Väinö Muinonen
Viktor Väinö Muinonen (born December 30, 1898 in Lappeenranta , † June 10, 1978 in Imatra ) was a Finnish marathon runner .
The 1.67 m tall runner, who weighed 54 kg when he competed, made it to the top of the world in the mid-1930s. At the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Väinö Muinonen was fifth in 2:33:46 hours, two minutes behind the bronze medal. In 1938 in Paris at the European Championships , he was able to defend the title for Finland, which Armas Toivonen had won four years earlier . In 2: 37: 38.8 hours he was one and a half minutes ahead of the British Squire Yarrow .
After the Second World War, Muinonen wanted to defend his title at the European Championships in Oslo in 1946 . At the age of 47 he ran at 2:26:08 hours, significantly faster than before the war. Nevertheless, he was defeated by his compatriot Mikko Hietanen , who was the third Finnish European marathon champion in a row, by over a minute . Muinonen, who became Finnish marathon champion in 1937 and 1940, ran another 2:36:23 hours over the marathon distance in 1949 at the age of 50.
literature
- Ekkehard zur Megede: The Modern Olympic Century 1896-1996 Track and Field Athletics . Berlin 1999, published by the German Society for Athletics Documentation eV
Web links
- Väinö Muinonen in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Muinonen, Väinö |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Muinonen, Viktor Väinö (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Finnish marathon runner |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 30, 1898 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lappeenranta |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 10, 1978 |
| Place of death | Imatra |