Bob Tisdall

Bob Tisdall (actually Robert Morton Newburgh Tisdall, born May 16, 1907 in Nuwara Eliya, Ceylon, † 28 July 2004 in Nambour, Queensland, Australia) was a versatile athlete who became Olympic champion for Ireland. At a height of 1.86 m, it had a competition weight of 74 kg.

Life

Until 1932

Bob Tisdall grew up in Nenagh, County Tipperary, the son of Anglo- Irish parents. He studied at Cambridge and won in 1931 compared fight against Oxford over 440 yards, 120 yards hurdles, long jump and shot put.

In 1932 he applied for a place in the Irish Olympic team. After he had set up over 440 yards hurdles with 54.2 seconds an Irish record, he was nominated for the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. There he took up in the 400 - meter hurdles and the decathlon.

Olympic Games 1932

On July 31, 1932 Tisdall first won his heat of the 400 - meter hurdles in 54.8 seconds and on the same day even the semi-final in 52.8 seconds. On 1 August 1932 the finale took place. In the field of the Olympic champion from 1924 Morgan Taylor were from the United States, who held the world record 52.0 seconds and the British Olympic champion from 1928 Lord Burghley.

The result was:

Tisdall was thus Olympic champion. Because he had torn the last hurdle, its time but was not recognized as a world record. The time of Hardin has been rounded to 52.0 seconds, and recognized as setting the world record.

About an hour after the final in the 400 - meter hurdles Pat O'Callaghan won the hammer throw, so that August 1st, 1932 the most successful day in the history of Irish athletics was. Five days after the final hurdle Tisdall was 7327.170 points eighth in the Olympic decathlon finals.

Glenn Hardin won four years later, an Olympic gold medal in the 400 - meter hurdles, so that in retrospect has the finale of 1932, the oddity that four Olympic gold medalist in the same discipline were placed on the first four places.

After 1932

1934 Tisdall traveled to South Africa and worked there as a teacher. During World War II he served in a South African Irish Regiment, in which he rose to major. Later Tisdall lived in Kenya, Rhodesia, Tanzania and Ireland. In 1969 he moved with his wife Peggy to South Australia and settled there as a farmer. 2000 Tisdall involved in the Olympic Torch Relay. 2004 died Tisdall, who was at that time the oldest living Athletics Olympic champion in an individual event.

Swell

• Peter Matthews (ed.). Athletics 2005 Sportsbooks, Cheltenham 2005, ISBN 1899807-27-6 (contains an obituary ).
• Ekkehard to Megede: The Modern Olympic Century 1896-1996 Track and Field Athletics. German Society for Athletics documentation eV, Neuss 1999.