Mention any distance race today like an Olympic Marathon and it's almost a given that it will be won by someone from either Ethiopia or Kenya. Back in 1960, it was a different story as no African had ever won an Olympic Gold up to that point. All that changed in the Rome Olympics when Abebe Bikila from Ethiopia won the Marathon running barefoot in a time of 2h 15m 16s and became the first African athlete to win a Gold medal. Four years later in the 1964 Tokyo Games, Bikila defended his Olympic title by winning in a new world record time of 2h 12m 11s. Bikila had shown the way for runners from East Africa and today, they tend to dominate all of the distance events.
Over the weekend, Ian O'Riordan from the Irish Times had an interesting piece on Abebe Bikila HERE
Showing posts with label 1960. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1960. Show all posts
Monday, July 09, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Maeve Kyle...the first female Irish Olympian in athletics
Back in 1956, Maeve Kyle became the first Irish woman to take part in athletics in the Olympics when she competed in the 100m and 200m in Melbourne. At the time, it caused a bit of consternation in consevative Ireland with some people writing some 'stern' letters to the Irish Times! ;o)
She would later take part in the 1960 Rome Olympics and 1964 Tokyo Olympics (where she reached the semi-finals of both the 400m and 800m). She then went on to take bronze in the 400m at the 1966 European Indoor Athletics Championships in Dortmund. As well as being involved in athletics, Maeve also played hockey for Ireland and gained 58 caps.
The Newstalk Off the Ball sports programme interviewed Maeve recently and you can hear the 20 minute interview here...
On the Running Review website, James Sullivan also has another interview. You can read it HERE
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