Mel Pender

Mel Pender (actually Melvin Pender Jr .; born October 31, 1937 in Atlanta , Georgia ) is a former American sprinter .

At the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964, he was only seventh in 10.44 s over 100 meters due to injury, while his compatriot Bob Hayes won in 10.05 s. Four years later, at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, it ran 10.17 s - a time that would have earned him the silver medal in Tokyo, but this time it was only enough for sixth place, while Jim Hines in the world record time of 9, 95 s won.

In general, Pender seemed to be subscribed to sixth place, which he could not get beyond at the American championships in 1964, 1965 and 1968, although he ran the 100 meters three times in the world record time of 10.0 seconds in Sacramento in 1968 : as the winner of the second run (with a hurricane tail wind of 6.2 m / s), third in the first semi-final and finally sixth in the final, in which the first six stopped with 10.0 s, but the times of fourth to sixth placed afterwards corrected to 10.1 s.

He won his only medal as a member of the US team in the 4-by-100-meter relay at the 1968 Olympic Games. In the line-up of Charles Greene , Pender, Ronnie Ray Smith and Jim Hines , she presented with 38.24 s set a world record.

After finishing his active career, Pender went back to where he started the sport: the Army. He became the head coach at the United States Military Academy .

Web links

• Mel Pender in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )