Bronislaw MALINOWSKI

During his all too short life, Bronislaw Malinowski built an incredible competitive record at the 3000m steeplechase on both the European and world scenes. Malinowski established his credentials early in his career when he won the 2000m steeplechase at the 1970 European Junior Championships in Paris. In the 3000m steeplechase final at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Malinowski was always in contention, leading the field past 2000 metres, before eventually finishing a disappointing fourth in 8min 28.0sec. However, Malinowski was improving rapidly, and in 1973 he lowered his personal best to 8min 21.6sec, which placed him fourth on the all-time world list. Bronislaw's main goal in 1974 was to win the steeplechase title at the European Championships in Rome, but he did not concentrate solely on that event, competing in a number of races on the flat to build his speed and endurance.

On those times when he did contest the steeplechase prior to the European Championships (see photo above), his times were far more modest than the favourite to win the European title, Anders Garderud (Sweden), who twice improved upon the European record in the last two months before the Championships. At Rome, Malinowski first competed in the 10000m final on 2 September, where he finished an unlucky fourth in a time of 28min 28.0sec. Two days later he won his heat of the 3000m steeplechase, and three days after that, he narrowly won the gold medal from Garderud in a new personal best time of 8min 15.0sec, which was only 1.0sec outside Ben Jipcho's world record. Malinowski bettered Jipcho's time when he recorded 8min 13.66sec at Stockholm on 26 June 1975, but he was a day too late, as Garderud had set a new world record of 8min 10.4sec at Oslo the day before !! (Ron Casey)

During 1974 and 1975, Bronislaw Malinowski had not only established himself as one of the world's top steeplechasers, but he had also built up an intense rivalry with Swede Anders Garderud. Malinowski had narrowly beaten Garderud in the 1974 European Championships, and had bettered the existing world record on 26 June 1975, only to discover that Garderud had set a faster time the previous day. Less than a week later the pair faced each other in Stockholm, where Malinowski set most of the pace, before Garderud sprinted past him with 200 metres remaining to win and further improve his world record to 8min 09.8sec. It may have been of some solace to Malinowski that his second place time was a new personal best of 8min 12.62sec.

Their next major encounter was in the final at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal held on 28 July. Mindful of Garderud's preference to let someone else set the pace and sprint past them at the finish, Malinowski took the lead in the early stages of the race (see photo above by G.H. 28/07/76 ©) and tried to run away from the field. However, he was unable to shake of Garderud (No. 812) or the young German Frank Baumgartl. With 300 metres to go, Garderud and Baumgartl sprinted past Malinowski, while the latter tried to stay in contention. Baumgartl tripped at the final hurdle and sprawled on the ground, causing Malinowski, who was just clearing the barrier, to hurdle Baumgartl as well. Garderud's winning time of 8min 08.0sec was a new world record, while Malinowski's second place time of 8min 09.2sec was also under the old world record. That marked the second time in 12 months that Garderud had kicked off a pace set by Malinowski to break the world record, and Bronislaw was no doubt relieved that Garderud retired shortly afterwards. (Ron Casey)

Bronislaw Malinowski's great rivalry with Anders Garderud (Sweden) between 1974 and 1976 came to end following the Swede's retirement after the 1976 Olympics. In the absence of Garderud, Malinowski dominated the 3000m steeplechase during the next few years. In 1978, Malinowski scored significant victories at Stockholm on 4 July and at West Berlin on 18 August, where he recorded his seasonal best time of 8min 11.63sec. At the 1978 European Championships in Prague on 3 September, Malinowski comfortably won the steeplechase gold medal in a time of 8min 15.08sec. During 1978, Henry Rono (Kenya) had set a world record on 13 May, but Malinowski was untroubled in beating Rono when they met at Koblenz on 7 September. At the 1976 Olympics, Malinowski had tried to run away from the field in an attempt to thwart the finishing kicks of those athletes who he knew could out sprint him.

However, in the Olympic final at Moscow, on 31 July 1980, Malinowski was happy to stay back, as Tanzanian Filbert Bayi, a notorious front runner, and Eshetu Tura (Ethiopia) went out at pace that was well under world record schedule. Bayi eventually broke away from Tura, while Malinowski started to close the gap, although he was still 5.3 seconds behind Bayi with 1000m to go. Malinowski passed Tura just before the water jump on the second last lap (see photo above 31/07/80 by G.Herringshaw ©), and then caught and passed Bayi at the water jump one lap later. In the end, Malinowski won by nearly 3 seconds in 8min 09.7sec. Malinowski had a reasonably subdued year in 1981, recording his fastest time at Christchurch on 1 February. It will never be known if more athletic success awaited him, as Malinowski was tragically killed in a car accident on 26 September 1981. He was just 30 years of age. (Ron Casey)