STOCKHOLM 1958 – AN OLYMPIC SETTING
19-24 August 1958
Once again, athletics returned to an Olympic setting, the one that hosted the events for this sport during the 1912 Games: Stockholm’s Olympic Stadium. It was a festive atmosphere with exceptional participation in an event marked by Brazil’s thunderous victory in the Football World Cup, which was celebrated that summer in the Swedish capital.
The Championships would be remembered for the emergence of a new generation of champions who would over the coming years enter into the gold medal book of this sport, such as Armin Hary, Martin Lauer, Igor Ter-Ovanesian, Iolanda Balas and Tamara Press, amongst others. Of course, the Soviet Union won in the final medal count, but a feisty Poland was second, winning in eight events. The only records to be broken in these Championships, which were European records, were by the German athlete Lauer in the 110m hurdles (13.7sec) and the Czech athlete Zatopkova, who was at her peak, with 56.02m in the javelin throw.
Ter-Ovanesian, one of the greatest long jumpers in history, stepped onto the European winners’ podium for the first time. Later, and until 1971, he would do this four more times, closing a magnificent career in this competition, with three victories and two second places.
The Romanian athlete Balas won in the high jump and the Soviet athlete Press was the winner in the discus throw (she also came in third in the shot put), thereby opening an essential era for the evolution of this sporting event.
And Spain finally had its first finalist, who, as was to be expected, competed in a long-distance race: the 10000m. The honour went to Antonio Amorós, who came eighth in the event with an exceptional time of 29:31.4, thereby breaking the Spanish record. There were no other finalists from Spain, which had six athletes competing, but Tomás Barris improved the Spanish record for the 1500m and Manuel A. Alonso did the same for the 5000m and 3000m steeple.
