Mór Kóczán

Early life Kóczán was born on 8 January 1885 in Kocs, Kingdom of Hungary to Lajos Kóczán, the rector of the local Reformed elementary school, and Franciska Bakos. He spent his childhood in Kocs before moving to Pápa, where he studied in the Reformed high school and later in the Theological Academy, earning his pastoral degree in 1908. Kóczán was inaugurated as the vice pastor of Csallóközaranyos (now Zlatná na Ostrove) in 1907, where he became pastor a year later and stayed in his position until 1914.

Athletics career and pastoral service Kóczán began training athletics during his high school years and in 1900 he was already a member of Budapesti TC. An all-around athlete, Kóczán competed in the discus throw, the shot put and the javelin throw, achieving his best results in the latter one. In 1908 he was invited to an athletics competition in Budapest, which he won with a throw of 57.05 metres – a result better than the then-world record – and made into the Olympic team as well. Between 1909 and 1911 he broke his own record further three times, however, the IAAF officially ratified the World record since 1912, therefore these results remained unofficial. He also triumphed in a number of national and international competitions, including the Austrian Athletics Championships in 1913 and the British Athletics Championships in 1914. In the qualifying round of his main event, the javelin throw, Kóczán topped his group and achieved third best overall result with 54.99 metres. In the final round he improved it to 55.50 but could not match defending champion Eric Lemming (60.64) and Julius Saaristo (58.66), and eventually won the bronze medal thus becoming the first non-Scandinavian to win a medal in the javelin throw at the Olympic Games and in the discus throw event he came 33rd.

Kóczán won the British AAA Championships title in the javelin event at the 1914 AAA Championships.

In 1914, after seven years of pastoral service in Csallóközaranyos, and shorter spells in Diósjenő (1909) and Diósförgepatony (now Orechová Potôň; March 1910–May 1910), Kóczán was relocated to Csilizradvány (now Čiližská Radvaň). In the same year, he married Karola Halász, with whom he had two daughters, Gizella and Edit. Upon the reluctance of the church towards athletics toned down, Kóczán formed a sports club in Csilizradvány and organized sporting activities in the village. He gave up professional sport in 1926.

Death and legacy Kóczán was deported

Since 1999, the city council of Göd has awarded the Mór Kóczán Ambulatory Prize of Göd every year to the best sportspeople in the town in three categories (men, women, team).