Manfred Letzerich

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Manfred Letzerich (born August 15, 1942 in Wiesbaden ) is a former German athlete who was successful as a runner over 10,000 meters and over 3000 meters in obstacles from 1959 to 1972 . He took part in 38 international matches and three Olympic Games.

The 1.80 m tall and 63 kg heavy athlete started for TuS Eintracht Wiesbaden . After his sporting career, he worked as a music and technical teacher in Wiesbaden.

He is a trained lathe operator .

National titles

In his two special disciplines he won five German championships:

year 1963 1965 1966 1967 1968 1970
discipline 3000 m Hind. 3000 m Hind. 10,000 m 3000 m Hind. 10,000 m 10,000 m
space Second MASTER MASTER MASTER MASTER MASTER
time 9: 04.2 min 8: 41.8 min 28: 58.8 min 8: 38.0 min 29: 17.8 min 28: 54.8 min

He also won the German championship in cross-country skiing in 1966 and 1968 .

The following personal best times are given for him:

  • 13: 42.2 min over 5000 m, run in 1971
  • 28: 14.41 min over 10,000 m, run 1972
  • 2: 27: 31.8 min in the 1969 marathon.

International competitions

Letzerich was trained by Olaf Lawrenz and even when he was no longer a national coach, he continued to look after him - if necessary by telephone. As a result, he mainly trained with intense tempo runs, while the scope of training for other long distance runners was much more extensive at that time. In 1972 he ended his sporting career after Armin Klümper had repeatedly treated his overuse and improper stress injuries to the hips and legs and finally the Achilles tendon was scraped off by Hannes Schoberth .

At the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964 , Manfred Letzerich started over the 5000 meter course . There he had the bad luck to be eliminated in 14: 06.2 min as eighth of his prelim, while Harald Norpoth , who had been assigned to a much slower group of runners, made it into the final with 14: 11.6 min.

The Games 1968 in Mexico City and in 1972 in Munich , he started in the 10,000 meters. In Munich he had to finish the competition as 14th of 15 runners who reached the finish in his preliminary run. Four years earlier in Mexico, on the other hand, he had his only participation in the Olympic finals, which he owed to the fact that there were no qualification runs there and all 38 participants had been sent to the final. Letzerich came in 19th place in 30: 48.6 minutes (the winner, Naftali Temu from Kenya , achieved 29: 27.4 minutes).

At the European Championships , however, things went better for him. In 1966 in Budapest he came over 3000 meters obstacle in 3: 31.0 min with three seconds behind the third placed Belgian Gaston Roelants in fifth place. He started over 10,000 meters both in Budapest and five years later in Helsinki . He finished fourth in Budapest in 28: 36.8 minutes, a good three seconds behind Leonid Mikitenko from the USSR and in ninth place in Helsinki in 28: 21.0 minutes. He was denied participation in the European Championships in Athens in 1969 , as the German team only competed in the relay competitions as a protest against Jürgen May's refusal to start .

Manfred Letzerich should get on the podium anyway: At the European Cup in 1967 in Kiev he came in second over 3000 meters in 8: 39.6 minutes and in 1970 in Stockholm over 10,000 meters in 28: 40.0 minutes in third.

In 1966 he was victorious in the ISTAF in Berlin over 3000 meters in 8: 43.40 minutes.

In addition, he ran several

Records

  • German record over 3000 m obstacle in 8: 31.0 min, run on September 3, 1966 in Budapest
  • German record over 10,000 m in 28: 14.41 min, run on June 23, 1972 in Augsburg
  • European record over 20,000 m in 59: 49.6 min and
  • European hourly record of 20,068 m, achieved on April 23, 1966 in Darmstadt

Footnotes

  1. ↑ https://www.arquelauf.de/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/A003-Letzerich-Tagebuch-1965-1967-Update-01-090108.pdf on . 2nd January 2017
  2. ↑ Arnd Krüger : Many roads lead to Olympia. The changes in training systems for medium and long distance runners (1850–1997). In: N. Gissel (Hrsg.): Sporting performance in change . Czwalina, Hamburg 1998, pp. 41-56.
  3. ↑ https://www.arquelauf.de/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/A006-Letzerich-Tagebuch-1972-Update-01-080108.pdf on . 2nd January 2017

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Letzerich, Manfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German athlete
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Wiesbaden