Henry Nielsen (athlete)

Early in his career Nielsen trained in Finland, which was the leading distance-running country at the time, and learned from Finnish runners.[4] He won his first Danish championship title at 5000 m in 1930.[5] Nielsen broke the 3000 m world record in Stockholm on 25 July 1934; he faced Poland's Janusz Kusociński, who held the previous record of 8:18.8, and defeated him.[4][5] Nielsen's winning time was 8:18.3;[4][5] as a world record, it was officially ratified as 8:18.4, since the IAAF's rules required times at the distance to be rounded up to the next fifth of a second.[4][6] Later that year, Nielsen won bronze in the 10,000 m at the inaugural European Championships in Turin, losing only to Finland's Ilmari Salminen and Arvo Askola; he was Denmark's only medalist in the meet.[7]

Nielsen competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics in the 5000 m, but failed to qualify from the heats.[1] He was eventually excluded from amateur sports for breaking amateur rules by receiving monetary prizes.[5] His world record was broken by Finland's Gunnar Höckert, who ran 8:14.8 in September 1936.[6][8]