EN
It is testament to his expansive personality, if not his waistline, that hundreds, if not thousands of you will have known Kenth Andersson, who died overnight Wednesday/Thursday, as he had enjoyed living in recent years, after a good meal, accompanied by strong drink.
Kenth, 66, died in Belgrade, Serbia, a city which had become a second home in recent years, through his friendship with and assistance to Dejan Nikolic and the team around the Belgrade Marathon.
Seeing him over the last 30 years, most people might imagine that he was a hammer thrower or shot putter, but Kenth was a Swedish international middle distance runner in the 1960s, winning two national titles at 800 metres and one at 1500 metres in 1966/7.
He got an athletics scholarship in San Diego, USA, beginning a peripatetic career, which branched into management, where his capacity for languages was second only to his knowledge of international athletics and its practitioners.
It was typical of Kenth’s good nature that when, half a dozen years ago, I asked him how to go about interviewing his most famous predecessors, Gunder Haegg and Arne Andersson (no relation) – two of the seminal middle distance runners in history – not only did Kenth organise my schedule, but also insisted on being my interpreter and driver, ferrying me from Gothenburg, Haegg’s hometown, and near where he lived himself, to Vanersborg, to meet Arne Andersson, a round trip of over 500 kilometres.
Kenth’s conviviality and endless capacity for anecdote enlivened many an athletics stadium, athletes’ hotel and restaurant; and it was immediately after a late night meal on one of Belgrade’s celebrated riverboat restaurants that he died suddenly.
He will be mourned by everyone who knew him.
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