Aurèle Vandendriessche

Aurèle Vandendriessche had almost no experience when he was selected to represent Belgium in the marathon at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, although he still managed to place 24th. He quickly demonstrated talent in this event, however, and won the Tour of Rome in 1958 and 1959. This made him a favorite at the 1960 Rome Olympics, but he had to drop out of the race due to dehydration. He has also been 11th at the 1958 European Championships.

Vandendriessche collected even more laurels over the next years, taking silver at the European Championships in 1962 behind Great Britain’s Brian Kilby, and winning the Boston Marathon in 1963 and 1964. He was suffering from injuries at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, however, and finished seventh. He won the Enschede and Košice Peace Marathons in 1965 and took silver again at the 1966 European Championships behind another Briton, Jim Hogan, before retiring from active competition.

Personal Best: Mar – 2-17:44 (1965).