- Rudolf Harbig
Rudolf ("Rudi") Harbig (
November 8 ,1913 –March 5 ,1944 ) was a German middle distance runner best known for the800 metres world record that he set in Milan in 1939.Life
in Paris over 800 m in a time of 1:50.6 min. At the same championships he won the gold medal with the German 4x400 m relay team.
In the same summer the British runner
Sydney Wooderson set a remarkable new world record over 800 m at 1:48.4 min. When, in 1939, Harbig set a new national record of 1:49.4 he knew that the world record was not an unrealistic prospect. However, in the same season, Mario Lanzi ran a time of 1:49.5 inPisa . The two rivals met in Milan in July for a much-celebrated race over 800 m on a 500 m-track. In his usual manner Lanzi took the lead and was still in front on the final bend. However, at the start of the 125 m-home-straight Harbig overtook him with an astonishing sprint. He finished with a new world record of 1:46.6 min. Lanzi, behind him, set a new Italian record of 1:49.0. In the following years Harbig's time turned out to be a very hard record to break. Even track legendsArthur Wint andMal Whitfield could not threaten it. Finally, in August 1955 the Belgian runnerRoger Moens set a new world record of 1:45.7.Also, in 1939 Harbig set a world record over 400 m on a 500 m-track in Frankfurt in 46.0 sec. In Dresden in 1941 he set a world record over 1000 m in 2:21.5. In the
Second World War Harbig was sent to the Eastern Front and died in the Ukraine in 1944. A stadium in his hometown was named after him.References
* Wallechinsky, David (2004). "The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics",
Toronto : Sport Classic Books. ISBN 1-894963-34-2
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