Séra Martin

Séraphin "Séra" Martin (2 July 1906 – 23 April 1993) was a French middle-distance runner who set world records in the 800 metres and 1000 metres. He competed at the 1928 and 1932 Olympics and placed sixth and eighth in the 800 metres, respectively.

Séra Martin

Séra Martin in 1927
Personal information
Full name	Séraphin Martin
Born	2 July 1906 Nice, France
Died	23 April 1993(1993-04-23) (aged 86)[1]
Height	1.79 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight	68 kg (150 lb)
Sport
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	800 m, 1500 m
Club	Stade français, Paris
Achievements and titles
Olympic finals	1928, 1932
Personal best(s)	800 m – 1:50.6 (1928) 1500 m – 3:54.6 (1926)[2][3]

Career

Martin set a world record at 1000 metres in 1926, running 2:26.8 to break Sven Lundgren's old record of 2:28.6.^[4] Two weeks before the 1928 Summer Olympics, Martin ran 800 metres in 1:50.6, breaking Otto Peltzer's world record by a full second.^{[4][note 1]} This established him as one of the favourites for the Olympics in Amsterdam.^[5][7] He did make the Olympic final, but was never a major factor in the race^[5] and finished sixth in a time of 1:54.6,^[2] clearly slower than the 1:53.0 he ran in the semi-finals.^[2]

Martin finished second behind Tommy Hampson in the 880 yards event at the 1930 AAA Championships.^[8][9][10]

He returned to the Olympics in 1932, placing eighth with a time of 1:53.6.^[2] Martin was one of the pacemakers when Jules Ladoumègue set his world record at 1500 metres.^[5]

Notes

1. The qualitative difference between these records was much smaller. Peltzer's time of 1:51.6 was set at 880 yards and was roughly equivalent to 1:50.9 for 800 metres.^[5][6]