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News26 Oct 1998


Athletics loses Carroll and Dordoni

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With the deaths this weekend of Irish athlete Noel Carroll and Giuseppe "Pino" Dordoni of Italy, world athletics has lost two historic figures who devoted much of their lives to the promotion of the sport in which they had excelled in their early years.

Noel Carroll, who died whilst training at just 57 years of age, in Dublin on Sunday, had held the European record for the 880 yards and was a three-time winner of the AAA title for the event. In 1964, he was a member of the Villanova University (Philadelphia) squad which established a new world record in the 4x880 yards relay. He became the first Irish athlete to receive an IAAF world record plaque in the process. He won the European indoor title in the 800 metres in three successive editions, starting in Dortmund in 1966. He had also competed, without great success, in two Olympics, in Tokyo 1964 and Mexico 1968.

When his competitive career ended, he turned to coaching and in later years to broadcasting and journalism. BLE president Nick Davis said of Carroll: "At times when Athletics needed a voice, he was never found wanting, a fine ambassador who projected an enviable image for the sport, on and off the track… To many of us, he was indestructible. Now he is gone and all of us will feel a deep sense of loss."

"Pino" Dordoni, who died on Saturday aged 72, after a long battle against the ravages of cancer, was Olympic Champion in the 50km walk in Helsinki in 1952. When he died, he was still a member of the IAAF Race Walking Committee.

Dordoni competed in no fewer than four Olympics: London 1948 (8th in the 10km walk); Helsinki, ‘52 (1st in the 50km); Melbourne ’56 (9th in the 20km) and in Rome 1960, where he came 7th in the 50km. He won European gold in the 50km in Brussels in 1950.

IAAF President Primo Nebiolo, with whom Dordoni had worked closely during Nebiolo’s 20 years at the head of the Italian Federation (FIDAL), recalled him as a loyal and impassioned supporter of the ideals of athletics.

"Our world has lost a great champion and a sincere friend, whose every act has bolstered athletics and sport in general. Dordoni fought cancer with the same courage he had displayed throughout his life: only giving up - with the same respect for faith he had always shown - when it was God’s will that he do so. I salute the departure of a dear friend, as all my thoughts go out to his wife and daughter in their loss."

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