Walter Adams (15 March 1945 – 30 October 2023) was a West German middle distance runner who specialized in 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 ...

Biography

Adams finished fourth at the 1968 Olympic Games, and won a gold medal in 3 x 1000 metres relay at the

1969 European Indoor Games The 1969 European Indoor Games were held between 8–9 March 1969 in Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia (present-day Serbia). In 1970 the European Indoor Games were replaced by the European Athletics Indoor Championships. The track used for the c ...

together with teammates Peter Adam and

Harald Norpoth Harald Norpoth (born 22 August 1942) is a West German former middle and long distance runner. He won the silver medal over 5000 m at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo as a member of the United Team of Germany.1966 European Championships and the

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 var ...

without reaching the final. His personal best time was 1.44.9 minutes, achieved in July 1970 in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

. This was the European record once. He also helped set two world records in 4 x 800 metres and 4 x 880 yards relay, in 1966 and 1968. Adams competed for the sports club

SV Salamander Kornwestheim SV, Sv, sv, etc. may refer to: Places and language * El Salvador, ISO 3166-1 country code SV * South Vietnam, an extinct state * Svalbard, Norway, FIPS country code SV * Swedish language, ISO 639-1 language code sv * Silicon Valley, a region in n ...

during his active career. He became West German champion in 1968, 1969 and 1972. Walter Adams died on 30 October 2023, at the age of 78.

References

1945 births 2023 deaths Athletes (track and field) at the 1968 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1972 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for West Germany West German male middle-distance runners Sportspeople from Aalen SV Salamander Kornwestheim athletes Recipients of the Silver Laurel Leaf West German Athletics Championships winners {{Germany-middledistance-athletics-bio-stub