Erik De Beck
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men's athletics | ||
Representing  Belgium
|
||
| IAAF World Cross Country Championships | ||
 |
1974 Monza | Long race |
|
1973 Waregem | Team race |
|
1974 Monza | Team race |
|
1977 Düsseldorf | Team race |
Erik De Beck (born 6 June 1951) is a Belgian former long-distance runner who specialised in cross country running. His greatest performance was a gold medal at the 1974 IAAF World Cross Country Championships. He shared in the team title at that event on three occasions: 1973, 1974 and 1977.
De Beck won three national titles in his career, taking two cross country wins (1974 and 1976) and one 10,000 metres title (1983). He totalled nine appearances at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships as well as three outings at its precursor, the International Cross Country Championships, where he was a junior medallist in 1970. He married Joske Van Santberghe, who was also a medallist at the World Cross Country Championships.
Born in Merelbeke, in his youth he joined K.A.A. Gent – one of the oldest sports clubs in the country. While he was still at high school De Beck entered the 1967 Cross van Le Soir, a major cross country race open to the public, and finished eleventh overall. He continued to improve in the discipline and his first successes came in 1970, when he won the Belgian junior title and took the bronze medal in the junior section of that year's International Cross Country Championships. The following year he managed only eleventh place at the international event, but on his senior debut he placed seventh and helped Belgium to the third in the team rankings, alongside the race winner Gaston Roelants. De Beck married fellow cross country runner Joske Van Santberghe in 1972.
De Beck's career coincided with a strong period of men's long-distance running in Belgium in the 1970s, with Roelants, Willy Polleunis, Emiel Puttemans, Karel Lismont and Ivo Van Damme being the other protagonists. The 1973 IAAF World Cross Country Championships marked the inauguration of the modern world championship event and, held on home turf in Waregem, the Belgian trio of Polleunis, Roelants and De Beck won the first team title (De Beck placed 18th individually). De Beck won his first national title in cross country a year later. He produced an upset at the 1974 IAAF World Cross Country Championships by winning the title just ahead of Mariano Haro (the 1973 runner-up) and leading the Belgian men to the team gold medal.
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