Francis "Frank" Murphy (21 May 1947 – 5 January 2017) was an Irish

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-devel ...

, who specialised in

middle-distance running Middle-distance running events are Track and field#Running, track races longer than Sprint (running), sprints, up to 3000 metres. The standard middle distances are the 800 metres, 1500 metres and mile run, although the 3000 metres may also be clas ...

. He earned a silver medal by finishing in second place in the

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletic ...

event at the

1969 European Athletics Championships The 9th European Athletics Championships were held from 16–21 September 1969 in the Karaiskaki Stadium of Athens, the capital of Greece. New at these championships were the women's 1500 metres and the women's 4×400 metres relay event. Moreover, ...

. He competed at the

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

in 1968 and 1972. He was also a 1500 m runner-up to Henryk Szordykowski at the

1970 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 1970 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held in 1970 at Wiener Stadthalle, Vienna, the capital of Austria, between 14–15 March 1970. It replaced the European Indoor Games, an indoor athletics competition which had been held since 19 ...

. He died on 5 January 2017 at the age of 69.

References

External links

Profile from Athletics Ireland
1947 births 2017 deaths Sportspeople from Dublin (city) Irish male middle-distance runners Olympic athletes of Ireland Athletes (track and field) at the 1968 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1972 Summer Olympics European Athletics Championships medalists {{Ireland-athletics-bio-stub