Robert Kerr (athlete)

Robert Kerr

Robert "Bobby" Kerr (born June 9, 1882 in Enniskillen in what is now Northern Ireland , † May 12, 1963 in Hamilton , Ontario ) was a Canadian track and field athlete , Olympic champion and later sports official.

Life

Born in Ireland , he immigrated to Canada with his parents at the age of five, where he worked as a firefighter after finishing school. In his free time he trained in various running disciplines and quickly became the fastest sprinter in the region . When he first took part in the Olympic Games in 1904 in St. Louis , he was eliminated from the preliminary rounds in the three disciplines he occupied (60, 100 and 200 m). In the period that followed, his times got better and he broke all Canadian records in sprinting distances from 40 to 220 yards .

In 1908 he won the British championships over 100 and 200 yards. At the Olympic Games in London in 1908 , he won the bronze medal in the 100-meter dash behind the South African Reggie Walker (Gold) and the American James Rector (Silver), the next day also the gold medal in the 200-meter run before the two Americans Robert Cloughen (silver) and Nate Cartmell (bronze).

After his active career as an athlete, he coached the athletes and football teams of Hamilton and was one of the official functionaries at the Olympic Games in Amsterdam in 1928 and in Los Angeles in 1932 . He then became a member of the Canadian Olympic Association and one of the organizers of the 1930 British Empire Games in Hamilton.

Web links

• Robert Kerr in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )