Monday, May 02, 2016

Merv Lincoln (1933-2016)

Merv Lincoln

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Merv Lincoln
Medal record
Men's athletics
Representing  Australia
Commonwealth Games
Silver medal – second placeCardiff 1958One mile
Mervyn George "Merv" Lincoln (22 November 1933 - 01 May 2016)[1] is an Australian middle-distance runner who won a silver medal in the mile run at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games and twice competed in the Summer Olympic Games.

Career[edit]

Lincoln qualified for the 1500 metres final at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, finishing 12th.[1] He was tipped as a potential successor to the retiring John Landy as Australia's leading miler;[2] however, newcomer Herb Elliott defeated him at the 1957 national championships. [3]
Lincoln ran his first four-minute mile on 23 March 1957, the eleventh man in the world and the third Australian to accomplish that feat.[4] His time of 3:58.9 was less than a second short of Landy's world record of 3:58.0.[5] Despite his loss to Elliott at the Australian championships he did also win a national championship mile that year, winning the United States championship race as an outside competitor.[6] Track & Field News ranked him #7 in the world for 1957, one place below his Australian rival Elliott.[7]
Lincoln reached his peak in 1958 but was overshadowed by the rapidly improving Elliott.[8] The Australian team of Elliott, Lincoln and Albie Thomas swept the medals in the mile at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, Lincoln running 4:01.80 for silver.[9] He set his personal mile best of 3:55.9 in Dublin on 6 August 1958,[4] finishing more than a second under Derek Ibbotson's world record of 3:57.2 yet still only being the runner-up as Elliott won in a new record time of 3:54.5.[10] Track & Field News ranked Lincoln as second in the world that year; however, that proved to be the last time he was ranked among the world's top ten,[7] and at the 1960 Olympics in Rome he failed to qualify from the heats.[1]
He was coached by the Austrian-born Franz Stampfl, a bitter rival of Elliott's coach Percy Cerutty.[11] Stampfl stated Lincoln only trained one hour a day, in contrast to the harder training of Elliott.[11]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Merv Lincoln Bio, Stats and Results". Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved 24 March 2014. 
  2. Jump up ^ "Clash to Decide Champion Miler". The Sydney Morning Herald. 7 March 1957. Retrieved 24 March 2014. 
  3. Jump up ^ "New Mile Champion Elliott Seeks Landy Record Today". The Age. 12 March 1957. Retrieved 24 March 2014. 
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b Sparks, Bob (2002). "Four-minute mile data". Retrieved 24 March 2014. 
  5. Jump up ^ Butler, Mark; IAAF Media & Public Relations Department (2013). "IAAF Statistics Handbook Moscow 2013". International Association of Athletics Federations. 
  6. Jump up ^ Mallon, Bill; Buchanan, Ian; Track & Field News. "A History Of The Results Of The National Track & Field Championships Of The USA From 1876 Through 2011". Track & Field News. Retrieved 24 March 2014. 
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b "World Rankings — Men’s 1500/Mile" (PDF). Track and Field News. Retrieved 24 March 2014. 
  8. Jump up ^ Welch, Bruce (24 June 1958). ""Runner-up" Role for Merv Lincoln". The Age. Retrieved 24 March 2014. 
  9. Jump up ^ "COMMONWEALTH GAMES MEDALLISTS - ATHLETICS (MEN)". Athletics Weekly. Retrieved 24 March 2014. 
  10. Jump up ^ "Record Mile at Dublin". The Montreal Gazette. 7 August 1958. Retrieved 24 March 2014. 
  11. ^ Jump up to: a b "The Amazing Herb Elliott". Sports Illustrated. 11 October 1958. Retrieved 24 March 2014. 
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Merv_Lincoln&oldid=718267536"
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