Séra Martin

Séra Martin
	Séra Martin in 1927
Personal information
Full name	Séraphin Martin
Born	2 July 1906; Nice, France
Died	23 April 1993 (aged 86)
Height	1.79 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight	68 kg (150 lb)
Sport
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	800 m, 1500 m
Club	Stade français, Paris
Achievements and titles
Olympic finals	1928, 1932
Personal best(s)	800 m – 1:50.6 (1928); 1500 m – 3:54.6 (1926)

Séraphin "Séra" Martin (2 July 1906 – 23 April 1993) was a French middle-distance runner who set world records in the 800 metres and 1000 metres. He competed at the 1928 and 1932 Olympics and placed sixth and eighth in the 800 metres, respectively.

Career

Martin set a world record at 1000 metres in 1926, running 2:26.8 to break Sven Lundgren's old record of 2:28.6.^[4] Two weeks before the 1928 Summer Olympics, Martin ran 800 metres in 1:50.6, breaking Otto Peltzer's world record by a full second.^[4]^{[note 1]} This established him as one of the favourites for the Olympics in Amsterdam.^[5]^[7] He did make the Olympic final, but was never a major factor in the race^[5] and finished sixth in a time of 1:54.6,^[2] clearly slower than the 1:53.0 he ran in the semi-finals.^[2]

He returned to the Olympics in 1932, placing eighth with a time of 1:53.6.^[2] Martin was one of the pacemakers when Jules Ladoumègue set his world record at 1500 metres.^[5]

Notes

^ The qualitative difference between these records was much smaller. Peltzer's time of 1:51.6 was set at 880 yards and was roughly equivalent to 1:50.9 for 800 metres.^[5]^[6]

References

^ Dupuy, Gérard (20 May 2017). "Les Jeux Olympiques" (PDF). French Athletics Federation. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Séra Martin Bio, Stats and Results". Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
^ Séra Martin. trackfield.brinkster.net
^ ^a ^b Butler, Mark; IAAF Media & Public Relations Department (2011), IAAF Statistics Handbook Daegu 2011, International Association of Athletics Federations
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Jukola, Martti (1935). Huippu-urheilun historia (in Finnish). Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö.
^ "Otto Peltzer Bio, Stats and Results". Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
^ "Athletics at the 1928 Amsterdam Summer Games: Men's 800 metres". Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 11 May 2013.

Records
Preceded by Otto Peltzer	Men's 800 metres World Record Holder 14 July 1928 – 2 August 1932	Succeeded by Tommy Hampson
Preceded by Sven Lundgren	Men's 1000 metres World Record Holder 30 September 1926 – 18 September 1927	Succeeded by Otto Peltzer