Oswald Junkes

Oswald Junkes (born June 13, 1921 in Trier , † November 2, 1993 in Newel ) was a German weightlifter .

Career

Oswald Junkes grew up in Trier and started lifting weights when he was 17. At ASV Trier, Helmut Opschruf , who finished fourth in the 1936 light heavyweight division, was his coach. His talent was shown when he became German youth champion in the class up to 60 kg in 1939. After the beginning of the war he was able to compete in the German championships until 1943, before he too had to endure the war and being a prisoner of war. But in 1948 he was there again. Nevertheless, the war and the post-war period robbed him of his best years as an athlete. In 1951, when the German weightlifters were finally allowed to compete in international championships again, they had completely lost touch with the world leaders due to the twelve-year abstinence. In addition, the association management and the sports supervisor did little to bring the German weightlifters back to the top of the world. This led to the fact that the German weightlifters were still at about the level of performance of around 1936/1937 in 1960. Even Oswald Junkes, who worked as a company electrician at Deutsche Post, couldn't make it alone. While he was only able to start his training after his professional work, the weekly working time was 48 hours at that time, the so-called "state amateurs" in the Eastern Bloc countries created excellent conditions for competitive sport for political reasons. So it did not take long before the athletes from the Soviet Union , Poland , Hungary , Bulgaria , the CSSR and the GDR far overtook the West European and West European weightlifters. It was not until the mid-1970s that the conditions were also improved for the German athletes and, above all, better coaches were hired that international successes returned (Mang, Milser, Immesberger, Negwer, Bergmann, Nerlinger). Oswald Junkes could no longer benefit from it.

International results

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship, Fe = featherweight, Le = lightweight, Mi = middleweight)

• 1951, 6th place , WM + EM in Milan , Fe, with 290 kg, behind Gouda, Egypt , 310 kg, Runge, Denmark , 310 kg, Creus, England , 302.5 kg, Heral, France , 295 kg and Giordano , Italy , 295 kg, EM valuation: 4th place ;
• 1952, 16th place , OS in Helsinki , Fe, with 290 kg, winner Rafael Tschimischkian , USSR , 337.5 kg, ahead of Nikolai Saksonow , USSR, 332.5 kg;
• 1955, 9th place , WM + EM in Munich , Le, with 337.5 kg, EM valuation: 6th place , winner Nikolai Kostylew , USSR, 382.5 kg, ahead of Gouda, 365 kg;
• 1956, 7th place , EM in Helsinki , Le, with 330 kg, winner Kostylew, 377.5 kg ahead of Josef Tauchner, Austria , 357.5 kg

As a so-called "Master" (35 to 80 years old), Oswald Junkes then competed for many years at world and European championships and, among other things, achieved the title of senior world champion in Puerto Rico in 1987.

German championships

(Olympic three-way fight with the exception of 1950 where a four-way fight was also carried out with one-armed tearing)

• 1940, 2nd place , Fe, with 262.5 kg, behind Anton Richter , Vienna , 287.5 kg;
• 1942, 1st place , Fe, with 277.5 kg, ahead of Willi Dorawa, Hamborn , 277.5 kg;
• 1943, 1st place , Fe, with 282.5 kg, in front of Dorawa, 280 kg;
• 1948, 1st place , Fe, with 290 kg, before Ewald Breßlein , Essen , 282.5 kg;
• 1949, 1st place , Fe, with 282.5 kg, ahead of Franz Almesberger, Passau , 257.5 kg;
• 1950, 1st place , Fe, with 357.5 kg, ahead of Max Sprügel, Regensburg , 335 kg;
• 1951, 1st place , Fe, with 287.5 kg, in front of Sprügel, 280 kg;
• 1952, 2nd place , Fe, with 295 kg, behind Breßlein, 297.5 kg;
• 1953, 1st place , Le, with 317.5 kg, ahead of Jakob Weil, Mainz , 315 kg;
• 1954, 1st place , Le, with 325 kg, in front of Hans Neuhaus, Essen , 322.5 kg;
• 1955, 1st place , Le, with 332.5 kg, ahead of Willi Kolb , Stuttgart , 332.5 kg;
• 1956, 4th place , Le, with 325 kg, behind Kolb, 347.5 kg, Roland Lortz , Groß-Zimmer , 340 kg and Weil, 330 kg;
• 1957, 3rd place , Le, with 325 kg, behind Kolb, 340 and Weil, 335 kg;
• 1962, 3rd place , Wed, with 345 kg, behind Albert Huser , Mannheim , 372.5 kg and Weil, 345 kg

German records:

in two-armed tearing:

• 97.5 kg, featherweight 1950

literature

• Trier biographical lexicon . Landesarchivverwaltung, Koblenz 2000. pp. 206–207

swell

• Athletics magazine from 1948 to 1960