded the 70-meter mark, 68.58 m were only enough for 6th place.
• In the first post-war year, 1946 in Oslo, the now 35-year-old Atterwall threw 68.74 m only slightly further than eight years earlier in Paris. His Finnish competitors weren't in a record mood either: the best distances for Yrjö Nikkanen and Tapio Rautavaara were 67.50 m and 66.40 m respectively, which meant Lennart Atterwall won the gold medal.

In 1954 he ended his career.

literature

• Peter Matthews (ed): Athletics 2002 . Worcester 2002, ISBN 1899807-13-6 .

Web links

• Atterwall at the Swedish Olympic Committee (Swedish)
• Lennart Atterwall in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )