Manfred Bock

Manfred Bock (born May 28, 1941 in Hamburg ; † October 31, 2010 in Uetersen ) was a German track and field athlete , decathlete and Olympic participant in the 1960 Olympic Games .

Life

Bock was born in Hamburg in 1941 and was considered a good all-rounder as a teenager. He showed particular talent in the high jump, in which he jumped 1.90 meters when he was 18, and later in the pole vault. He learned how to do pole vaulting in his home garden, where he jumped with a bamboo stick over his mother's clothesline. At the age of 19 he played his first decathlon in Germany.

At the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome , he finished tenth (6894 points = 7006 points according to the 1985 table: 11.4 s - 6.79 m - 12.03 m - 1.85 m - 50.5 s - 16, 1 s - 37.69 s - 3.90 m - 63.63 m - 4: 27.6 min.) In 1962 he won the bronze medal in the decathlon at the 1962 European Championships (7835 points = 7565 points according to the 1985 table: 10 .8 s - 6.96 m - 13.25 m - 1.86 m - 48.6 s - 14.7 s - 39.47 m - 3.90 m - 62.85 m - 4: 22.9 min .) In the same year he became German champion in the decathlon.

In the spring of 1963 he traveled to California for muscle training to increase his chances of medals at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Instead of improving, it got worse in the US. As the best German decathlete, he came back as the weakest - according to the results achieved - of all German decathletes eligible for Tokyo. The reason was that he had expected the support in California that was apparently not intended for him. Bock did not get the university scholarship he had hoped for.

He improved the German decathlon record on June 6th and 7th, 1964 between Germany and Switzerland to 8326 points. He exceeded Willi Holdorf's old German record by more than 241 points. After this success he took sixth place in the "eternal" world rankings behind Yang Chuan-Kwang (national China) with 9121 points, Mulkey (USA) with 8709, Rafer Johnson (USA) with 8683, Jury Kuzenko (USSR) with 8360 and Vasily Kusnetzow (USSR) with 8357 points.

Gravestone for Manfred Bock, Uetersen

After his sporting successes, he trained as a qualified sports teacher at the Sports University in Cologne. After a job in Wattenscheid, Manfred Bock started working as a physical education teacher at the Ludwig-Meyn-Gymnasium in Uetersen , where he worked until 2004.

Manfred Bock was an enthusiastic basketball player at SC Rist Wedel and played a significant role in the development of the basketball department at TSV Uetersen, and he was also a coach at his home club TSV Uetersen and the Uetersen tennis club. He died of a heart attack at the age of 69 .

Manfred Bock also belonged to the Hamburger SV .

Manfred Bock was buried in the New Cemetery in Uetersen .

Web links

• Manfred Bock in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )