German race walker Hartwig Gauder, who won Olympics, European and World Championships gold medals in the 1980, died on Wednesday following a heart attack, European Athletics reported. He was 65.
Gauder bagged the 50m race walk gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympics and also clinched the bronze medal eight years later in Seoul. In between, he won the European championships in 1986 and the world title a year later with new championship records.
His timing of 3:40.55 in the European meet and 3:40.53 in the World Championships were finally bettered by Poland’s Robert Korzeniowski in 2002.
Gauder underwent a heart transplant in 1997 and had run the New York Marathon and climbed Japan’s Mount Fuji to raise awareness about organ donation.
