Paul de Bruyn (marathon runner)

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Paul de Bruyn (born October 7, 1907 in Weserdeich, today Berne , † April 5, 1997 in Daytona Beach ) was a German marathon runner who was among the world's best in the 1930s.

After an apprenticeship as a mechanic, he went to sea for four years, including with the "Seeteufel" Felix Graf von Luckner . In 1930 he checked out in New York City and worked as a stoker at the Wellington Hotel. He started long-distance running at the German Sports Club in New York and shortly afterwards became German-American champion in the 10,000-meter run . In 1931 he was eighth in the Boston Marathon in 2:59:09 h in the heat. As his own trainer, he developed his own methodology, which included marches in military boots weighted down with lead plates and flights of stairs in the Wellington Hotel during his lunch break. In the summer of that year he traveled to Germany and on August 1st was German marathon champion in Berlin with a time of 2: 47: 19.4 hours.

On April 19, 1932, he was the first runner to come from outside North America to win the Boston Marathon. With 2:33:36 h he stayed just under half a minute above the course record and beat last year's winner James Henigan by 56 seconds.

De Bruyn was registered as the only German athlete for the marathon of the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, where he finished 15th. In 1933 he traveled to Germany again to take part in the German marathon championships. Because of a drop in the US dollar exchange rate , he had to travel from Oldenburg to Cologne by bike. In 2: 39: 56.6 hours, he finished third. In October he won a marathon in Port Chester ( New York ) in 2:40:51 h. The following year he was fourth in the same place in 2:38:26 h.

At the German Championships on June 21, 1936 in Berlin, which also served as the elimination race for the 1936 Olympic Games , he finished second in 2: 52: 55.6 h in a heat of 30 ° C. At the Olympic marathon he gave up after 35 kilometers. He later stated that he had not been able to cope with the foreign discipline in the German training camp, which included barracking and many forest runs.

Returned to the United States, he ended his sports career, during which he had won a total of 140 races. He became a US citizen , got married and had two daughters. During the Second World War he volunteered for the Navy , where he was used as a diver on a repair ship. In October 1945 he was seriously injured in Okinawa by a ship's propeller explosion.

After the war, he worked as an engineer in a New York school district. In 1967, after his retirement, he moved to Florida . Although the suffering of war prevented competitive sports activities, he kept himself fit by swimming and long hikes. He became an honorary member of the Daytona Beach Track Club, which dedicated a running event to him: the annual Paul de Bruyn 30K Memorial over 30 kilometers.

Widowed in 1982, he married Berta Schoene in 1987, who died in 1991. A year before his death, he was one of the guests of honor at the 100th anniversary of the Boston Marathon.

literature

  • Karl Lennartz : marathon run. Volume 1. Spiridon, Erkrath, pp. 79-132; Volume 3. Verlag Werbung UM Sport, Lohmar, p. 1104.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 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. Emil Zatopek later trained in a similar way .
  2. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from September 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. up 09/22/2016 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.baa.org

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bruyn, Paul de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German marathon runner
DATE OF BIRTH October 7, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Weser dike ( Berne )
DATE OF DEATH April 5, 1997
Place of death Daytona Beach