Endre Lépold

Endre Lépold sports career showed early promise. In 1971, at the age of 16, he had run 10.3 for the 100 metres. In 1972 he was top of the European Youth Rankings in 100m. He broke the Hungarian national 100m record in 1973, and the following year almost equalled the world 60m record with 6.48s. In 1975 he broke the Hungarian national 100m record again.

At the age of 16, Lépold was selected for the national team and was three times a national champion, at 60m in 1974 and 1977, and 100m in 1975. There were high hopes for him at the 1976 Montréal Olympics, particularly after some good results that year, but he could not repeat them at the Games. After the Olympics he was forced to compete at 400m, which was not a success and, largely due to the different training methods, Lépold continuously suffered from injuries. At the end of his running career, he worked as a coach in Pécs for a short time, and then became an entrepreneur. His two sons followed in his footsteps. The older one finished fifth at the junior World Championships twice, and the younger one played handball.

Personal Bests: 100 – 10.41 (1977); 200 – 20.6 (1975).