Jürgen Haase

Jürgen Haase (born 19 January 1945, in Friedersdorf) is a former track and field athlete and Olympian, who, starting for the German Democratic Republic, was among the world's best long distance track runners in the 1960s and 1970s. Twice during this period, in 1966 and 1969, he was European champion in the 10,000 meters.

Career

Haase trained with methods developed by Arthur Lydiard, the New Zealand trainer who was, at the time, still relatively unknown in Europe and was the surprise winner of the 1965 GDR 10,000 metres.

At the European Championships in 1966, his teammate Jürgen May convinced him, with the help of a $500 bribe, not to wear his usual Adidas shoes but rather to wear PUMA. This episode became something of a political scandal, in the course of which Haase was pardoned by the GDR Sports authorities. May, on the other hand, was permanently banned from the GDR national team.

He missed the 1972 Summer Olympics due to blood poisoning that he received after being injured by the spike of another runner at a competition in Paris.

Haase competed for SC Leipzig and was trained by Günter Büttner. His competition size was 5'9" (1.76 m) and 137 lbs (62 kg).

After his retirement from sports in 1973, he was active in customer service and marketing of medical technology. After that, he studied at the Deutsche Hochschule für Körperkultur und Sport (German College for Fitness Training and Sport) and became a trainer.

As a trainer, he coached Kathrin Weßel (10,000 m runner and third in the World Championships in 1987) and Detlef Wagenknecht (800 m runner, third in the World Cup in 1981 and second in the European Cup in 1983) for SC Dynamo Berlin. After the reunification of Germany, Haase became a trainer for Deutschen Leichtathletik-Verbandes (German Track Federation). He was released in 1992. After that, he was involved in several job creation actions.

International Races

East German Championships

Records

References