Sidney Atkinson

Sidney Atkinson (left) and George Weightman-Smith in 1928

Sidney Atkinson ( Sidney James Montford "Sid" Atkinson ; born March 14, 1901 in Durban , † August 31, 1977 ibid) was a South African athlete . With a height of 1.86 m, he had a competition weight of 76 kg.

At the Olympic Games in 1924 Sidney Atkinson delivered a duel with the American Daniel Kinsey in the final of the 110-meter hurdles . Daniel Kinsey won in 15.0 s ahead of Atkinson at the same time. Third place went to Swede Sten Pettersson in 15.4 seconds .

Before the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, Earl Thomson and Sten Pettersson's world record was 14.8 s. In the first semifinals, this world record was set by the American Leighton Dye ; the Briton Frederick Gaby ran 14.9 s in second place. Stephen Anderson (USA) also set the world record in the second semi-final , Sidney Atkinson came second in 14.9 seconds. In the third semifinals, Atkinson's compatriot George Weightman-Smith ran a new world record with 14.6 s ahead of John Collier from the USA, who set the old world record with 14.8 s. While before 1928 at the Olympic Games only Thomson stayed under 15 seconds in 1920 , this time 14.9 s were not enough for the young Swede Eric Wennström for the final.

In the final, Weightman-Smith was at a disadvantage on the inside lane from the start, because this lane was softened by the laps of the long distance runners. Nevertheless, the Olympic victory went to a South African, because Atkinson won in 14.8 s ahead of Anderson (14.8 s) and Collier (14.9 s). Dye (14.9 s) followed before Weightman-Smith (15.0 s) and Gaby (15.2 s).

Sidney Atkinson started in 1928 in the 100-meter run and in the long jump , but did not reach the final in either discipline.

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• Ekkehard zur Megede: The Modern Olympic Century 1896-1996 Track and Fields Athletics. Berlin 1999 (published by the German Society for Athletics Documentation eV )

Web links

• Sidney Atkinson in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )