Personal information | |
---|---|
Birth name | Alexander Beck |
Nationality | Australian |
Born | 7 February 1992 |
Sport | |
Sport | Track and Field |
Event | 400 metres |
Alexander (Alex) Beck (born 7 February 1992) is an Australian Olympic athlete. He is a three time defending National champion.
Beck was selected to represent Australia in the men's 400 metres at the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo. [1] He ran a personal best of 45.54 to finish sixth in his heat. [2] At the 2022 Oceania Athletics Championships Beck won the gold medal in the 400 metres race. [3] Beck reached the semi-finals of the 400 metres event at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, with a run of 45.99. [4]
He ran as part of the Australian 4x400m relay team at the 2024 World Relays Championships in Nassau, Bahamas. [5]
From Benowa, Queensland, Beck was aged 16 when he came third in the 400 metres at the Australian Junior Championships. Following that, selection on the Australian World Youth team in 2009 followed and selection for the World Junior Championships the following year. [6] Beck was selected for the Moscow 2013 IAAF World Athletics Championships where he was a member of the team that ran the 4 x 400 metres relay. [7] Beck then competed for Australia in the 4 x 400 metres relay at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. [8]
Beck won the 400 metres Australian championships in 2021, running 46.01 to defeat five time national champion Steve Solomon, [9] before doubling up and being awarded the 200 metres title as well after Abdoulie Asim was disqualified for running out of his lane. This made him the first Australian man in 30 years to win both races in the same year. [10]
Beck completed his Bachelor of Exercise Science degree and then did a Doctor of Physiotherapy degree from Bond University. [11] He is now a qualified physiotherapist. [12]
Tamsyn Carolyn Lewis is an Australian media personality and former track and field athlete who won a total of eighteen Australian Championships across the 400 metres, 800 metres and 400m hurdles. She first represented Australia in 1994, and won the 800 metres in the 2008 World Indoor Championships.
The 4 × 100 metres relay or sprint relay is an athletics track event run in lanes over one lap of the track with four runners completing 100 metres each. The first runners must begin in the same stagger as for the individual 400 m race. Each runner carries a relay baton. Before 2018, the baton had to be passed within a 20 m changeover box, preceded by a 10-metre acceleration zone. With a rule change effective November 1, 2017, that zone was modified to include the acceleration zone as part of the passing zone, making the entire zone 30 metres in length. The outgoing runner cannot touch the baton until it has entered the zone, and the incoming runner cannot touch it after it has left the zone. The zone is usually marked in yellow, frequently using lines, triangles or chevrons. While the rule book specifies the exact positioning of the marks, the colours and style are only "recommended". While most legacy tracks will still have the older markings, the rule change still uses existing marks. Not all governing body jurisdictions have adopted the rule change.
The 4 × 400 metres relay or long relay is an athletics track event in which teams consist of four runners who each complete 400 metres or one lap. It is traditionally the final event of a track meet. At top class events, the first leg and the first bend of the second leg are run in lanes. Start lines are thus staggered over a greater distance than in an individual 400 metres race; the runners then typically move to the inside of the track. The slightly longer 4 × 440 yards relay, on an Imperial distance, was a formerly run British Commonwealth and American event, until metrication was completed in the 1970s.
Sunday Bada was a Nigerian sprinter who specialized in the 400 metres event. He won three medals at the World Indoor Championships, including a gold medal in 1997. His personal best time was 44.63 seconds, and with 45.51 seconds indoor he holds the African indoor record. He set a national record in the 4 x 400 metres relay at the 2000 Olympics, where the Nigerian team also won gold medals after the disqualification of the US team who had finished first.
Mark Ashton Richardson is an English former athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metres and 4 x 400 metres relay for Great Britain and England. He won the gold medal in the 4 x 400 metres relay at the 1997 World Championships, and again in the same event at the 1998 European Championshipss. At the Olympic Games, he won relay silver and bronze medals in 1992 and 1996. In the individual event, Richardson's most significant international results were silver at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and bronze in the 1998 European Championships, in addition to three domestic championships gold medals between 1995 and 2002.
Bruce Frayne is a retired Australian sprinter who specialized in the 200 and 400 metres. He was Australian Champion in the 200 metres 1980, 81, and 1983. He also won the 400 metres in 1984. In 1981 he won Gold in the 4 × 400 relay at the Pacific Conference Games, and he won silver in the 200 metres.
Linda Staines is a female former British track and field athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metres. She represented Great Britain at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul in both the 400 metres and 4 x 400 metres relay, and won a bronze medal in the 4 × 400 m relay at the 1993 World Championships. She also won four medals at the Commonwealth Games, including an individual silver medal in the 400 metres in 1990 and two relay gold medals.
Matthew John "Matt" Elias is a retired Welsh athlete who specialised in the 400 metres sprint and 400 metres hurdles. During his international career he represented Great Britain. In 2003 he won a gold medal at the European Championships and at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens he finished 5th in the 4 × 400 m relay, He is also a part of Super Schools.
Michael Walter Mathieu is a retired Bahamian sprinter hailing from Freeport, Grand Bahama who specialized in the 200 metres and 400 metres. He was part of the Bahamian silver medal-winning team in the men's 4×400 metres relay at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, running second leg and recording a 44.0 split, and the gold medal-winning team at the 2012 Summer Olympics. He was also a part of second place relay team at the 2007 World Championships. He won the bronze medal in the 4x400 metres relay in the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Slobodan Branković is a Serbian former track and field athlete who specialised in the 400 metres. He is currently the general secretary of the Athletics Federation of Serbia.
Deon Kristofer Lendore was a Trinidad and Tobago sprinter who specialised in the 400 metres. He won a bronze medal in the 4 × 400 metres relay event at the 2012 Summer Olympics, and won medals at the Pan American Junior Athletics Championships, World Athletics Championships and World Athletics Indoor Championships. Lendore died in a car collision in Texas, United States, on 10 January 2022.
Steven Solomon is an Australian Olympic sprinter. He is a six-time defending Australian 400 metres champion.
Carl Oliver Jr. is a Bahamian former track and field sprinter who specialised in the 400 metres. He is the current secretary of the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations. His greatest achievements on the track came with the Bahamian 4×400 metres relay team. He was a bronze medallist in the relay at the 2000 Summer Olympics and was also a finalist at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and the 1999 World Championships in Athletics. He helped set a national record of 3:02.85 minutes at the 1995 World Championships in Athletics.
Anneliese Rubie is an Australian sprinter. Also known as Anneliese Rubie-Renshaw, she was a semi finalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and the 2015 World Championships in Beijing. She also ran in the semi-finals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. She ran the second leg for the women's 4 × 400 m which made the Olympic final in 2016.
Alexander Hartmann is an Australian sprinter who competes primarily in the 200 metres and qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Isireli Naikelekelevesi is a Fijian former middle-distance runner who specialised in the 800 metres. He is the Fijian national record holder in that event.
Zoey Clark is a British sprinter. She competed in the women's 400 metres and was part of the British 4 × 400 relay team that won the silver medal at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics. Since then she has won two international bronzes in the relay and most recently a silver in the same event at the 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships. She was selected as part of the 4x400m relay team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Riley Day is an Australian sprinter. She was selected for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and competed in the Women's 200 meters. Day came third in her heat and therefore qualified for the semi-final. She managed a time of 22:56, 0.43 of a second behind the winner Shelly-Ann Frazer-Pryce from Jamaica.
Alessandro Sibilio is an Italian sprinter and hurdler, who competes in the 400 metres hurdles and 400 metres. He won a gold medal at the 2018 IAAF World U20 Championships. He competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics, in 400 m hurdles.
Bendere Opamo Oboya is an Australian athlete. She competed in the women's 400 metres event at the 2019 World Athletics Championships. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Oboya competed in both the women's 400 meters and was a member of the Australian team that competed in the women's 4 x 400 meter relay. She came fifth in her individual event in her heat and was eliminated. As a member of the team of Ellie Beer, Kendra Hubbard and Annaliese Rubie-Renshaw they finished 7th in their heat and did not contest the final.