Gary James Knoke (4 February 1942 – 9 July 1984) was

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal A ...

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

and

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

competing

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

athlete who was ranked third in the world in

400 metres hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women. On a standard outdoor track, 400 metres is the length of the inside lane, once ...

during 1966.

National representative

Australian Institute of Sport coaches - Gary Knoke

Knoke represented Australia at the 1964 Summer Olympics (

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

1968 Summer Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1968), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XIX Olimpiada) and commonly known as Mexico 1968 ( es, México 1968), were an international multi-sport eve ...

(

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) and

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...

(

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). In Tokyo, on 16 October 1964, he was placed fourth in the 400 metre hurdles final behind

Rex Cawley Warren Jay Cawley (July 6, 1940 – January 21, 2022) was an American athlete, winner of 400 m hurdles at the 1964 Summer Olympics. Cawley was born in Highland Park, Michigan. He attended Farmington High School. Cawley still holds the record t ...

of the

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, John Cooper of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

and Salvatore Morale of

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. He attended the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, 1970 British Commonwealth Games, 1974 British Commonwealth Games and the

Pacific Conference Games The Pacific Conference Games were a quadrennial athletics competition, held between 1969 and 1985 and contested by Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and the United States. Each of the five nations hosted an edition of the competition before its ...

twice.

World ranking

During his competitive career in the 400 Metre Hurdles, Knoke was ranked as follows: * 1964 - Seventh * 1965 - Eighth * 1966 - Third * 1967 - Tenth * 1968 - Ninth * 1969 - Tenth

Teaching and coaching career

He began his teaching career at Kingsgrove North High School in 1963. From 1974 until 1980, Knoke was a physical education teacher and athletics coach at

Newington College , motto_translation = To Faith Add Knowledge , location = Inner West and Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = A ...

. During that time Newington won the

Athletic Association of the Great Public Schools of New South Wales The Athletic Association of the Great Public Schools of New South Wales (AAGPS) is a sporting association of boys' schools in New South Wales, Australia that contest sporting events among themselves. The AAGPS was formed on 30 March 1892, and ...

(GPS) junior athletics four times and the senior athletics once. In 1981 he joined the staff of the Australian Institute of Sport as a hurdles coach. Knoke died in 1984 of cancer.

Honours

Knoke Avenue in

Gordon, Australian Capital Territory Gordon is a suburb in the Canberra, Australia district of Tuggeranong. The postcode is 2906. The suburb is named after the poet Adam Lindsay Gordon (1833–1870). It was gazetted on 12 March 1987. Streets are named after sportspersons, an exa ...

, is named in his honour. The Gary Knoke Memorial Scholarship is an award for track and field athletics presented annually by the Australian Institute of Sport; recipients of this scholarship have included Simon Hollingsworth, Rohan Robinson and Kyle Vander Kuyp.Australian Institute of Sport - Awards
Retrieved 27.9.2007

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knoke, Gary 1942 births 1984 deaths Australian male hurdlers Australian male sprinters Olympic athletes for Australia Athletes (track and field) at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1964 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1968 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1972 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games Staff of Newington College Australian Institute of Sport coaches Commonwealth Games competitors for Australia 20th-century Australian people Place of birth missing