![]() ![]() "All right, Fanny," said the imperturbable Jan in the face of her tearful pleading, "give it up if you wish. She determined to pull out of the 200 metres, a distance which she did not enjoy and over which she had begun to develop serious doubts. Then, with the world at her feet, she suddenly felt overwhelmed by her own achievements, by the expectations of the Dutch supporters and by the near-hysteria being whipped up by the press over the fact that the fastest woman in the world was a 30-year-old mother who was now beginning to miss her two children desperately. In the hurdles final she overcame a poor start and a near-disastrous mistake at the fifth barrier to edge out Britain's hope, Maureen Gardner, by sheer grit (and by the couple of inches that only the photo-finish camera could determine). She powered through the 100 metres heats and final. She and Jan knew, though, that she would face 11 gruelling races in the space of a week - a task hardly made easier by the London weather, which deteriorated into a series of downpours, leaving Wembley's cinder circuit heavy and unresponsive for all the women's track finals. Jan Blankers would later claim that he only had to shout "you're too old, Fanny," to put an extra yard of pace into her training routines.Ĭonfronted by a ruling that restricted women to only three individual events, she chose to drop the two field events at which she still led the world - the high jump and long jump - and opt for speed. ![]() In England the British athletics team manager, Jack Crump, opined that Fanny would be a spent force by the time the games began. That April she had turned 30, an age which, in those days, was considered (principally by men) beyond the limit of a woman's sporting lifespan there was also some public opposition to a mother and housewife continuing to train and compete. Her preparation, as the games approached, was spectacular, and in a single week she set two world marks, improving her own 80 metres hurdles time and capturing the most prized record of all, the 100 metres. Her attention turned to 1948, and to London. When international athletics resumed in 1946 with the European Championships, she proved her mastery of the hurdles to capture her first international title, and her now devastating pace anchored the Dutch quartet to a gold medal in the sprint relay. Fanny Koen married Jan Blankers, and they had a son, Jantje, in 1942 and daughter, Fanneke, in 1945.įanny continued to build up her speed, technique and power and by the end of 1943, though restricted to domestic competition, she was a world-record holder at the 80 metres hurdles, the high jump and the long jump. Two years later, when the European Athletics Championships sanctioned women's competitions for the first time (albeit held in a different city from the men's), her emphasis had turned to sprinting, and she won bronze medals in both the 100 and 200 metres.ĭuring the second world war the Netherlands were under Nazi occupation, and there was a six-year cessation of international competition. This event, though, had been dropped from the women's Olympic programme, so coach and pupil looked elsewhere.īy the Berlin games of 1936 the raw 18-year-old was good enough to take sixth place in the high jump, speedy enough to hold her place in the 4 x 100 metres Dutch relay squad that finished last in the final, and enough of a teenager to consider that her most memorable achievement of the games lay in getting Jesse Owens' autograph. His problem with 17-year-old Fanny was how to channel the extraordinary scope of talent she presented: she was fast she had sensational spring in her long legs she was immensely strong and she had a natural stamina which first led her to specialise in the 800 metres. Jan Blankers, 14 years her senior, had recently retired as a triple-jumper of Olympic - if not quite top-class - standard. After flirtations with swimming, fencing and gymnastics, she joined an Amsterdam athletics club as a teenager, and found the coach who would guide the tall, awkward-looking prodigy through her entire career. ![]() Her father was a keen shot-putter and discus-thrower, and she had four brothers to encourage her early aptitude for sport. Francina Koen was born in Baarn, a small town in the Dutch province of Utrecht. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |