Kosice Marathon – Arpad Racko passed away

Mr Arpad Racko,  author of the famous Statue of marathon runner inaugurated in Košice in 1960, passed away on January 2, 2015 in age of 84.

He has created many sculptures  here in Kosice but his art works can be found in galeries worldwide. 

Year after year he was adding new bronze names of the Košice Marathon winners to the pylon under the statue.

The last were names of Gilbert Chepkwony and Lydia Rutto which were installed here on October 10 ,2014 by unforgettable artist Arpad Racko.

Brano Koniar
Race Director

(From Wikipedia) – The academic sculptor Arpád Račko (born on July 17, 1930 in Szolnok, Hungary) is a famous Slovak sculptor.

He lives and creates in Košice.

Arpád Račko studied at the prestigious Academy of Creative Arts in Prague, in the art studio of professor Jan Lauda. There has been a big influence of the sculptural work of Czech sculptors Josef Václav Myslbek and Jan Štursa on his work.

Arpád Račko has created dozens of sculptures, plastic arts, portraits and reliefs. The most popular of his works is the Marathoner statue at Námestie Maratónu mieru (The Peace Marathon Square), made in 1959,[1] and the Statue of the Košice‘s Coat-of-arms at Hlavná ulica (Main Street), that he made in 2002.

(From Wikipedia)

PS: by Horst Milde:  Arpad Racko was also the guest of honor of the Kosice Marathon's 90th anniversary on October 5, 2014.

I had the pleasure to meeting him during the celebrations. He kindly presented me two of his books with personal dedication and photos of all his works, for the AIMS Marathon Museum Berlin "Marathoneum" .

Mr Racko mentioned his intention to produce a small replica sculpture of the famous Kosice runners' sculpture for the Marathoneum.

We are unfortunately not aware how far this particlar project has progessed.

Horst Milde

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