News Archive

Since its beginning, the BERLIN-MARATHON has had a special affinity to the

Olympic champions in the marathon. From 1974 – 1977, the BERLIN-MARATHON

medals were adorned with running figures from the antiquities. Since 1978, the

medals have been dedi-cated to Olympic champions. The Olympic heroes and their

merits are thus remembered and saved for posterity in the medals. They are

indeed the “forerunners” and protagonists of to-day’s modern

running movement and development.

This series of medals began with the 1978 BERLIN-MARATHON with the portrait

of Kitei Son (JPN), the 1936 champion in Berlin. In addition, the certificate

that every participant re-ceives includes a picture of the Olympic champion,

and the programme includes the success story of the victor.

Kee Chung-sohn (the Korean name) was invited by the organisers to be an

honorary guest at the first city marathon in Berlin in 1981, as was Emil

Zatopek at a later date. He wore the red marathon helper’s jacket at the

start in front of the Reichstag and was greeted with overwhelming applause.

Richard von Weizsäcker, then mayor of Berlin, gave the starting shot.

Kee Chung-sohn was then privately invited for coffee by Race Director Horst

Milde and his children, who were given photos and autographs. He repeated his

visit a few years later as the official ambassador and representative for his

country, Korea, for the candidacy of Seoul for the 1988 Olympic Games.

Kitei Son’s victory in Berlin is described below through various

reports about the race. Readers from Berlin should take a close look at the

report about the course to be able to judge what the Olympic participants had

to accomplish in 1936.

„Zabala was crushed by Son and Harper“

read the headline of the track and field specialist Ekkehard zur Megede in his

book, “The History of Olympic Track and Field”, Volume 1:1896

– 1936, Bartels & Wernitz, 1968, and under the headline “From

the Stone Age of the Olympic MARATHON” in the programme of the 1983

BERLIN-MARATHON” the same text follows: „56 runners participated on

August 9, 1936 at 3:00 p.m. in the battle over 42.195 km, including the

Argentinean Juan Carlos Zabala, who had hoped to repeat his 1932 victory in Los

Angeles. He had improved his time for 10,000m to 30:56,2 and was fairly sure of

himself. But he had not taken the men from Japan into consideration. Kitei Son

(2:26:42 in 1935), Tamao Shiaku (2:26:53,0 at the beginning of the Olympic

year) and Shorju Nan represented Japan’s flag. Son originated from Korea,

and today lives in Seoul as one of South Korea’s richest men, owning

almost all of the mills in the country.

From the beginning, Zabala did not worry about his competitors, running

alone with over a minute lead ahead of Dias of Portugal at the 10 km mark in

32:30. At that point, Son was in fifth place, 1:58 behind. But at the control

point at the 21 km mark, the situation already looked much different. Although

the Argentinean, who was looking tired, was still in the lead with 1:11:29,0,

the 22-year-old Son and the ten years older Englishman Ernest Harper ran by

together in second place, fifty seconds behind. Shortly after 28 km, Son and

Harper reached the South American, who then suffered a collapse. Zabala

recovered once, chugged along for four more kilometres, and then gave up

completely exhausted.

Kitei Son did not let Harper run at his side for long. He felt refreshed and

increased the tempo. He turned his 16-second lead ahead of the Brit at the 31

km mark into more than two minutes by the finish. He reached the Olympic

stadium in good condition and even had the energy for a final sprint. As the

first marathon runner in the history of the Olympics, he beat the two and a

half hour mark with a time of 2:29:19,2. Harper also beat Zabala’s

Olympic record, which the third place Japanese runner, Nan, just missed by six

seconds.

By the way, the Olympic champion Son ran in shoes that were split at the

front, which was quite a sensation at the time. When he was visiting Berlin

twenty years later, he commented: “That was just a fad. It gave me

neither an advantage nor disadvantage.”

1. Kitei Son (Japan) 2:29:19,2 (OR)

2. Ernest Harper (Great Britain) 2:31:23,2

3. Shoryu Nan (Japan) 2:31:42,0“

42 runners crossed the finish. The best German runner was Eduard Braesicke

2:59:33,4 in 29th place. Paul de Bruyn and Franz Barsicke dropped out of the

race.

Average speed of 17 kph

“The Olympic Games 1936”, Volume 2, published by the

Cigaretten-Bilderdienst Hamburg-Bahrenfeld (1936) commented on the marathon

race under the headline „The Classic Race“ and „Japan’s

Triumph“ in the introduction:

„A unique and strong aura has always surrounded the victor of the

Olympic marathon. He embodies the victory of the spirit over matter, the will

forces the body to achieve things that incite amazement. In no other athletic

exercise is this degree of tenacity and endurance, of energy and power of the

organs so developed and necessary. The more the body’s power is

exhausted, the more noticeable the lack of energy becomes. Only one who has

years of disciplined training behind him, one who has gathered experience

through hard battles, one who has learned to cope with stress and strain to the

point of exhaustion, can survive the Olympic battle. Performances are now so

advanced, that he who hopes to play a role in the fight for victory must run an

average of 17 km per hour over the course of 42.195 km.”

„The History and Drama of Sport’s Most Challenging

Event“

Less lyrical is the description by David E. Martin, PhD (Regents’

Professor of Health Sciences Georgia State University) and Roger W. H. Gynn

(Marathon Statistician Association of Track & Field Statisticians) in their

book „The Olympic Marathon“ – „The History and Drama of

Sport’s Most Challenging Event“ (Human Kinetics 2000) under the

headline “A Global Battle on a Warm Day Produces an Olympic

Record”.

Through the course description in this book, today’s reader can see

what the 1936 race was like and what the runners of the 1936 Games race had to

accomplish.

The Course of the Olympic Marathon in Berlin

The pretty but very hilly (with a difference of between 32 m and 80 m)

landscape of the Havelchaussee, and then the AVUS with its „beautiful

straightness“ would be nothing to offer today’s competitive runner,

unless one wanted to drive him hard for training.

At Antwerp and Amsterdam the weather had been chilly and occasionally rainy.

However, August 9 was sunny and dry with race-time temperatures ranging from

22.3 (72.1 F) at 15:00 (3:00) start to 21 C (69.8 F) at the finish. Kitei Son

had the race number 382.

David Martin described the course of the Olympic marathon in Berlin in great

detail in his book: „Start in the stadium at sprint start line – 1

¾ laps counter clockwise in stadium to marathon exit tunnel – upon

exit through the tunnel, 2 sharp right turns and then a left turn to climb onto

the grassy surface of the Maifeld – run along the Maifeld adjacent to the

Olympic stadium until abreast of the stadium opening, then left, continuing on

the Maifeld toward the Olympic bell tower – continue on the

Glockenturmstrasse to Angerburgallee – right on the Angerbur-gallee to

Havelchaussee – left on Havelchaussee and continue until km 13 at the

entrance to the AVUS Rennstrecke – left onto AVUS, continuing its entire

length, eventually returning just after 30 km – right to exit the AVUS,

re-enter Havelchaussee – continue on Havel-chaussee to Angerburgallee

– right onto Angerburgallee to Glockenturmstrasse [sic! – past the

offices of the real,- BERLIN-MARATHON and SCC-RUNNING!] – left on

Glockenturm-strasse to the Olympic bell tower – run through the

passageway beneath the bell tower onto the Maifeld – continue on the

Maifeld toward the stadium, then right, remain on the grassy field along the

stadium to the tunnel across the road, then left, then left again, to re-enter

the marathon tunnel – continue through the tunnel onto the stadium track

– turn right onto the track and run 150 m along its sprint side ending at

the distance event finish line.”

The stadium was jammed, and according to the “New York Times”

from August 10, „Fairly conservative estimates of the number of

spectators who lined the route set the figures at more than 1,000,000.”

15 checkpoints were established at roughly 3 km intervals. At these points

fluids, refreshments, and medical services were provided, and intermediate

split times were also recorded.

Favourite for Berlin 1936

Kitei Son (Kee chung-sohn) was born on August 29, 1914 in Sinuiju, a small

village on the Yalu in Korea, near the border to China. He won his gold medal

at age 22. He had previously run the distances between 800m and 5000m, and when

he transferred over to the marathon, he immediately won his first three races,

all in Seoul, and all on a course that was too short. The first two races were

national championships. In 1935, he ran 7 marathons, 4 in Seoul and 3 in Tokyo.

He ran his best time on November 3, 1935 in Tokyo in 2:26:42 and was thus the

clear favourite for Berlin. Shoryu Nan (Nam Sung-yong), who was third in the

Olympic marathon in Berlin, was also a Korean who ran for Japan, as Japan had

annexed Korea in the war. Dave Martin continued in his book with the headline:

„From silent protest to highest honour“, that at the award

ceremonies both Japanese runners bowed their heads as the Japanese anthem was

played while they were on the podium, but „not in reverence to the flag

or the anthem, put in polite but silent shame and outrage“ that their

nation lived under Japanese domination.

The Japanese flag on his training jacket was erased on the photo of the

victor Kitei Son that was published the following day in the Korean daily

newspaper Dong-a Ilbo.

Dave Martin continued: „Time has a habit of healing wounds, and for

Son, as well as for all Koreans, 1988 brought something very special. One of

the most poignant moments in mara-thon history during this first modern Olympic

century came at the opening ceremonies of the Seoul Olympic Games. Now 73 years

old, Sohn Kee Chung ran into the stadium carrying the Olympic flame, 52 years

after becoming Olympic champion, at last he was running on an Olympic track

wearing his Korean colors! The 88,000 spectators filling the Olympic stadium

were completely surprised and rose to their feet to give prolonged applause.

Seemingly taking energy from these emotions, Kee, weeping with immeasurable

joy, ran so proudly and vigor-ously that he looked almost as young as in

Berlin. Few in attendance will forget it.”