Paul Schmidt (middle distance runner)

Paul-Gerhard Schmidt (born August 9, 1931 in Groß-Nebrau , West Prussia ) is a former German athlete who won bronze twice at European championships.

Paul Schmidt won the German championship title in the 800-meter run in 1956, 1957, 1958 and 1961 , in the hall he won in 1957, 1958, 1959 and 1961. Schmidt took part in the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne , but was eliminated there in the preliminary run out. At the European Athletics Championships in Stockholm in 1958 , he finished in 1: 47.9 minutes at the same time as the Norwegian Audun Boysen and a tenth of a second behind the British Mike Rawson . The judges saw him behind Boysen, and Schmidt received the bronze medal.

In the final of the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, New Zealander Peter Snell ran away from his rivals and won by half a second over Belgian Roger Moens . Third place went to George Kerr, who competed for the West Indian Federation . In 1: 47.6 minutes, Schmidt was fourth half a second behind Kerr. At the European Athletics Championships in Belgrade in 1962 , Manfred Matuschewski won in 1: 50.5 minutes; behind him, three runners crossed the finish line in 1: 51.2 minutes, Valeri Bulischew from the USSR received silver in front of Paul Schmidt and the Finn Olavi Salonen .

During his career, Paul Schmidt mostly started for OSV Hörde , in 1960 he started for FSV Frankfurt . He had a competition weight of 59 kg with a height of 1.72 m. In 1961 he was awarded the Rudolf Harbig Memorial Prize for his services . He was a trained bricklayer and later completed a one-year specialist sports teacher training course.

After his career as an active middle distance athlete , he put his vast experience into the service of the German Athletics Association and worked successfully as a national coach from 1965 to 1996. The great successes of Franz-Josef Kemper , Bodo Tümmler , Thomas Wessinghage , Willi Wülbeck and Paul-Heinz Wellmann fell during this time. He worked closely with the association doctor Alois Mader .

Paul Schmidt lives in Baden-Baden and works in an advisory capacity for the German Athletics Association.

literature

• Klaus Amrhein: Biographical manual on the history of German athletics 1898–2005. 2 volumes. Darmstadt 2005 (published by Deutsche Leichtathletik Promotion- und Projektgesellschaft )