Miklós Szabó (6 December 1908 – 3 December 2000) was a Hungarian middle distance runner who held world records over two distances. Szabó won a silver medal in the first ever European Championship final, finishing second to

Luigi Beccali Luigi Beccali (19 November 1907 – 29 August 1990) was the first Italian to win an Olympic gold medal in running, in the 1500 metres at the 1932 Summer Olympics, and the first Italian to win a European Championship title in athletics. Biograph ...

over

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 ...

on the first day of the

1934 European Athletics Championships The 1st European Athletics Championships were held in Turin, Italy, at the Stadio Olimpico di Torino, Stadio Benito Mussolini between 7 and 9 September 1934. A contemporaneous report on the event was given in the Glasgow Herald. Results Medalists ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

. Later in the same championships, Szabó defeated the home favourite, Mario Lanzi, in the final of the

800 metres The 800 metres, or meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event since the ...

—the judges awarded him the gold after both men crossed the line in a time of 1:52.0. Szabó was unable to repeat his success at the

1936 Olympics 1936 Olympics may refer to: *The 1936 Winter Olympics, which were held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany *The 1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI ...

; he was eliminated after finishing fourth in his semi-final over 800 metres and finished seventh in the final of the 1500 metres. Two months after the Olympics, on 4 October 1936, Szabó broke

Jules Ladoumègue Jules Ladoumègue (10 December 1906 – 2 March 1973) was a French middle-distance runner. He became a running star as the sport enjoyed a huge resurgence at the start of the Great Depression, fueled in large part by newsreel coverage. His caree ...

's world record over

2000 metres The 2000 metres or 2000-metre run is a track running event where five laps are completed around an outdoor 400 m track, or ten laps around a 200 m indoor track - the distance is 11.68 meters short of 1¼ miles. The global governing body World Ath ...

with a time of 5:20.4. The following year, on 30 September 1937, he ran 8:56.0 to break

Gunnar Höckert Gunnar Mikael Höckert (12 February 1910 – 11 February 1940) was a Finnish runner, winner of the 5000 m race at the 1936 Summer Olympics. Biography Born in Helsinki to a wealthy family, Gunnar Höckert had only one great season, in 1936. ...

's world record over

two miles The 2 mile (10,560 feet or 3,218.688 metres) is a historic running distance. Like the mile run, it is still contested at some invitational meets due its historical chronology in the United States and United Kingdom. It has been larg ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Szabo, Miklos 1908 births 2000 deaths Hungarian male middle-distance runners World record setters in athletics (track and field) Olympic athletes of Hungary Athletes (track and field) at the 1936 Summer Olympics Place of birth missing European Athletics Championships medalists 20th-century Hungarian people