Zoltan Vamoş

Zoltan Vamoş (born January 27, 1936 in Timişoara ; † 2001 ibid) was a Romanian athlete. In 1962 he came second in the 3000 meter obstacle course at the European Championships.

Vamoș was born as a member of the Hungarian minority in Timișoara, the Hungarian spelling of his name is Zoltán Vámos . At the end of the 1950s he was one of the best runners in Romania in the 800-meter run and the 1500-meter run . In 1959 he won the title at the Balkan Games over both distances. He undercut his previous best time over 800 meters by almost two seconds to 1: 48.2 min, over 1500 meters he was able to increase in 1959 to 3: 43.0 min. Vamoş was able to repeat his double victory at the Balkan Games in 1960. Before the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome , he improved his best performance over 1500 meters to 3: 40.5 minutes. In Rome, Vamoş qualified for the final as third of his heat behind Dan Waern and Michel Jazy . In the final, Herb Elliott started his solo gold medal and world record about 600 meters from the finish line, Vamos stayed in fourth place for a long time behind Michel Jazy and István Rózsavölgyi , but was overtaken by Dan Waern in the final sprint and finished fifth in 3: 40.8 min.

After he had won the 1500-meter run again at the Balkan Games in 1961, Vamoș succeeded in 1962 with a double victory over 1500 meters and 5000 meters. At the European Championships in Belgrade in 1962 , Vamoş did not start on either of these two routes, instead he took part in the 3000-meter obstacle course and qualified second in the third heat in 8: 44.9 min safely for the final. The final was largely designed by Belgian Gaston Roelants , who immediately took the lead, was then caught by Vamoş and Hermann Buhl, pulled away again, was caught by Vamoş one lap before the end and then ran out again five seconds ahead on the final lap. Vamoş won the silver medal with a new Romanian national record of 8: 37.6 minutes, three seconds ahead of the Soviet runner Nikolai Sokolow . In 1963 Vamoş won his first Romanian championship title in the obstacle course, in the 1964 season he did not appear. After winning the obstacle course at both the Romanian Championships and the Balkan Games in 1965, he achieved a double victory in the obstacle course and the 5000 meter run at the Balkan Games in 1966. At the European Championships in Budapest in 1966 , a very fast race developed, the course of which Vamoş could not influence; although he improved the Romanian national record to 8: 34.0 min, he only finished seventh. After his fourth Romanian championship title in the obstacle course in 1967, the career of Zoltan Vamoş ended.

With a height of 1.72 m, his competition weight was 62 kg.

literature

• Klaus Amrhein / Axel Schäfer: 60 years of the European Athletics Championships . Self-published, Groß-Zimmer / Bochum 1998
• Àros Károly: Erdély magyar sportolók az olimpiákon . Szentendre 2002 ISBN 963-440770-6 , page 184
• Ekkehard zur Megede: The History of Olympic Athletics. 2nd volume 1948-1968 . Bartels & Wernitz Berlin 1969

Web links

• Zoltan Vamoș in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Romanian national champions
• Winner of the Balkan Games