Leslie Laing

Leslie Laing ( Leslie Alphonso "Les" Laing ; born February 19, 1925 in Linstead ) is a former Jamaican sprinter who was successful in the years after the Second World War .

At the 1948 Olympic Games in London , he represented his country on the two short sprint courses. While he was eliminated over 100 meters in the preliminary run, he came over 200 meters to the final, where he placed sixth and last in 21.6 s. In the 4 x 400 meter relay , he was part of the Jamaican team that could not finish the race due to an injury to Arthur Wint .

Four years later at the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952 , he started over 200 meters and came in fifth in 21.2 s.

In the 4 x 400 meter relay, the Jamaican team had more luck this time. In the line-up of Arthur Wint , Laing, Herb McKenley and George Rhoden , she not only won the gold medal in front of the USA with final runner Mal Whitfield , but also set the world record in 3: 03.9 min. The race was incredibly fast: The teams from the USA and Germany, which won the silver and bronze medals, respectively, still remained below the old world record of 3: 08.2 min, which the Americans Ivan Fuqua , Edgar Ablowich , Karl Warner and Bill Carr had lined up twenty years earlier at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles . This wiped out one of the oldest world records in athletics. The new record was supposed to last eight years: it was not until 1960, at the Olympic Games in Rome , that the USA pushed it down to 3: 02.2 min (the second-placed German quartet also undercut the old mark of 3: 02.7 min Jamaican).

In 2005, Leslie Laing was inducted into the Central American and Caribbean Confederation Hall of Fame.

Web links

• Les Laing in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )