[January 31, 2006] Hungarian ironman Kropko honoured by parliament Tweet (Hungarian News Agency Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)Budapest, January 31 (MTI) - Hungarian triathlete Peter Kropko was awarded a parliamentary gold medal in Budapest on Tuesday. Deputy Speaker Laszlo Mandur presented the honour to the retiring sportsman in the presence of Attila Abraham, President of the National Sports Office. Kropko has participated in 50 Ironman races since 1988 and won 13 of them. He ended his professional career in the Ironman World Championship on Hawaii last October. Kropko triumphed in the Strongman Japan race four times, the Japanese Ironman championship three times and the Zurich Ironman race twice. In Japan even a sculpture was erected in his honour. Born in 1963, Kropko has covered 65,000 swimming kilometres, 130,000 running kilometres and 600,000 kilometres cycling. He wore out 190 pairs of shoes, 65 pairs of bicycle tyres and 80 swimming trunks. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]