Sándor Iharos

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sándor Iharos (born March 10, 1930 in Budapest ; † January 24, 1996 there ) was a Hungarian athlete who appeared in the 1950s as a medium and long-distance runner . He caused a sensation mainly with his world records, but was a runner without luck: the records were short-lived, and he was unable to win an international medal at either the Olympic Games or the European Championships.

Life

In 1955 Iharos took part in the Universiade in Warsaw and finished second over 5000 meters in 13: 56.6 minutes behind the Pole Jerzy Chromik (winner in 13: 55.2 minutes).

In 1956 he competed at the "Kusociński Memorial" again over 5000 meters and won.

He won his last national championship over 5000 meters in 1961 (13: 51.8 min). In the previous year he was still double champion in the 5000 meters (14: 00.8 min) and 10,000 meters (29: 14.5 min) (his championship titles before 1960 are not confirmed).

Iharos started for Honvéd Budapest and was part of Mihály Iglói's training group , which trained more extensively than the competition. He was 1.70 m tall and weighed 65 kg in his active time.

Olympic games

Sándor Iharos took part in two Olympic Games: 1952 in Helsinki and 1960 in Rome .

On his debut in Helsinki in 1952 , he started over 1500 meters , but had to finish the competition as fifth of his prelim in 3: 56.0 min. He stayed away from the 1956 Games in Melbourne because he was denied participation due to the political events - the Hungarian popular uprising took place immediately before the Games (officially an injury was given as the reason for not starting). Meanwhile , his coach Mihály Iglói took the opportunity to move to the USA via Melbourne. In the period that followed, Iharos went downhill rapidly. At the 1960 Games in Rome , he did again both over 5000 meters and over 10,000 meters , but played no role in the battle for the medals: Over 5000 meters he finished third from bottom in 14: 11.4 minutes (it won the New Zealander Murray Halberg in 13: 43.4 minutes), and over 10,000 meters fared him only marginally better than he 29 runners who crossed the finish line (on elimination races had to be omitted), in 29: 15.8 minutes finished in eleventh place behind the Briton Gordon Pirie (it won Pyotr Bolotnikow from the USSR in 28: 32.2 min)

European championships

Sándor Iharos took part in two European championships: 1954 in Bern over 1500 meters and 1958 in Stockholm over 5000 meters. Both times he came in sixth and last place by a clear margin.

His year of success was 1955, when he set seven world records (all but two of them were run in Budapest).

World records

  • 1500 m : 3: 40.8 min on July 28, 1955 in Helsinki (improvement of John Landy's one-year-old record by exactly one second; the record was set twice in the same year and then in August 1956 by Iharo's compatriot István Rózsavölgyi pressed by two tenths to 3: 40.6 min)
  • 3000 m : 7: 55.6 min on May 14, 1955 (With this performance, Iharos undercut Gaston Reiff's six-year-old record by 3.2 seconds; it was initially set a year later by Gordon Pirie and then to 7:52 , 8 min improved)
  • 2 miles : 8: 33.4 min on May 30, 1955 in London
  • 3 miles: 13: 14.2 min on October 23, 1955 (this time was stopped as an intermediate time during a run over 5000 meters)
  • 5000 m :
    • 13: 50.8 min on September 10, 1955 (Iharos improved Volodymyr Kuz's record, which was almost a year old, by four tenths; a week later, Kuz regained the record with 13: 46.8 min.)
    • 13: 40.6 min on October 23, 1955 was Iharo's response to Kuz's only one week old performance. The record lasted until June of the following year, when Gordon Pirie pushed it to 13: 36.8 min.
  • 6 miles : 27: 43.8 min on July 15, 1956 (this time was stopped as an intermediate time during a run of 10,000 meters)
  • 10,000 m : 28: 42.8 min on July 15, 1956 (This time meant an improvement of Emil Zatopek's record from 1954 by almost twelve seconds. However, it was not even a month old: On September 11, 1956 in Moscow ran short 28: 30.4 min)
  • 4 × 1500 m :
    • 15: 29.2 min on September 23, 1953
    • 15: 21.2 min on July 14, 1954
    • 15: 14.8 min on September 29, 1955
  • 4 × 1 mile : 16.25.2 min on September 29, 1959

Web links

  • Arnd Krüger (1998) Many roads lead to the Olympics. The changes in the training systems for medium and long distance runners (1850–1997), in: N. GISSEL (Hrsg.): Sportliche Leistungs im Wandel. Hamburg: Czwalina, pp. 41 - 56. ISBN 978-3-88020-322-8
personal data
SURNAME Iharos, Sándor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian athlete
DATE OF BIRTH March 10, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Budapest
DATE OF DEATH January 24, 1996
Place of death Budapest