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1976 Olympic Games Montreal - Men's Marathon

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Details: Parent Category: Olympic Games (Athletics); Category: 1976 Olympic Games Montreal - (Athletics); Last Updated: 30 July 2016; Hits: 1652

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Host City: Montréal, Canada

Format: 42,195 metres (26 miles, 385 yards) out-and-back.

Date Started: July 31, 1976

Date Finished: July 31, 1976

(Competitors: 67; Countries: 35)

Venue(s): Olympic Stadium, Olympic Park, Montréal, Québec

Overview by IAAF

Shorter, and his teammate Bill Rodgers, were the favourites, but Rodgers had a foot injury which left him in 40th place by the finish. Rodgers led the pack on a wet humid day at 10Km (30:48), and Shorter was in front at 20Km (1:01:24) with a group of seven men in attendance. By 30Km (1:32:08) only Cierpinski was with the American, with Drayton third, and Rodgers still in the top six, alongside Viren who was attempting a Zátopek treble. Just before 35Km Cierpinski broke clear of Shorter, leading him by 13 seconds at that point, with Shorter easing slightly, resigned to take silver. Cierpinski considered that he had a psychological advantage over the American, knowing just how good he was, while he realised that Shorter knew nothing about his strengths and weaknesses. The tall (1.90m) Kardong was now third, ahead of Lismont, but the gutsy European champion went past the cramping American for the bronze. Viren was a creditable fifth ahead of Drayton. Cierpinski, like Gaston Roelants a former steeplechaser, had improved nearly 2½ minutes over his best, a win in the ’76 national championships in May.

Summary by Sports-reference.com

By 1976, defending champion Frank Shorter was comfortably established as the top marathon runner in the world. For four consecutive years (1971-74), he had won what was considered the top race in the world, Japan’s Fukuoka Marathon. His biggest competition in Montréal was expected to come from another American, Bill Rodgers, who had surprised in 1975 by winning the Boston Marathon in 2-09:55. Canada’s Jerome Drayton had won the 1975 Fukuoka race over Australian Dave Chettle and Rodgers. Two Japanese runners, Akio Usami and Shigeru So, were also highly considered.

But the big story in Montréal was a runner who had never before run a marathon. A last-minute entry was Finland’s Lasse Virén who in both 1972 and 1976 had won the 5,000 and 10,000 on the track. He entered the marathon to attempt to duplicate Emil Zátopek’s distance triple from 1952.

The day of the race was warm and overcast, but a drizzle at the start turned into a steady rain throughout the race. This was not good news for Shorter, who did not like to run in the rain. Bill Rodgers pushed the early pace but he was running with an injured hamstring and would eventually fall back. At 25 km. the lead group included Shorter, Rodgers, Virén, Drayton, and a little-known East German former steeplechase runner, Waldemar Cierpinski. Shorter then put in a surge, attempting to drop the field, and only Cierpinski responded. At 30 km. it was Cierpinski who surged and Shorter could not match him. He gradually pulled away and won by almost 50 seconds. Shorter won the silver medal and the bronze went to the defending silver medalist, Belgium’s Karel Lismont. Lasse Virén finished a respectable sixth.

		Results

*Marathon*	Men	Final	31 July

Rank	Mark	Athlete	Country	NOC	Birth Date	Records
1	2.09.55	Waldemar Cierpinski	East Germany	GDR	3 Aug 50
2	2.10.46	Frank Shorter	United States	USA	31 Oct 47
3	2.11.13	Karel Lismont	Belgium	BEL	8 Mar 49
4	2.11.16	Don Kardong	United States	USA	22 Dec 48
5	2.13.11	Lasse Virén	Finland	FIN	22 Jul 49
6	2.13.30	Jerome Drayton	Canada	CAN	10 Jan 45
7	2.13.33	Leonid Moseyev	Soviet Union	URS	21 Oct 52
8	2.14.25	Franco Fava	Italy	ITA	3 Sep 52
9	2.15.34	Aleksandr Gotskiy	Soviet Union	URS	25 Oct 47
10	2.15.52	Hendrik Schoofs	Belgium	BEL	6 Oct 50
11	2.16.22	Shivnath Singh	India	IND	11 Jul 46
12	2.16.33	Choe Chang Sob	North Korea	PRK	18 Jul 55
13	2.16.56	Massimo Magnani	Italy	ITA	4 Oct 51
14	2.17.40	Göran Bengtsson	Sweden	SWE	25 Nov 49
15	2.17.43	Kazimierz Orzel	Poland	POL	26 Aug 43
16	2.17.51	Håkan Spik	Finland	FIN	18 Aug 51
17	2.17.53	Jack Foster	New Zealand	NZL	23 May 32
18	2.18.09	Mario Cuevas	Mexico	MEX	22 Jul 49
19	2.18.21	Rodolfo Gómez	Mexico	MEX	30 Oct 50
20	2.18.26	Shigeru Soh	Japan	JPN	9 Jan 53
21	2.18.44	Noriyasu Mizukami	Japan	JPN	6 Oct 47
22	2.18.53	Anacleto Pinto	Portugal	POR	25 Feb 48
23	2.19.35	José de Jesús	Puerto Rico	PUR	18 Sep 54
24	2.19.46	Yuriy Velikorodnykh	Soviet Union	URS	18 Feb 42
25	2.19.48	Jos Hermens	Netherlands	NED	8 Jan 50
26	2.20.05	Jeff Norman	Great Britain	GBR	6 Feb 45
27	2.20.27	Jukka Toivola	Finland	FIN	7 Sep 49
28	2.20.45	Jørgen Jensen	Denmark	DEN	10 Apr 44
29	2.21.42	Mihaíl Koúsis	Greece	GRE	10 Oct 53
30	2.22.09	Tom Howard	Canada	CAN	20 Sep 48
31	2.22.19	Keith Angus	Great Britain	GBR	5 Apr 43
32	2.22.30	Akio Usami	Japan	JPN	31 May 43
33	2.22.43	Rigoberto Mendoza	Cuba	CUB	4 Jan 46
34	2.22.57	Fernand Kolbeck	France	FRA	11 Oct 44
35	2.23.57	Chris Wardlaw	Australia	AUS	3 Mar 50
36	2.24.17	Wayne Yetman	Canada	CAN	8 Oct 46
37	2.24.30	Huseyin Aktaş	Turkey	TUR	25 Mar 41
38	2.24.47	Veli Balli	Turkey	TUR	10 Dec 49
39	2.24.57	Jim McNamara	Ireland	IRL	17 Apr 39
40	2.25.15	Bill Rodgers	United States	USA	23 Dec 47
41	2.26.00	Hipolito Lopez	Honduras	HON	7 Feb 52
42	2.27.07	Danny McDaid	Ireland	IRL	4 Aug 41
43	2.27.23	Eusebio Cardozo Asuncion	Paraguay	PAR	15 Aug 50
44	2.27.39	Kim Chang-Son	South Korea	KOR	11 Apr 52
45	2.28.32	Barry Watson	Great Britain	GBR	13 Feb 44
46	2.28.38	Agustin Fernández	Spain	ESP	11 May 38
47	2.28.46	Jerzy Gros	Poland	POL	21 Feb 45
48	2.29.25	Luis Raudales	Honduras	HON	21 May 56
49	2.29.44	Jairo Cubillos Ramirez	Colombia	COL	20 Aug 54
50	2.30.07	Baikhunta Manandhar	Nepal	NEP	24 Dec 52
51	2.31.02	Antonino Baños	Spain	ESP	7 Dec 45
52	2.31.55	Goe Chun Son	North Korea	PRK	2 Jun 52
53	2.35.00	Victor Serrano	Puerto Rico	PUR	20 Sep 49
54	2.35.45	Günther Mielke	West Germany	FRG	30 Nov 42
55	2.35.47	Neil Cusack	Ireland	IRL	30 Dec 51
56	2.38.05	Tau John Tokwepota	Papua New Guinea	PNG	25 Jun 56
57	2.38.23	Victor Idava	Philippines	PHI	28 May 56
58	2.39.18	Raymond Swan	Bermuda	BER
59	2.41.49	John Kokinai	Papua New Guinea	PNG	17 May 51
60	2.45.32	Lucio Guachalla	Bolivia	BOL	19 Oct 49
	DNF	Thancule Dezart	Haiti	HAI	15 Apr 47
	DNF	Santiago Manguan	Spain	ESP	25 Jul 41
	DNF	Giuseppe Cindolo	Italy	ITA	5 Aug 45
	DNF	Dave Chettle	Australia	AUS	14 Sep 51
	DNF	Ross Haywood	Australia	AUS	18 Feb 47
	DNF	Kevin Ryan	New Zealand	NZL	22 Jul 49
	DNF	Rafael Mora	Colombia	COL	4 Jun 52

More Details by Marathoninfo

1976: MONTREAL: Cierpinski SURPRISE SHORTER

DATED	WINNER	AGE	STARTERS	WITHDRAWALS
Saturday, July 31, 1976 at 17:30	Waldemar Cierpinski (GDR)	25 years	67 of 36 countries	7 (10.45%)

The Montreal Olympics were marked by the boycott of African countries. Two weeks before the games, the organization of African Unity had asked that New Zealand be excluded from Olympic competition for sending a rugby team on tour in South Africa. The IOC refused to comply, 22 African countries had left Montreal. Obviously this could affect the marathon as we know from Bikila and Wolde their qualities. Nevertheless most of the favorites are present, starting with Frank Shorter, the American defending champion hopes to do twice as well as Bikila and make history. His main rivals are fellow Bill Rodgers, the Belgian Karel Lismont, Canadian Jerome Drayton who will be on home soil, winning twice from Mecca marathoners Fukuoka. There are also Australian David Chettle, and some cite Waldemar Cierpinski that just report for some time, but it is so far from favorite Shorter knows not even.

Son of a family with three boys and three girls, Waldemar began by kicking a soccer ball, then turned to boxing. But the path of Nienburg, where he went to school in Bernburg, where he trained, ride he had to walk several times a week and that was in addition to the 6km daily surveyed to go to class, eventually discard. He needed less time to go to the stadium to Jesar, where he lived. The first time his physical education teacher had registered initially, it was not shown on the line, the second time he was ranked second without drive: the decision was taken, it would be runner foot. He first trained hard to be successful in the discipline of the 3000m steeplechase with little success. Wounded several times, he finally lost confidence in him. the 10,000m and the marathon offered him new adventures together with another springboard. If he did not reach the heights of 10000m (28'28 "in 1975), he was immediately a great marathon runner. He ran his first marathon in 1974 in 2h20'28". Already running through his head the idea to stand in Montreal.

He then went to Kosice, an international marathon-reaching, where he passed the time of 2h17'30 "and 7th place. He goes into overdrive before these encouraging time, and won his first marathon in Karl Marx Stadt in 2h13'57 ", thus the party of the elite. But the best time will be realized during the East German selections in Wittenberg where he won in 2h12'21 ". Despite this strong growth, it still seems a little" just "to win the Olympic marathon, why it is not often quoted in the race favorites.

Still, the race took place under good conditions of temperature, with light rain appeared after 15min to come to refresh the body. The race itself will take a long time to settle, it was not until the 15th km race to see a group break away, this group is composed of Shorter, Chettle, Drayton, Lismont, Rodgers, Cierpinski the Finn Viren ( winner of the 5000m and 10000m, he wanted to republish the feat of Zatopek and achieve the treble), the Australian Wardlaw will be the first to let go, and the Indian Shivnat Singh. They will spend the 20th km in 1h01'24 ".

It's Shorter boss who will shake the leaders and carry out an attack, causing breakage. Cierpinski only be able after an effort of more than four minutes to fill the hole 25m which was dug by Shorter. war of nerves will start, Cierpinski say after the race: "I had difficulty following the early cracking pace I began to go well when Shorter raised its first attack I was barely back in.. his stride he was returning. it was a struggle without thank you. How often have I been tempted to let him go! I sometimes felt like giving up. But I thought of my parents, my friends and to my country. and I tried to hang me once, five times, six times maybe. "

Cierpinski was not the same as gabari Shorter, the winner of Munich is tall and slender (1m79 for 61kg) while the German has a shorter stride and powerful (1m70 for 58kg). Also it will use it to take a few meters ahead in a climb. Shorter will quickly return but after 1:44 'race, he was again outpaced the 40th km and counted 32 seconds ahead. "He did not attack, I just have not been able to follow" said Shorter on arrival. The latter he underestimated the opponent he has long taken for Switzerland and he did not know. The attacks did they not more blunt than his opponent? "For him, I came out of nowhere. It was a significant psychological advantage" declared Cierpinski, and perhaps is this a reason for the success of the German facing the US yet very strong.

When Cierpinski, bib No. 51 pinned to his wet suit, appeared at the tunnel exit, it was a great disappointment. It was believed even perceive some whistles, fortunately quickly covered with applause. Weaned from victory, the strong American colony occupying the bleachers did not expect this winner here especially as the giant table showing the race leaders had turned the last time on a Shorter in the lead. But the funniest in the history of this arrival was that Cierpinski after crossing the finish line continued its momentum, in fact if the clock had stopped on the time of 2h09'55 "(Olympic record) around counter again showed him the number one and preferred Cierpinski safe side by doing extra. Shorter turn was not far behind so ended his race in second position before the first ... !!