Mór Kóczán
| Personal information | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Mór Kóczán | ||||||||||||
| Nationality | Hungarian, Czechoslovak | ||||||||||||
| Born |
January 8, 1885 Kocs, Kindgdom of Hungary, Austria-Hungary |
||||||||||||
| Died | July 30, 1972 (aged 77) Alsógöd, Hungary |
||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||
| Personal best(s) | Discus throw – 39.09 m (1910) Javelin throw – 59.71 m (1914) |
||||||||||||
|
Medal record
|
|||||||||||||
Mór Kóczán (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈmoːɾ ˈkoːtsaːn], also known under the pseudonym Miklós Kovács; January 8, 1885 – July 30, 1972) was a Hungarian athlete and Calvinist pastor. Specialized for the throwing events, his best results came in the javelin throw, having won five Hungarian championship titles between 1911 and 1918. Kóczán also competed for Hungary at the 1908 Summer Olympics and in the 1912 Summer Olympics. He produced his best performance in 1912 by winning the bronze medal of the javelin throw event.
Following World War I, after the borders of Hungary were redrawn, Kóczán, together with hundreds of thousands ethnic Hungarians found himself in the newly created Czechoslovakia. In 1920 he became Czechoslovak champion in the javelin throw and four years later represented the country at the Olympics, where he finished in the 23rd place. Beside athletics he did not forget his pastoral duties and he also urged the local communities to do sports. In 1948 he was deported to Hungary and lived the last decades of his life in Alsógöd, where he died in 1972.
Kóczán was born on January 8, 1885 in Kocs, Kingdom of Hungary to Lajos Kóczán, the rector of the local Reformed elementary school and Franciska Bakos. He spent his childhood in Kocs before moving to Pápa, where he studied in the Reformed high school and later in the Theological Academy, earning his pastoral degree in 1908. Kóczán was inaugurated as the vice pastor of Csallóközaranyos (now Zlatná na Ostrove) in 1907, where he became pastor a year later and stayed in his position until 1914.
He began training athletics during his high school years and in 1900 he was already a member of Budapesti TC. An all-around athlete, Kóczán competed in the discus throw, the shot put and the javelin throw, achieving his best results in the latter one. In 1908 he was invited to an athletics competition in Budapest, which he won with a throw of 57.05 metres – a result better than the then World record –, and made into the Olympic team as well. Between 1909 and 1911 he broke his own record further three times, however, the IAAF officially ratified the World record since 1912, therefore these results remained unofficial. Kóczán competed at the 1908 Summer Olympics in the discus throw event, the Greek discus competition, the freestyle javelin event, and the shot put competition, but remained without any success.
...
Wikipedia