Roger Moens
Roger Moens (born April 26, 1930 in Erembodegen ) is a Belgian middle-distance runner and sprinter . He ran a world record over 800 m in 1955 and won silver at the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960 .
Athletic career
Initially, Moens started in the 400-meter run . At the Olympic Games in 1952 he was eliminated over 400 m and in the 4 x 400 meter relay in the first round.
As an 800-meter runner, he appeared in 1953 with a time of 1: 48.8 minutes. The following year he increased this distance to 1: 47.5 minutes and finished fifth at the European Championships in Bern in 1: 47.8 minutes. In the 4 x 400 meter relay , he failed with the Belgian team in the lead.
In the following year, the assault against the now 16-year-old world record over 800 m set by Rudolf Harbig (1: 46.6 minutes) took on new dimensions. Moens ran the track in 1: 47.0 minutes on June 29, 1955. On August 4th the time had come: at 7:05 p.m. in Oslo's Bislett Stadium, Roger Moens set a world record of 1: 45.7 minutes, which was only broken in 1962. Local hero Audun Boysen was second in the same competition with 1: 45.9 minutes, still well below Harbig's old record.
In the 1956 Olympic year, Roger Moens was the final runner in the Belgian 4 x 800 meter relay, which set a world record of 7: 15.8 minutes in Brussels on August 8, which was only beaten ten years later by a German relay . However, the ship for the Melbourne Olympics had to leave without him after he hit an iron post while training in the dark. A year later, on July 31, 1957, he succeeded in the Olympic revenge: Moens defeated - again in Oslo - in 1: 46.0 minutes Olympic champion Tom Courtney , who ran 1: 46.2 minutes.
In 1958, the year of the European Championships in Stockholm , Moens - as in the first half of 1957 - was banned for "grumbling". Moens was also called "the callas of the cinder track" because of this property .
So Moens stayed at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome as the last chance to win an international medal at the age of 30. In the final over 800 meters he looked around on the home stretch to the right, where he continued his supposedly strongest opponents, the Germans Paul Schmidt and the Jamaicans George Kerr suspected, but did not see how on his left little-known New Zealander Peter Snell at pushed past him and won the Olympic gold in 1: 46.3 minutes. Moens won the silver medal in 1: 46.5 minutes ahead of Kerr, who was third with a respectful distance (1: 47.1 minutes). In the 4 x 400 meter relay , he retired with the Belgian quartet in the lead.
Moens also competed in Germany : in 1956 and 1958 he won the ISTAF in Berlin.
Roger Moens contested a total of 453 races over 800 m in the course of his sporting career, which he finished 366 times as a winner and 20 times in a time of under 1:48 minutes.
Professional
Roger Moens was a police officer by profession.
Personal best
- 400 m : 47.3 s, June 26, 1955, Longwy
- 800 m: 1: 45.7 min (world record at the time), August 4, 1955, Oslo
- 1500 m : 3: 41.4 min, June 19, 1960, Antwerp
- 1 mile : 3: 58.9 min, September 4, 1957, Malmö
Performance development
| year | 800 m (in minutes) |
|---|---|
| 1953 | 1: 48.8 |
| 1954 | 1: 47.5 |
| 1955 | 1: 45.7 |
| 1956 | 1: 47.2 |
| 1957 | 1: 46.0 |
| 1958 | - 1 |
| 1959 | 1: 47.5 |
| 1960 | 1: 46.5 |
Web links
- Roger Moens in the trackfield.brinkster.net database (English)
- Roger Moens ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) on athletics-heroes.net (English)
- Roger Moens in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Moens, Roger |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Belgian middle distance runner and sprinter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 26, 1930 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Erembodegen |