Henning Karl Larsen (December 12, 1910 – January 11, 2011) was a Danish

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

runner who competed at the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Larsen joined Helsingør IF's football program at the age of 13 but eventually switched to representing the club in

track and field athletics Track and field is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, 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 ...

. He went on to earn twelve national titles, including nine in the marathon, and finished 8th and 10th in the marathon at the

1946 European Athletics Championships The 3rd European Athletics Championships were held from 22 August to 25 August 1946 in the Bislett Stadion in Oslo, Norway. For the first time it was a combined event for men and women, and for the first time a city in Scandinavia hosted the champ ...

and 1948 Summer Olympics respectively. Outside of athletics he ran a grocery store and a dry cleaning business and provided the financing to found the Helsingør Pigegarde (Helsingør Women's Guard). He died in January 2011, one month after his hundredth birthday.

Early life and athletic career

Larsen was born on December 12, 1910, in

Helsingør Helsingør ( , ; sv, Helsingör), classically known in English as Elsinore ( ), is a city in eastern Denmark. Helsingør Municipality had a population of 62,686 on 1 January 2018. Helsingør and Helsingborg in Sweden together form the northern ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

. At the age of 13 he began playing

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

for Helsingør IF (now Elite 3000 Fodbold). By 1928, however, he had switched to track and field athletics and began running for the club in cross-country tournaments. During the early 1930s he was both a cross-country and middle distance runner for the club, but he later focused exclusively on long distances, after coming in third in the 5,000m event at the Danish National Championships in 1935. Larsen became the Danish national 5,000 and 10,000m champion in 1937, earning Helsingør IF's first running title. He went on to capture ten more national championships, nine in the marathon (1941, 1943–1950) and one in the 20 km (1950), as well as coming in third place in the 10,000m in 1938. In 1946 he set the Danish national record for the marathon at 2:38:36 and competed in that year's

European Athletics Championships The European Athletics Championships is a biennial (from 2010) athletics event organised by the European Athletics Association and is recognised as the elite continental outdoor athletics championships for Europe. Editions First held, for men ...

, placing eighth in the marathon. His next major international stop was the

, where he came in tenth in a field of 41 competitors in the same event.

Later life

Larsen retired from active competition in 1954, at the age of 44, having earned 43

Zealand Zealand ( da, Sjælland ) at 7,031 km2 is the largest and most populous island in Denmark proper (thus excluding Greenland and Disko Island, which are larger in size). Zealand had a population of 2,319,705 on 1 January 2020. It is the 1 ...

titles in addition to his national and international achievements. He continued to run non-competitively alongside his brothers for many years after his retirement and also took up

pigeon racing Pigeon racing is the sport of releasing specially trained homing pigeons, which then return to their homes over a carefully measured distance. The time it takes the animal to cover the specified distance is measured and the bird's rate of travel ...

as a hobby. Outside of athletics he worked as an errand boy before managing a grocery store in Helsingør from 1932 through 1964. He also ran a dry cleaning store and helped provide the financing to found the Helsingør Pigegarde (Helsingør Women's Guard) in 1957. He was an honorary chairman of Helsingør IF and a member for almost 90 years. He turned 100 on December 12, 2010, and, as part of the celebrations, a fund to help finance youth programs for Helsingør IF was established in his honour. He died one month later, on January 11, 2011, in a nursing home in Helsingør.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Larsen, Henning 1910 births 2011 deaths Danish centenarians Danish male long-distance runners Danish male marathon runners Athletes (track and field) at the 1948 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Denmark Sportspeople from Helsingør Men centenarians

Early life and athletic career

Later life

See also

References