Hjalmar "Hjalle" Johannessen (24 May 1907 – 19 August 1959) was a Norwegian athlete who specialized in the

400 __NOTOC__ Year 400 (Roman numerals, CD) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Stilicho and Aurelianus (consul 400), Aurelianus (or, less frequently, year ...

and

800 metres The 800 metres, or 800 meters (American and British English spelling differences#-re.2C -er, US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of a ...

, and later a sports writer. He was born in

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...

, and as an athlete he represented the local club

SK Freidig Sportsklubben Freidig is a Norwegian sports club from Trondheim. Background Founded in 1903, the club has sections for association football, team handball, orienteering and Nordic skiing. In football, it won the League of Norway 1947–48 Le ...

; later Oslo TF.

Competition record

He became Norwegian 400 metres champion in 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931 and 1935, and 800 metres champion in 1928, 1929, 1931, 1933, 1936 and 1937. His personal best time was 1:52.1 minutes, achieved in September 1935 in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

. In the 400 metres he had 48.6 seconds, achieved in September 1935 at

Bislett stadion Bislett Stadium () is a sports stadium in Oslo, Norway. Bislett is Norway's most well known sports arena internationally, with 15 speed skating world records and more than 50 track and field world records having been set here. The original stadi ...

. After retiring he was a sports editor in the newspaper ''

Morgenposten ''Morgenposten'' is a former Norwegian newspaper, issued in Oslo from 1861 to 1971. It was the largest newspaper in Norway from the 1870s until the early 1900s, when its name was ''Christiania Nyheds- og Avertissements-Blad'', also nicknamed '' ...

''. In 1946 he married Gunvor Høidal from

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

. The marriage ended in divorce in 1952. He died in 1959.

References

External links

* 1907 births 1959 deaths Athletes from Trondheim Norwegian male middle-distance runners Norwegian male sprinters Athletes (track and field) at the 1932 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1936 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Norway Norwegian sports journalists 20th-century Norwegian writers 20th-century Norwegian sportsmen {{Norway-athletics-bio-stub