Magdalena Swanepoel, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Magdalena Swanepoel

South African javelin thrower and shot putter

Date of Birth: 07-Nov-1930

Place of Birth: Hopetown, Northern Cape, South Africa

Date of Death: 02-Jun-2007

Profession: athletics competitor

Nationality: South Africa

Zodiac Sign: Scorpio


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About Magdalena Swanepoel

  • Magdalena Catherina Swanepoel (7 November 1930 – 2 June 2007) was a South African track and field athlete who competed in the shot put and javelin throw events. She was born in Hopetown, a town in the north-west part of South Africa in Thembelihle Local Municipality.
  • She spent most of her life in Pretoria.
  • Over her sporting career she broke the South African record six times in the javelin and on ten occasions for the shot put, ending with lifetime bests of 49.28 m (161 ft 8 in) for the javelin and 13.53 m (44 ft 4 1/2 in) for the shot put.
  • She was a 13-time national champion in throwing events, including eight javelin titles.Her greatest achievements came at the Commonwealth Games.
  • At the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games she added almost five metres to the previous javelin games record by winning the gold medal with a throw of 43.83 m (143 ft 9 1/2 in).
  • THis made her South Africa's first women's throws champion at the competition.
  • She also took a bronze in the shot put that year, about a metre down on the winner, New Zealand's Yvette Williams.Swanepoel returned four years later to defend her title but although she threw close to a career best with 48.73 m (159 ft 10 1/2 in) she was a long way short of Australia's Anna Pazera, whose winning throw of 57.41 m (188 ft 4 in) would stand as a record for twenty years.
  • Swanepoel also had an improved performance in the shot put, with 13.17 m (43 ft 2 1/2 in), but finished off the podium in fourth as all medallists went beyond fourteen metres that year.After retiring from active competition she took up coaching in Pretoria and worked as a lecturer at Normal College Pretoria.

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