- Iosif Sârbu
Iosif Sârbu (born September 25th ,1925 in
Şibot ,Alba County ,Romania ) was aRomania n sports shooter andRomania ’s first ever olympic champion.porting career
His family moved to the Romanian capital of
Bucharest ,when Iosif was just 7 years old. His father, Dănilă Sârbu, soon got a job at the Tunari Sports Shooting Range, whose manager he became just afterWorld War II . This provided an opportunity for young Iosif to take up sports shooting in 1937,at the age of 12. He won his first national level competition (Bucharest Cup) in 1939.In the first national championship after the war (1946) he became Romanian champion in the Free Rifle, Standing event, scoring 358 points.His first international victory came in the Balkan champioships inBelgrade (1948) where he won the Free Rifle, Prone event.In the 1952 World Championships inOslo ,Norway , he won medals in all 4 events he participated in (2 gold and 2 silver medals). Shortly afterwards, in the 1952 Summer Olympic Games inHelsinki , he wins the Rifle 50 metres, Prone event, scoring an absolute world and Olympic record of 400 points. The same was achieved by Soviet Boris Andreyev;however,according to the regulations in force at the time, Sârbu was awarded the gold medal, on grounds of his hitting the very center of the target 33 times, compared to Andreyev’s 28. Arthur C. Jackson of the U. S. took bronze with 398 points. Sârbu thus became Romania’s first Olympic champion in history, regardless of discipline.Despite his declining eyesight, Iosif Sârbu took part in another two Olympics , finishing 5th in Melbourne, 1956 and 12th in Rome, 1960.On September 6th , 1964, he is found dead in his Bucharest home. The circumstances of his death were never officially explained or confirmed, but it is widely believed that he comittedsuicide , after a medical verdict not only denied him participation in the 1964 Olympic games inTokyo , but stated he would never be able to compete again, because of his eye condition.Legacy
He is the first Romanian Olympic gold medalist and world record holder ever, in any discipline. The main sports shooting complex in Bucharest is named after him.
Quotes
“In the big concert of sports, shooting is like (…) a sonata for solo violin. Everything is clear and forceful. And the shooter is alone. Alone with himself. Soccer’s trumpets are left far behind, beyond the wall of adolescence. In shooting, everything is serious and profound…”(from Iosif Sârbu’s essay, “The Olympics of the Year 2000”, 1960)
References
Ioan Chirilă,Decatlonul de aur, Editura Stadion, Bucureşti,1962 (includes Iosif Sârbu’s essay quoted above)Horia Alexandrescu, Aur olimpic românesc, Editura Sport-Turism, Bucureşti, 1979
External links
* [http://www.olympic.org/uk/athletes/results/search_r_uk.asp Helsinki 1952 shooting Olympic medalists on the IOC website]
* [http://www.gov-sport.ro/unlimitpages.asp?id=889 a short biography of Iosif Sârbu (in Romanian)]
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