Author: The Author

David McMeekin was one of the finest 800 metre runners I personally have ever seen.   He is perhaps not as well known as he should be simply because he is of the generation immediately before the Clement/Robson/Williamson triumvirate that dominated the 1500 metres and the mile with such distinction.   He was fast over the short distances, had enough pace for top class 800 metres running and strength enough for a sub-four mile and was also an outstanding cross-country runner.   His ability, were it to be reproduced by any runner in the 21st century would shame many of the specialists around.    Add to that a friendly. good-humoured and unassuming manner and you have a wonderful role-model for any aspiring athlete.    What follows has been written by Colin Youngson who ran with Dave in Victoria Park AAC for a short time, with input from Frank Clement, one of his great rivals and friends and Alastair Johnston a Victoria Park club-mate.

“In his 1982 centenary history of the Scottish Amateur Athletic Association, John Keddie wrote the following: ‘David James McMeekin (Victoria Park AAC) was born in Glasgow on 10th February, 1953.   He was an excellent Junior, finishing third in the AAA’s Junior 800 metres in 1971.   he was to develop into a truly international class 800 metres runner.   Only once SAAA title holder (in 1972 in 1:53.3), McMeekin had a splendid record in the AAA’s event in which he was a finalist four times: in 1972. 1974. 1975 and 1976.   His best placing was third (1:48.3) in 1976 behind two redoubtable characters (and future Olympic Gold Medallists) in Steve Ovett and John Walker (NZ).   His fastest 800m was in Paris on 6th June 1974 when he recorded 1:46.8 in second place behind  the great South African Danie Malan.   The previous year at Leipzig on 1st July 1973 he had at last improved Jim Paterson’s 1957 Scottish record with 1:47.4.’

Although that is an accurate summary of Dave’s best 800m running, there is a great deal more to say about him as an athlete.   For example, he was a very fast miler, as well as having a very good record in cross-country and the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay.   This profile will deal with cross-country first, then the E-G, and finally track.   From his earliest days in Victoria Park AAC, right up to the present day, club-mates usually refer to him as ‘Davie’ , English track athletes seem to prefer ‘Dave’.   His family produced three talented Commonwealth Games representatives.    Davie’s twin sisters Christine and Evelyn (born 1st December 1956)  ran very well over 800 and 1500 metres.

Davie McMeekin’s first entry in the record books may well have been when he won the 1968 Scottish Schoolboys Cross Country Championship.   In the 1968 National Under-15 Cross-Country Championships, however, he finished second to John McGill who was a major rival on the track as well.   In 1969 Victoria Park won the team event.   Davie had previously won the Midland District Youth Cross-Country.   When he moved up to the Under 17 age bracket in 1970, Davie finished fifth and his team won bronze medals.  In 1971 he finished seventh.   In 1972 he was fourth in the Junior race behind Jim Brown, Paul Bannon and Ron McDonald.

I was a member of Victoria Park from 1971 to 1973.   Winter season club runs were on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, but Davie was coached by Alex Naylor and did his training elsewhere.    In the longer road events like the Allan Scally or the Glasgow University 5, I might have gained a few seconds on Davie by late 1971, but he was in a different class as a cross-country runner, especially over tricky muddy courses with fences!   These included:   SCCU training at Cleland Estate, Motherwell; the nightmare Dunbartonshire event; the Midland Championships; and most memorably, the VP Club Championships at Milngavie.

Christine, David and Evelyn

James L Logan was our skilful and enthusiastic scribe who provided welcome publicity in the ‘Bearsden and Milngavie Herald’ and in the VPAAC Club Magazine.   In October 1971 he produced a brief history of cross-country running from Milngavie, which started with the Clydesdale Harriers in 1885.   From the 1930’s Victoria Park raced over similar courses.   ‘The present championship trail from Milngavie Community Centre begins around the spot where Clydesdale hares laid their false paper trails and follows the same route, skirting Clober Golf Course, crossing the Craigton Burn, up over Laigh Park to the heights and howes of Hilton Park and down to the Allander.   Then up the lower slopes of Carbeth Hill where the trail swings round and meanders among the Hilton Parkl Hills before retracing the first two miles – a traditional cross country test, across rugged terrain, over fences gates dykes and burns, a contrast to the manicured courses encountered in many open and international events nowadays.’    As a road fairy, I hated these events; but Davie was calm, gymnastic and showed impressive stamina.    Pat Maclagan had been club champion for several years, but in February 1972 he only managed to beat Davie by six seconds with me third, a further 30 seconds behind.    In February 1973, however, Davie strode away to an easy victory, with me a poor second and Pat fourth.   Although Davie was only officially Junior champion, I knew how soundly I had been defeated and had no hesitation in refusing to accept the Senior trophy.

Previously, between late September and November 1972, Davie had been a key member in a series of successful Victoria Park cross-country and road relay teams.   With the assistance of Hugh Barrow, Pat Maclagan and Innis Mitchell we had won the Edinburgh Southern Road Relay at Fernieside, the Dunbartonshire cross country relay and, best of all, the Midland District Cross Country relay.   I still have the SCCU plaque.   1973 was Davie’s last year as a Junior and Victoria Park was second to Motherwell in the National.   The top six were extremely classy: Jim Brown, Lawrie Spence, Lawrie Reilly, Ron McDonald, Davie McMeekin and Frank Clement!    Following this, Davie was selected for the IAAF World Junior Championship.   This took place at the Hippodrome de Waregem outside Ghent in Belgium.   The Scottish team ran extremely well: Jim Brown won with his Monkland team-mate Ron McDonald 14th, Davie McMeekin 17th and Lawrie Spence 27th.

Although his main focus was of course track, Davie continued to run well in the Senior National Cross-Country Championship.   In 1975 Victoria Park won the Midland District CC team award.   In the National Davie came in 14th (1975), 16th (1976) and 12th (1977).   He even supported his team in this event as late as 1981.   He was twice first finisher for Victoria Park.

The Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay was very important to Victoria Park (although some would argue that the TRIAL for the McAndrew Relay and that race itself took precedence)   Amazingly, David McMeekin ran SEVENTEEN  E-G’s in a row (1970 – 1986)!   He attempted every stage except the last one.   His road-running team-mate Alastair Johnston wrote:’ To me the great thing about David was that, apart from being respectful of older distance men (!), he was really versatile, combining a UK International middle distance track career with an extremely high Scottish standard road and cross country career   .He was a passionate supporter of VPAAC  and contributed much to its success in team events.’

David made an immediate impact in the E-G in 1970 at only 17 years of age!   On Stage 7 he was third fastest, pulling up 44 seconds on Edinburgh Athletic Club, setting up George Meredith to secure third place medals for Victoria Park.   In 1971 Davie ran brilliantly to be fastest on Stage 3 and move into the lead.   Sadly, after a terrific battle, his club finished a close second to the great Shettleston team.   In 1972 on Stage 5 Davie was second fastest to Dick Wedlock, a former National Crsoss-Country Champion.   In 1973 and ’74, Davie was third fastest on Stage 4.   A second silver medal was won by VP in 1978 and a second bronze in 1980.   In addition Davie’s club was fourth no less than six times.   This consistency was partly due to his great team spirit, even when he had more or less retired from the track.

West District 1500m: David (19) Ian Scales (12), Lawrie Spence (16), Jim Brown (3)

Scottish Athletics Yearbooks provide some interesting statistics and comments on Davie McMeekin’s progress as a middle distance runner.   In 1969 as a Youth (Under 17) he won the Scottish Schools 800, title but was second to John McGill in the SAAA Championships.   Nevertheless Davie topped the list with his 1:56.3 for fourth in the AAA event at Crystal Palace that August.

In 1970 as a Junior (Under 20) he won both the Scottish Schools and the SAAA Championships, improving to 1:52.5 at Leicester in late September.   The Yearbook noted ‘With wins in the two major title races in Scotland, a second in the Schools International and third placings in the AAA Junior final and the GB (Junior) match v West Germany, Dave McMeekin was far and away our most successful junior  competitor at this distance.’   In addition he won the West District 1500m and at Meadowbank improved his personal best to 3:54.3.

In 1971, Davie’s success continued.   He repeated his Scottish Schools and SAAA double; retained his West District 1500m title and produced new best times of 1:51.5   and 3:53.5.   He also won the Schools International 800m and was third in the AAA Junior Final.   The VPAAC magazine briefly mentions that he ran for Scotland v the RAF, winning the 1500m; and also represented Scotland v Northern Ireland finishing second in the 800m.   Was this a defeat by Paul Lawther, I wonder, who much later wrote in an interview that: ‘Probably the best training stint  ever did was when I went to Gibraltar for a week with the likes of Seb Coe, Ian Stewart, Brendan Foster, Dave McMeekin and others.   The training was intense, to say the least!’   Davie certainly knew some great athletes.   Davie himself has given an insight into his training cycle which consisted of: strength training; strength endurance; speed endurance and speed.

• Winter would concentrate on strength: long slow distance with a couple of track sessions a week to keep up speed; and cross country or road races to keep a competitive edge.
• Around January the strength endurance phase would start, which included at least three or four tough hill sessions a week, visits to the sand dunes at Gullane – or in Glasgow, Bellahouston Park or Cleveden Hill or the Clyde Tunnel.   This was a tough period!
• March would see the emphasis moving to the track, with short recovery speed endurance sessions.
• As the competitive season developed, there would be fewer speed endurance sessions and more speed sessions with longer recovery.   All track work was done at a good pace.   eg 8 x 300 in 39/41 seconds with 2-3 minutes recovery.

The next yearbook states that  ‘David McMeekin, still a Junior under European rules although not in Scotland, dominated the 800m at Senior level in 1972.   His performances in winning his Heat in the AAA Championships and then coming sixth in the Final with another fast run (1:49.0), deserve the highest praise.   Given some international competition he should go even faster in 1973 and book his place to New Zealand for the Commonwealth Games.’    Davie also won races at Birmingham and in Sweden; and on 24th June, 1972 he was victorious in the Senior SAAA 800m Championships.   Once again he won the West District 1500m title as well as recording a winning 3:52.6 at Meadowbank in July.   Thereafter Davie’s stamina improved  further, as is clear from his cross-country and road relay performances in late 1972 and early 1973).   This was surely part of the build up for a very important athletics season.   Then came the time for speed.   In May 1973 he reduced his 400m time to 49.8.   The 1500 was ignored; the focus was firmly on 800m.   The yearbook is full of praise: ‘Following his great 1972 season, David McMeekin went even better in 1973.   After a fast run behind Danie Malan in June (1:47.4 in Leipzig), he finally beat Jim Paterson’s Scottish National Record.   This fine record, however, lasted barely sixteen days, as Frank Clement produced an astonishing 1:46.0 in an international meeting in Athens.’

Davie was undismayed however.   He ran well in the heat and final of a Moscow international and was selected to compete for Scotland in the January 1974 Commonwealth Games.   In the pre-Games meetings in New Zealand he showed strength in achieving a pb for 1500m (3:48.5).   Then he got through his Commonwealth 800m heat to qualify for the semi-final where he was narrowly squeezed out of fifth place (1:48.12) defeating two of the three English representatives.   The yearbook, which also deals with the summer 1974 season, states: ‘Dave McMeekin tops the list with a fine personal best of 1:46.8 set in Paris behind Danie Malan of South Africa.   He backed up this breakthrough with many good runs in the 1:47.0 – 1:48.0 range and gained selection for both the Commonwealth Games and the European Games representing Great Britain.   Though not reaching the Finals on either occasion, he gained much valuable racing experience at the highest level.’   Davie had that season’s top six Scottish 800m marks and also raced in Stockholm, Warsaw and Rome.   He produced a very fine personal best 1500m time of 3:43.1 (winning at Warley) in one of his few serious attempts at this distance..

The top 14 Scottish 800 metre times in 1974

It proved impossible for Davie to do better at 800m, although in 1975 he still ended up with the top three Scottish marks including 1:47.6 for sixth in the final of the AAA at Crystal Palace that autumn.   He won a 1500m at Gateshead in 3:48.0; but the really magic moment of the season was when Davie became a four minute miler with 3:59.7 in a fast race at Stretford on 30th August, Just behind Frank Clement but in front of Ron McDonald.   To break the barrier must have been extra satisfying since Davie had run miles in 4:01.9 and 4:02.3 shortly before the breakthrough.

His great rival Frank Clement writes that Davie was certainly the man to beat as a junior.   Frank thinks that they had their first GB Senior International together in East Germany along with David Moorcroft.   Frank was reserve but Davie was in the 800m.   Frank notes that Davie tended to play down his training regime.   He didn’t go out for a run – it was always ‘a jog’, according to him.   Given his solid road running and cross country pedigree, Frank considers that Davie’s mile times could have been much faster if he had concentrated on this event and sought out races abroad.   Frank adds, ‘But I’m really glad that he left this distance to me!’

I do not have a yearbook for the 1976 season, but John Keddie has mentioned Davie’s fine bronze medal in the AAA 800m, and I know that he improved his mile best time to an impressive 3:58.05.   However Davie must have been very disappointed not to have been selected for the Montreal Olympic 800m.   After running 1:45.76 in Zurich, Frank Clement was picked to accompany Steve Ovett.   Frank was eighth in the 800m semi-final in Montreal, although he went on to finish a marvellous fifth in his main event, the 1500.   I believe that Davie McMeekin should have been chosen for the Olympic 800m.

After that, injuries disrupted Davie’s track performances.   He does not appear on the 1977 lists and was reduced to 1:52.0 in 1978.    After that it seems that only the Edinburgh to Glasgow could motivate him properly!   Yet what a marvellous career he enjoyed.   He should be celebrated as one of the finest Scottish athletes of his era.”

David with sister Evelyn

David was certainly one of our very best 800 metres runners and Frank was almost certainly 100% correct when he says that David could have been even better at the longer distance than he was.   However he specialised in the 800 metres and travelled the world, representing Scotland doing it well.   I have already mentioned his manner and approachability – we couldn’t have had a better ambassador.

Jim Mclatchie (Number 7 in the Ayr Seaforth vest) trailing Mike Beresford with Bert McKay behind wearing number 2.

Jim McLatchie is not a name that many in Scotland in the twenty first century are familiar with and yet he has many claims to fame that are all worthy of respect: a first class track career, in the main as a miler, one of the first Scots ever to go on an athletics scholarship to the United States, and coach to a whole host of Olympic, World Championship and other athletes as well as many record breakers.    Respected as a coach the world over but almost unknown in Scotland!   Always ‘Big Jim’ because he was literally head and shoulders above anyone else on the start line, he competed in the late 50’s and 60’s against such as Hugh Barrow, Kenny Ballantyne, Bert McKay, Ian McCafferty.       We can begin by hearing from Jim himself and looking at his answers to the questionnaire.

Name:   James (Jim) McLatchie

Club:    Ayr Seaforth/Luton United Harriers

Date of Birth:   July 11th, 1941

Occupation:   Retired – 35 years in the computer industry

Personal Bests:   800m – 1:50.2                    1500m:   3:48               Mile: 4:07

How did you get involved in the sport?   Played soccer in schools (International Trials).   In athletics, started off in the High Jump but there were no facilities.   Everywhere I went I seemed to be running.   My grandparents lived three miles from my village, so I would just go off and visit.   I started out racing 880y and then the Mile.   I enjoyed cross-country and managed to win most of the races I ran in as a Junior including the Scottish Championships.

Has any individual or group had a marked effect on either your attitude to the sport or individual performances?   Ted Hayden, University of Chicago) showed me how to be involved as a competitor, coach and Meet Director.   I took these attitudes and started a club when I moved to Houston, Texas.   I managed to develop several athletes who competed in the Olympics and World Championships; directed the USA Cross-Country Championships twice; women’s cross-country trials and the Masters Track & Field Championships.

What exactly did you get out of the sport?   The sport got me out of the coal mines – gave me an opportunity to travel and see the world.

Can you describe your general attitude to the sport?   I enjoyed the old days – everyone worked for a living – squeezed their training in whenever possible – never avoided one another.   Today most of the runners are more interested in what monetary rewards are available.   As coach of several USA teams, a few athletes refused to represent their country because they wanted more than $10 per diem and a uniform.

What do you consider to be your best ever performance?   In 1963 in Houston, Texas.   I won the Mile in the “Meet of Champions” beating Jim Ryun who was getting ready to puke as we neared the finish line.   Kept thinking, “Cannot have that bugger puking on me” which seemed to spur me on.   The winning time was 4:07 in 90 degree Heat.

What ambitions did you have that remain unfulfilled?   It’s hard to believe that coming from a family of eight (5 boys, three girls) and growing up in a one room house with no electricity or running water that I managed to achieve what I did.   Everyone’s dream of course is the Olympics – I didn’t make it, but the consolation was great.   I travelled the world, met some interesting people, and an education that money can’t buy.

What did you do apart from running to relax?   I like to watch horse racing.   I write some computer programmes to help me pick a winner – hardly ever happens as I am not in the know!   I can bet on-line and watch races from all over – even Ayr.

What did running bring you that you would have wanted not to miss?   All the characters that the sport produces.   I officiate Track & Field meets – and have been the head judge for the shot, discus and hammer.   When you are running round a track, sometimes you forget that there are other athletes competing in what might seem an alien event.

Can you give some details of your training?   At present – nothing.   In the old days running on grass as much as possible.   Used to do a lot of my lunchtime running on Haggs Castle Golf Course in Pollokshields (I worked for the railway).   I believe that when I was younger I did too much speed workouts with not enough rest between the hard sessions.   Like most of that generation, training was a ‘hit or miss’ situation.   Conditions in Scotland were rough – snow, sleet, rain and heavy winds.   Texas – hot, humid and windy.   Not the ideal set-ups to run fast.

Jim came from Muirkirk in Ayrshire and the obvious question is how does someone from such a remote area train to a standard where he makes the Scottish team?   His own response to the question was “No track – did zig zags on the football field.   Also ran quarter mile straights on the railway line.   Line ran east/west and I used to run 15-20 seconds slower going west (windy as hell).   Scottish National Coach back then was an Englishman.   He used to write me some workouts like 10 x 440 with one minute rest.   I would mail him my times and he would tell me my pace was all to hell.   I told him he needed to come and see what I was training on as he didn’t believe I was doing 440 along a rail line.   He showed up in the village – couldn’t believe what I had to work with.    I did a lot of zig zag training plus runs up and down a coal bing, runs on the moors.   I only ran on the roads in winter when it got too dark to run up the bings.   Did a lot of weight training and circuit training.”   I asked if he ever went to Ayr to train at Dam Park.   This got the following reply: “Never went to Dam Park to train – took forever on the bus which only ran every hour.   Bus – Strathaven – Glasgow, every four hours.   If I had a race in the Glasgow area, I had to make sure I didn’t miss the bus.   It was an all day excursion some times to get to a Meet.   Training under these conditions made pace judgment obsolete – that’s why in  a lot of scratch races I  I just ran as hard as I could from the gun.   Yet I lost National Junior Mile titles (Ballantyne and Ryan) by waiting too long and trying to catch them over the last 150 – live and learn.   When I moved to Milngavie and trained on a quarter mile track, then I learned a wee bit about pace judgment.”    

Although known mainly as a track man, he competed well on all surfaces and he said above that he enjoyed cross-country running. The best domestic results that I have are when, as an Under 20 runner in 1961 he won both the Senior and Junior titles over the heavy mud of the South Western District Cross Country Championships in the same race.   The next year he won the Scottish Junior Cross Country Championships at Hamilton Race Course from Mike Ryan and Jim Alder.   In the 1966 Commonwealth Games Alder would win the marathon and Ryan would be third.   Ryan also finished third in the notorious Mexico City Olympics in 1968.    I asked Jim why he didn’t run in the International Cross Country Championship that year and he said that he was told he could not run on the senior team and he wasn’t sure of a Junior team was sent.   He received an invitation to run in Belgium but the SCCU would not let him go; they said he was too young.   He did race in Germany but on return to Glasgow he was asked to give back the track suit with which he had been issued, failure to do so would mean that he was never picked for Scotland again.   Rather Draconian but read Lynne MacDougall on the same subject!.   He adds, rather unnecessarily, that the Union was awful back then.    The standard of road and cross country running was high  back then and Jim had lots of good races – eg in the 1963 Nigel Barge Road Race he was second behind Fergus Murray and ahead of Lachie Stewart.   They say big men are not suited to road or cross country but Jim was always a respected contender having beaten all the top men, Lachie Stewart, Fergus Murray, Jim Alder and so on at one time or another.   He deserved a cross-country selection for the international but it never came and his many dark blue vests were all won on the track.

He was a noted competitor on the track too, more than held his own against the top men in the country and picked up several Scottish international vests, but a Scottish title always eluded him although he had second places in behind Ken Ballantyne (1959) and  Mike Ryan (in 1960) – both as a Junior – Graeme Grant and Ian McCafferty.   Jim moved to stay with his aunt in Milngavie, Glasgow, 1962 and just 200 yards along the road from him lived Brian Scobie.   They became good friends, training and racing together and eventually they both became top flight coaches.   In the 1980’s Brian had among his charges the best squad of women distance runners in Britain as well as some male international athletes of high repute.   Brian says he already knew of Jim,  having read about him in the newspapers.   They used to train together at the Maryhill Harriers training track with coach Tom Williamson who also coached some of the country’s top women runners.

Jim’s best times from his first appearance in the Scottish ranking lists were as follows.   The figure in brackets is the Scottish ranking for the year.   In 1959 he ran for Doon and in ’60 and ’61 it was Muirkirk Welfare before he moved to Ayr Seaforth AAC in 1962.

A year or so after arriving in Milngavie, Jim left to go to America on scholarship by boat.   When I asked him about how the scholarship came about he said “I was recruited by a high jumper from Australia – Colin Ridgway.   For me it was tough because I ended up in a place (Beaumont) where the average temperature in the spring was around 90 degrees with 100% humidity.   Us ‘Pale Blue Scotsmen’ have a tough time in the heat.   I ended up coaching myself along with all the middle-distance runners as the coach was a ‘Football’ coach – knew next to nothing about running.   Back then it was tough to get the right information as it took for ever via the postie – no such thing as the internet – and who had a phone back in those days?   It hit the fan when I announced I was heading to the States – Dunky Wright had me on TV for an interview – all of a sudden I was offered jobs to stay in Scotland.   I told them it was too late as I had already purchased my ticket.   Ah well, it was a great experience fighting off the mosquitoes.”   The main reason for going on scholarship to America was to train for the 1964 Olympics and it just did not work out for him.   He says, “I was never allowed to recover.   ‘You’re on scholarship and you need to compete.’   Injury reduced me to a hobbling wreck and I packed it in in 1965 and jumped on a boat to France.   I made my way to Luton where I competed for three years.”   I coached Tony Simmons before I returned to the States in 1968.”

Jim (4) in the match v Ireland and Holland in 1962.

 Nevertheless there were some excellent races and some good times posted in 1963.  On 16th March he ran a 9:26.0 Two Miles race in Waco, on 8th April at Beaumont he ran 1:52.7 for the 880 yards (the top time by a home Scot was 1:52.8 by James Steel) and on the 25th May it was 4:07.8 for the Mile (only Hugh Barrow’s 4:07.7 at home was faster).   There is more to running than times, and it is doubtful how much can be read into times recorded in the heat and humidity that he was experiencing.   There s no doubt about his competitive spirit or about some of the scalps that he lifted at this point.   In December, 1963 for instance, he ran in the US Track & Field Federation Cross Country Championship against some of the very best Olympian Tom O’Hara of Loyola University.   The race report was as follows

McLatchie Pushes O’Hara.

Chicago, Nov 28.   The carrot-topped Irishman did it again.   Making only his fourth start of the cross country season, Loyola University’s Tom O’Hara kicked home to win the second annual United States Track and Field Federation’s Cross Country Championship at Washington Park.   Under bright skies and in moderate temperature, O’Hara clocked 30:12 .1 for 10000m on a rather slow course.   Left in O’Hara’s wake were the Scotsman Jim McLatchie, Polish born John Macy, Costa Rican Juan Marin and Australians Geoff Walker and Laurie Elliott.   Macy was on top at three miles in 14:45 but McLatchie took the lead at four in 20:01.   Jeff Fishback had moved up with the leaders in the fourth mile and six runners were within a four second spread of 20:01 – 20:05. 

Macy began to fade a bit in the fifth mile as did Marin, leaving Brown, McLatchie, O’Hara and Fishback in the front-running group.   Macy however wasn’t finished.   Reminiscent of his National AAU six mile against Pete McArdle this year in St Louis, the Houston runner moved  back up to within fifteen yards of the leaders with a half mile to go.   That was O’Hara’s signal.   He stepped on the accelerator and added another national championship to the NCAA title won in 1962.  

1. Tom O’Hara   30:12;   2.   Jim McLatchie   30:17;   3.   Jeff Fishback   30:22;   4.   Doug Brown   30:20;   5.   John Macy   30:22;   6.   Julio Marin   30:36;   7.   Geoff Walker   30:57;   8.   Laurie Elliott   31:04.

Jim comments on that race – O’Hara was a tough nut to crack: I was leading him with 5 yards to go in a 1500m race the following month in New rleans but he snuck by before the tape!   He made the Olympic team that year and broke the World Indoor Mile. Record The photographs below are from the race.

That was the year in which Jim was injured and despite the fact being obvious he was not allowed to rest the injury because the College required him to run.   He came home and ran in the SAAA 880 yards where he finished second to Graeme Grant and they were both chosen to represent Scotland in that event.

Jim’s best times over the years 1963 1965 were as follows.    All were recorded as ‘Ayr Seaforth’ or ‘Lamar State’ and races were run on both sides of the Atlantic.

He returned in 1965, joined Luton United Harriers and was an immediate success.   He started 1966 by winning a Luton v Cambridge University race over 7.5 miles prompting the comment from the local paper – “Jim McLatchie, Luton’s new runner, showed his undoubted class by smashing the course record by 30 seconds.   With a time of 37:40 he was well clear of Evans of Cambridge.”   A week later he was fourth in the inter-area match at Keele University and then he was ninth in the North of the Thames race wearing flat shoes.   In the Indoor Championship at Cosford on their eight laps to the mile track, he won the Mile in 4:15.   Four weeks, four races varying between seven and a half cross country and an indoor Mile.   Versatility indeed.   Recorded by the statisticians as ‘Anglo-Scot’ that summer, he was ranked 25th in the 440 yards (51.1), 9th in the 880y with 1:53.0, 8th in the mile (4:08.7) and 14th in the Two Miles (9:05.2).   The Mile time was run in a very competitive SAAA Championships where Jim was second to Ian McCafferty (4:07.5) and one place ahead of Ken Ballantyne (4:09.0)   In mid-July he picked up another Scottish vest when he travelled with a small Scottish team to Reykjavik for a match against Iceland where he won the 1500m and the Steeplechase.   Results for 1967 are harder to come by but the rankings indicate that he ran  4:14.1 for the Mile at Paddington in August and 8:58.0 at Welwyn in May.  In 1968 his only ranked time was 1:55.0 at Welwyn in July.“

1500m, Scotland v Iceland 1966.

His best times in 1966, ’67 and ’68 when he was running for Luton can be summarised as follows:

At Luton he had coached, among others, the talented Tony Simmons before returning to the States.   Jim landed in Chicago where he competed  for the Chicago Track Club and ran in several Distance Medley teams with Rick Wolhuter.  He spent seven years in Chicago, racing on the same team as Wolhuter and travelling to meets with Brian Oldfield, a renowned shot putter.   The indoor track in Chicago was a 220 yard dirt track and he ran a steeplechase indoors in ‘about 9:10’ – that doesn’t tell all of the story however as the water-jump was into the long jump pit!   He also ran a 4:10 mile on that track.   He was starter in several meets and sprinter Wilma Rudolph called him Wyatt Earp – ‘the fastest gun in Chicago!’   He reckoned that the indoor 60 yards race took forever with the ‘no false start’ rule, so he he speeded it up by not holding them too long in the start position.   As a competitor he won several Mile and 1500m races and also raced in some cross-country raceswhere the team finished second a few times to Florida TC (Shorter, Bacheler, Galloway etc).

Leading Rick Wolhuter in a Mile race in 1974

He moved to Houston in 1975 and with Allan Lawrence (who had been third in the 1956 Olympic 10000m) and Len Hilton (who ran in the 5000m at the 1972 Olympics), started a running club called the Houston Harriers which was modelled on the British club system and was very successful.   Outside running he had been working in the computer field.   Houston was to be where Jim McLatchie’s athletic career as official, administrator, organiser but mainly coach, took off in the most spectacular fashion.    Any doubt about his status in the community is removed by the following report when he retired in 2002.

McLATCHIE RUNNING OFF INTO THE SUNSET

They call him tough, rough and crusty – a running coach with a philosophy of ‘my way or the highway’    But when Jim McLatchie shows up at the track with his famous red-covered clipboard containing the day’s workout, runners know they’re getting the best.   Now Jim and his wife, champion runner Carol McLatchie – Houston’s first couple of running – are heading into retirement and moving to Bend, in central Oregon.   McLatchie will leave behind nearly 30 years of coaching success stories and the well-known club he helped to start in 1975, the Houston Harriers.   He has coached some of Houston’s most talented runners for years, runners who continue to dominate the winner’s lists at area races, such as Sean Wade, Jon Warren, Justin Chaston, Joe Flores and Joy Smith to name just a few.  

A champion runner himself, McLatchie knows what it takes to give one’s best and improve on it.   He never recruited runners – they came to him.   And he didn’t take them all.   ‘Don’t come out if you don’t mean to follow the instructions,’ McLatchie said, ‘There was always only one boss – me.   And that’s how it has to be.   Someone has to take control.    I always tell people to tell me what they want to accomplish.   If they can’t tell me that, I’m not interested.   There are enough sheep in this life without me getting any more of them.   If you could come to track and be disciplined in the workouts,  it would help you in your life outside the track.’

His coaching offered a support system –    runners helped each other reach their goals, and the workouts were not based in the star system.   ‘The key to success is, can you build upon each previous workout,’, said McLatchie.   That philosophy helped spur a host of champion runners and a series of titles through the years. 

Carol McLatchie is on sabbatical from running right now, but she continues to hold titles – like the American Female Masters 30K, and was named by Runner’s World as Masters Runner of the year in 1993.   She is in her sixth year as Chair of the USA Track & Field Women’s Long Distance Running Committee.   She met Jim at a track meet and starting training with him in 1979.   They have seen young runners blossom, succeed and become champion Masters.   But their ranks are slow to fill.   ‘There’s no really good young ones coming up,’ says Jim McLatchie.  

In March, Jim will retire from his long time job overseeing systems and programming operations in Information Systems Administration for the City of Houston, the job that paid his bills all these years but an occupation few people knew about.   The coaching he did was never a money maker – it was what he gave back to the sport.   From his early days in Scotland, working in the coal mines at 15, running offered him the freedom nothing else could.  

‘Jim’s an enigma really,’ said Chaston, ‘the only way he viewed running was from a runner’s perspective – that’s what really made Jim click.’    ‘The best thing that ever happened – him leaving town,’ joked Wade, then he stopped laughing. ‘He’s going to be missed, especially by the more serious runners.’   Warren, now men’s head track coach at Rice, said McLatchie had been the single biggest influence on his own coaching career.   ‘Jim’s done a tremendous job with tons of people.   He’ll work with anybody but you have to be able to make a commitment.’

McLatchie will keep in touch with many of his runners,    Email makes it easy to communicate, and ‘the telephone still works,’ he said.   

He’s 60 now and hasn’t raced in five years.   But he was still good enough at 50 to run a 5K in just over 17 minutes.   ‘I’d like to do something for myself – I’d like to do some running and get myself in shape,’ he said.   ‘I know everything I have to do; I just need to apply it to myself.’    Some have suggested that he write a book, and he’s not ruling it out.    But he’s packing the red covered clipboard too in case it’s called into service in Oregon.”

What had inspired this eulogy?   Quite simply he had had success on a large scale and he had a personality that they Texans took to their heart.   He was by now a coach first and foremost – just look at the following tables to illustrate this.   First table is the list of Olympians he has coached.

World Championship Competitors

European Championships

and these are only the major championships  – there are even more in World Masters, PanAm Games, State Champions, etc.   Little wonder that he was interviewed for the post of Scottish coach, a wonder that he was by-passed!  He was a genuine hero for his coaching in Houston.   He hadn’t forgotten his old Scottish friends however.   In the mid 80’s Brian Scobie had a wonderful squad of endurance runners and he took some of them to Houston for the marathon there.   Runners like Angie Hulley/Pain ran well but Veronique Marot was third in 1984 (2:31:16) and won it three times (1986 in 2:31:35, 1989 in 2:30:16 and 1991 in 2:30:55) and Brian won the Masters race in 1987 with a time of 2:30:59.   Jim’s own runner Martin Froelich won it in 1985 in 2:11:14.   These coaching feats had to be recognised and Jim had brought himself to the forefront of USA endurance running coaches and his reward was international coaching assignments which are shown in the table below.

Having been a very good runner and then a top class coach in the States would have been enough for most – a pipe dream in fact – but Jim wasn’t finished.    He was also a bit of a fixture on several Coaching Committees and Action Groups.   Have a look at these –

• 1984 – 1994:   Worked with Nike as coach of regional athletes to raise them to a level where they could compete nationally.   His women’s team won the cross-country title in 1988.   He was a member of several committees with associated coaches to develop a master plan to try to improve distance running in the USA;
• 1985 – 2002:   Member of the Women’s Long Distance Running Committee where he was one of the selectors for international competition.   He also held a post lecturing and coaching marathon development at the Olympic Training Centre;
• 1990 – 1993:   Member of the USA T&F Development Committee to develop a plan for distance running.   He received an award from the USA Women’s Track & Field for outstanding service to the sport;
• 1994 – 1999:   Member of the USA Women’s Cross-Country Committee to promote the development of sport for women;
• 1999 – Present:   Member of the Great Britain elite coaching squad for the steeplechase;
• 2003 – 2009:   Volunteer Coach at Pilot Butte Middle School;
• 2010 – Present:   Distance Track Coach at Summit High School

The fifth of these was unexpected but he explains that he went to England two to three times a year to work with Mark Rowland and the UK steeplechasers – and remember that Justin Chaston who was being coached by Jim competed in three Olympics and one World Championships for Britain.   Jim clearly had something to offer on that front.   Mark is now in Eugene, Oregon where he is the coach for Oregon Track Club.

What about the club that he set up with Al Lawrence away back in 1975?    Houston Harriers?   Well. he was a coach at the club from 1975 until 2001.   The club has approximately 100 members and the focus is on middle distance, distance and marathon running for High School, College, Open and Masters athletes.   The club was/is very successful and members have won more than seventy five USA National titles in twenty five years in events on the track, on the road and over the country.    Quite a record.  All coaches will now be asking what he did with the runners.   Information in the public prints is hard to come by but there is an interview with Donna Stevens easily available on the internet and in reply to the question ‘Can you give an insight into training in Houston in the 80’s?’ she gave this answer.   “ In 1979 I started training with Jim McLatchie and the Houston Harriers.   In a few years we had a group of 25 – 30 totally dedicated distance running athletes who met at Houston Baptist University on Mondays and Wednesday nights for track workouts and Saturday mornings for long runs.   On the track we were separated into groups of four to five runners that could run close to the same times.   Jim would have our workouts in his “black book” that he brought to the track.   Lots of  Mondays, we would run 6 x 1 Mile or 12 x 800 with a 200 jog between.   On Wednesdays we might have a mile breakdown of Mile, 1200, 800, 400 with 400 jog between.   We always ran hard on the track, holding nothing back, my heart rate was over 200 bpm.   Our long runs were 18 – 30 miles.   During marathon training, I did 2-a-days by running 4 miles in the morning and 6 – 12 miles during the evening (including our track days) with a 20 plus mile run on Saturdays and an 18 on Sunday.   I always built up from 70 miles a week in the off season to 100 – 120 peaking before a marathon.

We had a group of 4 – 8 women that consistently trained together and pushed each other to the limit.   Jim coached 8 of us to the Women’s First Olympic Marathon Trials in  Olympia, Washington.   Many of us PRed that day and it was an awesome experience and McLatchie’s training really paid off.”

He is now at Bend in Oregon where he is coaching at the local high school – the Summit High School referred to above – and enjoying retirement.   The boy from the coal mines in Ayrshire has come along way in every sense and it is all down to his own attitude and hard work.    And to me, one of the most amazing things is that he has done it all while holding down a serious day-job.   It was never paid employment.

 I think though that we should end with some words from his friend, Brian Scobie:

“He certainly was an influence on me in the ways he trained and where he took his inspiration from.   At the time he was staying in Milngavie, he was working for the railways on the south side of Glasgow, having escaped from Mauchline and the fate of the mines.  He was already past the stages of creating a running track on disused railway track and running up pit bings in boots.    But these things linked Jim to mavericks like Gordon Pirie and beyond him back to the great Emil Zatopek  Pirie was maybe his way back to the great Emil Zatopek, as well as to the Cerutty group in Australia with its sand dunes.   To me he stood in that lineage in terms of training attitudes and inspiration as much as in training modes..   He is a man with huge charisma.   Stubborn as a mule when he thinks he’s right.   A great pal to have.   Generous to a fault.”

I had thought that I had finished the profile there but Jim had other ideas.   We left him coaching at Summit High School after retirement – then in March 2012 we had an email saying that three of his girls had been 1, 2, 3 in the State Championships in the 1500m.   The first time it had been done!   He had coached the mother and grandfather of the girl who won.   Michelle Dekkers won the NCAA Cross-Country but was originally from South Africa.   She had moved up to Bend just so that her daughter Ashley could be coached by Jim.   Ashley who won also won the 800m and is headed for a scholarship at University of Oregon in the autumn.   The link is at  http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?event_id=118&do=videos&video_id=46503 .

In May 2012, his athletes won the Men’s and Women’s Leagues at State Championships and there are three videos to be seen showing some triumphs:

Boys 3000m:   http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?event_id=118&do=videos&video_id=68723

Boys 1500m: http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?event_id=118&do=videos&video_id=68811

 Girls 1500m:  http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?event_id=118&do=videos&video_id=68808

The Girls won their league of 12 teams with a total of 106 points with second placer on 74 points, and the Boys won their with 88 points ahead of the second team’s 67.5; there were also 12 teams in the league.    And as of August 2013, they have continued to do him proud winning State and League titles with amazing regularity.

Jim had won the Oregon State High School Coach of the Year award and it was right that he did so given the results of his young men runners.   The family double was complete when wife Carol won the women’s High School Coach of Year  in 2015 and went forward as a nominee for the National awa

Jim and Carol

  One World Cup Gold.   Two European Titles in 1990 – 800m indoor and outdoor.   World Indoor Gold.   Two Commonwealth Silvers. 

Won four consecutive Europa Cup Final 800m – 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991

Despite the above catalogue of success at international level, Tom McKean is almost unknown to the present generation of young runners, which I find quite amazing.   Tom was possibly the best endurance runner Scotland – by far the best 800m/1500m athlete of either sex – has produced.   Even if we only look at the number of times he has headed the Scottish Senior rankings we see that he has that honour no fewer than eleven times.   One of these time was under 1:44, five were under 1:45 and two were under 1:46 while only five other Scots ever have been under 1:46 and none under 1:45.   In the British all-time rankings he is number five with his best time of 1:43.88 and there are six more of his times listed there.   In the British Championships, he won in 1991, was second to a Kenyan in 1990 and also second in 1988 and third in 1992 and 1993.   Indoors he won the AAA’s 800m in   1990, 1993 and 1994 and back at home he won the SAAA 800m in 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989 and 1994.   It’s an absolutely fabulous record.    Fortunately his career and the life of the “Scotland’s Runner” magazine were almost exactly contemporaneous so we have very good detailed accounts of his races (mainly from the excellent Doug Gillon) and some frst class pictures.

I first saw Tom in action at Coatbridge in the early 1980’s.   I had  a squad of 5000m/10000m runners and Tommy Boyle had a group of runners from Bellshill at the track at the same time.   One evening he asked me to come and ‘Look at this.’   He pointed out one of his young runners at the start of a rep and the young man sped through the group although he had started well behind them.   It was of course Tom McKean and Tommy’s line was, “When you get something different, you know it!”   He was right of course and we know now how good Tom was.    (By the way, for the purposes of this profile, I’ll use Tom to refer to the runner, and Tommy to refer to the coach.)   I was Scottish BMC Secretary at the time and organised seminars once a year at Huntershill in Springburn.   The first year, the theme was Strength for Middle Distance Running, the second year Speed for Middle Distance Running and the third year (1985) I invited Tommy to come and talk on ‘Putting it together’.   He did it clearly and at the end of the day in an ‘any questions’ format with Frank Horwill and other speakers he was asked to predict how Tom would do the following year in the Commonwealth Games.   He said that there would be a medal and afterwards I commented that he was either very wise, very brave or very foolish.    Well, we saw in 1985 and 1986 which of the three was the most accurate and who knew Tom best.   That’s important because I have never known so much ‘second-guessing’ of a coach and athlete programme as Tom and Tommy were subjected to.  There is always someone who knew best but I think that everybody thought they knew best about Tom’s progress.   At a BMC Two-Day AGM and Conference at Jordanhill in Glasgow when Tom was running superbly well, Tommy was asked in a very aggressive fashion whether Tom would not have been better with more races; when Tommy turned the question round and asked the chap how often he thought Tom had raced, the estimate was only about 50% out.   The numbers who said that Tom should do more long runs were also high.   The truth was that Tommy played his cards very close to his chest at all times and never really published all the details of training.   The gap in knowledge brought forth all sorts of criticisms and observations, many of which contradicted each other.     Because Tom’s athletics career was as good as it was, I intend writing about a separate bit for as many weeks as it takes: the high spots will all be here but will not all go up at the same time.   I would also add, that his career had so much in it that I won’t deal with every Grand Prix, every Heat that he raced in.   While not impossible for some it would be for me and would simply be a huge (and I mean HUGE) catalogue of results and there is more to any athlete than the figures of his career.

I’ll begin with an extract from an article by Doug Gillon in the first ever issue of ‘Scotland’s Runner’ in July 1986.  Tom had won the Europa Cup 800m in 1985, much to everyone’s surprise in 1:49.11 in a very rough race with elbows and fists flying.   Tommy was a bit concerned at this very early success, feeling that the Championships in 1986 would have produced even better results had Tom been less well known than he now was.    At the time of the article Tom was number eleven in the Commonwealth over his 800m distance …..

“Five of the eleven are Kenyans however.   In total only six or seven are likely to be on the start line in Edinburgh.   And not one of them is capable of finishing as fast as McKean …. provided the race is run to suit him.   The credit for that goes to Boyle, the fruit of 12 years hard work in which a very special relationship has been established.   How special can be gauged from Boyle’s reaction as McKean’s participation has hung in the balance in recent weeks because of a stomach problem.   “There is more to life than athletics,” says Boyle with unfamiliar heresy from a coach.   “I’d pull Tommy out of the Games without a second thought.”   But in the face of the inquisitor, Boyle refuses to recant.    “I am thinking about Tom McKean’s future as a human being not as an athlete,! he insists.  

If McKean has much to gain from athletics success, he also has much to lose from failure, as Boyle well knows.   It was he who negotiated a complex job and sponsorship package with the Glen Henderson motor group, and two deals with his own employers, Honeywell.   And there is more in the pipeline.   Boyle certainly works at his role.   He fields phone calls to shield McKean, checks on the credentials of medical advice on offer from Finland to Clelland, studies the qualifying times, round by round at major championships, probes every source for the slightest sliver of information about potential rivals.   Then there are the training schedules, weighed up and fine tuned daily.   Today’s neglected muscle twinge is tomorrow’s traumatic breakdown.   All that while holding down a demanding job in quality control with the Lanarkshire electronics firm.  

It is a world Boyle can never have dreamed about when Tom McKean first showed up at Bellshill YMCA on a winter’s day in 1974.   “He was one of about half a dozen very talented kids who joined that year,” recalls Boyle.   “But he was by no means the most talented.   Each of them subsequently became district or national medallists in middle distance or sprints.”   Nor was success immediate.   “Tom was a late developer, showed very little before he was 15 or 16,” he adds.   “There are two ways one can train children – work them very hard, especially at middle distance, and you get immediate results.   But whatever way you do it, there’s a big drop-out  –  about 90%.      The other approach – mine – is to take time, try to develop the youngster totally as an athlete and a person.   It takes a hell of a lot of patience, years of work.   And another 9 out of 10 will vanish before you see the fruits. …. The first time”   I can really recall Tommy showing signs of promise was the national cross-country championships in the snow at Glenrothes.   He was sixtieth with half a mile to go … and finished third.   And we had done no specific endurance training.”

But it was not all medals and glory.   At 15 Tommy ran in his first Scottish Schools 1500m final – and finished second last.   “I took a lot of criticism then,” says Boyle.   “He was a tall, gangly, raw laddie and other middle distance coaches at the club reckoned that he should be doing longer work, preparing for a cross-country career in the club’s general tradition.    But I had already spotted that he was bouncy …. that sprinting type of bounce, not just a flat footed runner.”   By now he was 16.   Training was stepped up from two weekly sessions to four with a race at weekends.  

At 17 McKean was second in the UK schools 800m, competed for Scotland in the Bell’s Junior International and won the Lanarkshire 1500m.   That year he earned his first Senior Scottish vest.   “I can remember it well,” admits McKean, “It was against England, Hungary and Poland – and Steve Ovett elbowed me in the gut in the back straight and I went from second to last.”   But such early lessons were quickly learned, and he did the 400m/800m double (49.47/1:56.2) at the Scottish Indoor Championship.   The following year, 1982, he retained the junior 800 metres title (1:55.33). but surrendered the one lap crown to Mark McMahon.       “But my   800m time for the year (1:49.1) made me the second fastest Scottish junior ever for the distance,” says Tom.   And in his training Diary he wrote “Sixth fastest UK.   Fifteenth in Europe.”   His horizons were widening.  

But 1983 was a disaster.   “it almost put me out of athletics,” confessed McKean.   He suffered shin splints and under pressure, physiotherapist Tom Craig allowed him one race, the national championship, in which he finished second behind Paul Forbes in 1:49.18.   “If it hadn’t been for that race, giving him a bit of encouragement it would have been all over, ” says Boyle.   Even after that, during the winter, the pair had problems.   “It was one of our toughest spells, just the typical teenager thing … Tommy had a girlfriend, thought he could spend a lot of time with her and still go out and win.   But he soon discovered that he couldn’t and things got back to normal.”

Those surprised by McKean’s exploits last year must have had their eyes closed the year before.   In 1984 he was unbeaten as he lowered his personal best for 800m to 1:48.4.  These successes included:   Scottish 800m title, Scottish YMCA 400m title, West District 800m,  Inverness Highland Games 800m, Edinburgh International Games 1000m B race, Dundee 800m, Scotland International v Ireland 800m (his first televised run) and another international win over two laps against England and Holland.   Last summer’s victories – over Steve Cram on the Grand Prix circuit, and when called in as a late replacement for world record-holder Seb Coe at the Europa Cup final in Moscow, are public history.   But the real secret behind McKean is the manufactured sprinting ability that makes him such a devastating finisher.   Other Scots have run faster but none with the finishing burst of this consistent winner. ….

“All Tommy’s training is at high-speed endurance.  Hence the high injury risk,” explains Boyle.   “Tommy couldn’t handle the type of sessions like 6 x 600m with short recoveries that Coe and Cram do.   He’s not that kind of runner.”

But he could provide a big embarrassment to both at the Games, especially if the Kenyans in particular, fail to push the early pace. “

That’s the bulk of Doug’s article and neatly encapsulates Tom’s history up to that point.   It only remains to reproduce the table that accompanied the article.

Tom finishing second behind Steve Cram in Edinburgh, 1986

In the Games two months later, Tom really set the heather alight when he took second in the 800m final behind Steve Cram.   Domestically his feat was marginally overshadowed by Liz Lynch’s gold in the 10000m, but in the hot-house of British middle distance running, Coe, Cram, Ovett and Elliott all marked their cards that they had maybe more competition than they had realised.

 Doug reported on the Games as follows: ” … a member of Bellshill YMCA since shortly after his eleventh birthday and nursed delicately by coach Tommy Boyle.   His silver medal behind Steve Cram was a national record and bettered a native one that had stood to Mike McLean, chairman of the selection committee for the Games, since 1970.” 

Video of the race http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cceACL2S0UA&feature=related

Later in the year Tom ran in the British vest at the European Games where his team mates in the 800m were Seb Coe and Steve Cram.   In what was a first class race he came so close to winning that the athletics cognoscenti (and even the not-quite cognoscenti!) really sat up and took notice.   We return to Doug Gillon in ‘Scotland’s Runner’ for the race description.   “… Hours earlier the vine terraces which provided the backdrop to Stuttgart’s Neckarstadium had rung to frenzied cheers as McKean lit the fuse for the most explosive moment of the championships.   The script that had the race as a scene to be played out exclusively between Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram was spiked when McKean struck for home into the final bend.   McKean, the catalyst for that amazing run, came within an ace of an upset as spectacular as the one four years ago when Coe, suffering from a liver ailment, had to settle for silver in Athens.  

Sitting just behind the leader, Poland’s Ryszard Ostrowski who reached the bell in 51.98 seconds, McKean felt sure he could win.   “I’m just not … fast enough,” he gasped, seconds after crossing the line, and then, sucking up lungfuls of the chill night air, he exploded ominously “yet.”    His time of 1:44.61 was his third Scottish record of the year and was just eleven hundredths behind Coe.   Cram clocked 1:44.88.   Coach Tommy Boyle, the man who made it all possible, nursing McKean to three lucrative sponsorship contracts and through three injury crises this year, was delighted.   He spent a sleepless night after the final, mapping the future of his protégé  before flying back to Scotland in the dawn hours.   Then he was off once again with McKean to the Sports Fair in Munich, and to plot the last act of McKean’s season, a run over 800m in the Van Damme Memorial Meeting in Brussels.  

McKean’s performance now guarantees absolution from the penance which most of his fellow countrymen pay for being Scots.   He can now walk into any race he wants, whereas most are at the mercy of international promoters who can fly in English athletes more cheaply.”

 It was the race that Tom thought was his best and Doug Gillon has a very good article about it on the Scotstats website – read it at    www.scotstats.com/sats/uploads/Tom%20McKean.pdf     It has lots of detail and a degree of insight that I couldn’t find in any other report.   A sidelight on the race: Tom’s first big race, the Europa Cup of 1985, was a very rough affair with a lot of barging going on.   At the BMC AGM and Training Weekend in Liverpool that year, Peter Coe took Frank Horwill and Tommy Boyle to see a video that the BBC had put together for him taken from different angles from that actually broadcast.   It was on the outside of the track in the middle of the back straight in the second lap and Peter asked why Cram had given ‘your man’ such a buffet at that point.   And as we watched in fairly close up, the runners were running along with Tom a couple steps ahead of Steve when at about 250 to go, Steve seemed to stretch out slightly and wallop Tom in the small of the back with the flat of his hand.   His route wasn’t blocked and it wasn’t a punch – just enough to put most men off their stride, coming as it did without any warning.   Peter then remarked that Tom had done very well to take it without even faltering.   This all happened at 1:44 pace.   International 800m running seems to be even more violent than Highland Games handicap 800’s on slippy grass and without lanes..

He won the 1987 SAAA 800m at Meadowbank in June after a heat, a semi-final and the final.   Three rounds – either a good sign of strength in depth of Scottish 800m running or madness to ask runners to do three quality 800’s in two days!  However, the report in “Scotland’s Runner” read as follows.   All eyes were on Tom McKean in his first outing of the season, but there was no call for him to turn up the super-charger.   Successive times of 1:50.81 and 1:50.82, put him into the Final and when he reached 600m in80 seconds, (400 in 53.42), the pursuit was already adrift.   But Tom Ritchie hung on well to dip under 1:50 for the first time, and 18 year old David Strang, Glasgow-born, South African junior champion (1:48.8)was good value for his third place.   It was a measure of what is expected of McKean these days that his breaking of Dieter Fromm’s  13-tear-old championship best excited little comment except a ticking off from his coach for not having run faster.    1.   T McKean   1:48.17;   2.   T Ritchie (PAAC)   1:49.62;   3.   D Strang (Haringey)   1:50.24;   4.   J Rigg (Warr)   1:51.13;   5.   D Gray (Ayr)   1:51.76;   6.   D Black (Liverpool)     1:51.90;   7.   P Tweedie (Anna Striders)   1:52.42;   8.   B Murray (ESH)   1:53.42.

The Wikipedia entry for Tom says that “McKean was one of the favourites for the 1987 World Championships in the 800m.   However he caught the foot of another athlete in the final and suffered an injury which resulted in him finishing last.”   The actual result of that final was 1.   Billy Konchella (Kenya)   1:43.06;   2.   Peter Elliott (GBR)   1:43.41;   3.   Jose Luiz Barboza (Brazil)   1:43.76;   4.   Ryszard  Ostrowski (Poland)   1:44.59;   5.   Faouzi Lahbi (Morocco)   1:44.83;   6.   Stephen Ole Marai (Kenya)   1:44.84;   7.   Slobodan Popovic (Yugoslavia)   1:45.07;   8.   Tom McKean (GBR)   1:49.21..     Doug Gillon in “Scotland’s Runner” did not give a detailed account of the race but reported: “Inescapably there were moments of bitter disaster and nothing did more to fan the flames of bitter disappointment than the eclipse of Tom McKean in the 800m final.   McKean learned a difficult tactical lesson and admits that he made mistakes.   But Seb Coe widely regarded as the greatest 800m runner in history, had a string of disasters at this distance before finally winning a two-lap title in Stuttgart after nearly ten years in senior international athletics.   And three subsequent victories over the world champion Billy Konchella have firmly regained the psychological edge for the Lanarkshire man.   ….   Conspicuously, the English tabloids who had been so quick to write ‘quitter’  or  ‘McKean bottles it’, were subsequently more restrained when Steve Cram also finished eighth, in what was an even more spectacular fall from Olympus.”   

He had been looking good in the Heats, Quarter Finals and Semi-Finals (that’s right – FOUR rounds in total!).   In the fourth of eight heats, he was third behind Phillipe Collard (France) and Stanley Redwine (USA) in 1:47.71, then third in the fourth quarter final behind Billy Konchella (Kenya) and Phillipe Collard in 1:46.11 and then won his semi-final in 1:44.86 ahead of Jose-Luiz Barbosa and Stephen Ole Marai (Kenya) while Conchella won the other semi in 1:46.11.    It looked good for the final.   Alan Campbell  said in “Scotland’s Runner”:   “One by one the top-billed gladiators entered the arena, and one by one they stumbled and fell, in some cases literally as well as metaphorically,    …..  From a Scottish perspective the let down came from Tom McKean and Liz Lynch.   Tom had asserted himself in the semi-final, and really the gold medal lay between himself and Billy Conchella (the final only confirmed that view despite the unhappy outcome).   I watched the final in the company of people with no real interest in athletics, but who were drawn to the box by the prospect of a Scot winning a rare gold medal.   Not knowing much about the sport, they were suspicious about the hype surrounding the ‘Glasgow street-fighter’ (sic) in the Fleet Street Press, and I’m afraid Tom’s nightmare only confirmed their prejudices.  It’s absurd to put such a weight on one young man’s large shoulders but Scottish athletics lost a lot of potential recruits that night.”

If you want to judge for yourself, there is kind of blurred video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P8kUMlBM08&feature=related     Thanks to Joe Small for that.

SAAA Final, 1988. 

1988 was of course Olympic year but the first championship that Tom had was the SAAA event at Crownpoint in Glasgow where he was defending his title.    Again there were three rounds and Doug Gillon had this to say, “This was little more than a training exercise for Tom McKean but it achieved his desire to get in three races within 24 hours.   In the real race, for second place, Nick Smith of Shaftesbury, edged out John Rigg and Tom Ritchie.   Result:   1.   T McKean (Bellshill)   1:47.09;   2.   N Smith (Shaftesbury)   1:49.63;   3.   J Rigg (Warr)   1:49.83;   4.   T Ritchie (PAAC)   1:49.95;   5.   A Murray (Kilmarnock)   1:50.60;   6.   A Linford (Blach Heath)   1:50.88;   7.   G Gibson (Kilbarchan)   1:51.95;   8.   G Stewart (Clydebank)   1:52.29)”       Quite straightforward then and minds were focused even more intently on the Olympics.

Tommy Boyle spoke in the “Scotland’s Runner” of October 1988 about Tom’s chances in the Games.   Doug again:

“You get the impression that the experience of Rome last year not only left a mark on Tom McKean, but on Tommy Boyle as well.   McKean went into that race as favourite, according to the British Press, and you sense from Boyle’s defensiveness that he is terrified one of his athletes is going to enter the paddock in Seoul as a favourite.   “People get built up and then get knocked down,” he says bitterly.     No way is McKean going to be a favourite in Seoul, and despite the disappointment that he hasn’t recorded a faster time going into the Olympics, Boyle is probably relieved about that.   “Physically Tom is as well prepared now as he was for Rome, given that he had an Achilles injury for six weeks,” Boyle reports.   “Tom has always done well in the major competitions with the one exception in Rome.   We’ll start to see the lie of the land in the 800m in the semi-finals.   You never know what will happen because Johnny Gray got knocked out in the second round last time holding the fastest time in the world.   But the people who get the best times and qualify for the final are the favourites.”   Although Boyle insists that times are not important at the Olympics, it will be a surprise if McKean is not forced at some stage to run inside 1:44.45, the Scottish record he set at Lausanne in September last year.   The speed endurance training he has undergone since the AAA trials in Birmingham, when he was nearly caught by Steve Heard in the final straight makes Boyle confident that his man will be capable of sprinting off a fast pace, such as the one he encountered at Birmingham and which so nearly caught him out in the last 100m”   (In the AAA’s championships that year Steve Cram had won in 1:44.16, with Tom second in 1:45.10 and Steve Heard third in 1:45.32.)

Tom’s best race in the pre-Olympic period was in Berlin against Seb Coe – much to the astonishment of David Coleman, and almost everybody else, Tom won.   Coe can’t say he wasn’t fit or anything like that, he was beaten by a better man on the night.  Tom ran a superb race, never in trouble and always with a clear line all the way through the race.    See it here    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viVhFMUcGbU   I give you fair warning that although the video is good and clear, the commentary is dire – so biased towards Coe that it is almost hard to take.   The write up before the race, the ….   Well see for yourself!

In Heat Nine of Round One, Tom was second in 1:47.24, then in the second round (quarter finals) he ran 1:46.04 but was unfortunately disqualified for too much physical contact.   Coming after the difficulties in Rome it was hard to take.   Doug commented on it in “Scotland’s Runner”.   “Tom Boyle adopted a similar policy with McKean (refusing to let him run in the Grand prix circuit in the months leading up to the Games) and I am convinced that it would have paid off for McKean had he not had a brainstorm in the second round of the 800m.   Whether he can cure himself of his disturbing habit of throwing the instruction manual onto the infield at major championships remains to be seen, be he remains potentially the greatest two-lap talent in the world.   He will have only himself to blame if it remains unfulfilled.”  

So there you have it.    The British Press build Tom up and generally add pressure but Doug only says that ‘he remains potentially the greatest two-lap talent in the world’ after a poor run – isn’t that also pressure?   The comment made by Jim Ryun to the reporter who told him what he should have done on the track in Mexico City to beat Keino is maybe appropriate.   He said “I know, but I was down on the track and you were up here.”    I do not believe that anyone who has not run in a major Games, where every opponent is a potential victor and things happen at great speed, can know or even imagine what it is like.   Back in June 1989 after Tom won the SAAA championship, Doug wrote an article containing the following: “McKean’s track career has been a Jekyll and Hyde affair, as he is the first to acknowledge.   Tom Boyle, his long-suffering coach, marks McKean’s card before every race.   When he follows these instructions, he is devastating but when they are ignored, McKean plunges his supporters to the depths of despair, as witness his World and Olympic Championships and the contrast of his last two races.”   This was not the only time in the course of Tom’s career, far from it, that he has been referred to as though he were Tommy’s creature, as though racing at the top level was like Subbuteo but with runners instead of football players.   Repeated as often as it was, it must have begun to grate on Tom’s nerves just a bit.   There is the story of the coach at Liverpool FC using a blackboard to discuss tactics before the match when Bill Shankly walked in and kicked the legs from the easel.  “That’s the other team coming on to the pitch.”   Every one of the eight runners in an 800 metres has his own race plan, at least one, and they have to be dealt with by the man in the thick of it.   It was a kind of leitmotif of Tom’s period at the top – journalists saying or implying that his virtues were all Tommy Boyle’s but his vices were entirely his own.    I may return to this theme at the end of the profile.

Before looking at Tom’s racing in detail for 1989, it might be appropriate to have a wee word about his racing frequency.   It was a common remark in Scotland that he did not race enough.   If we take his top races as listed in Power of 10 and compare them with Coe and Cram for the same period we get Tom 11 races, Coe 11 races and Cram 9.    If we go a year further on we get Tom with 19, Coe with 4 and Cram with 9.   They all had injuries to contend with and there were other reasons to miss some events but the figures as they do seem to indicate that he did not race any less frequently than his rivals.  For the record his races in 1989 are in the table below.

Eleven races, one below 1:44, another six under 1:45 and between 28th July and 8th September there were 6 races starting with the 1:43!    As David Coleman might have said, “Quite remarkable, really!”

Alan Campbell saw Tom win at Meadowbank in the Miller Lite IAC Meeting and commented in “Scotland’s Runner”.   After eulogising Jayne Barnetson’s performance in the high jump …“If only Tom McKean was so easy to predict.   I have always found Tom to be exceptionally pleasant and unassuming, but there are clearly unresolved questions about his temperament on big occasions   According to those who know him better than I do, McKean was on the brink of quitting athletics after his desperate performance in Seoul – only the (severely tested) faith of Boyle and the athlete’s backers kept him in the sport.   The Miller Lite Meeting last year was another of McKean’s failures, when he was pitted against Said Aouita in the 1000m but simply failed to compete against the Moroccan.    Against this background then, McKean might well have “frozen” at Meadowbank faced with a home crowd expecting and willing him to win, and a top class field including Johnny Gray, Jose Luis Barbosa and Robert Kibet.   Nor could his nerves have been helped by a 20 minute delay at the start of the race caused by television scheduling.   But our man, confirming earlier positive performances, defied his critics to win convincingly.    Nobody is going to pretend that McKean has the raw talent of Paul Ereng, but at least he has the guts to put the traumas of Rome and Seoul behind him.   No amount of Grand Prix victories will erase these memories but as 1990 and the Commonwealth Games and the European Championships approach, Mckean is at least enjoying a better rehabilitation than some might have dared hope.   So, well done again Tom.”      Maybe it’s just me but …………    The red tops calling him Tom McFlop and sundry other derogatory names was bad enough, no one ever re-built confidence after these sort of things written by football journalists but this particular article in an athletics magazine in which the writer twice mentions Seoul, once mentions Rome, throws in a side swipe on the Miller Lite 1000m and using less than supportive language in places does the man no favours as far as confidence building is concerned.   Talk about rubbing it in!    Later in the same issue there is a report on the meeting from which I quote:   “The sum which had taken a shine to Edinburgh for the earlier part of the week, chose Friday July 7th to accede to more traditional capital weather.   But even if the sprinters didn’t get the warmth or the wind they would have liked, there was nothing remotely overcast or chilling about the standard of performances at the IAC Miller Lite meeting at Meadowbank that evening.   Quite the reverse.   No fewer than 13 Scottish all-comers records fell to the top quality international field assembled by David Bedford and even the non-arrival of the world’s hottest middle distance property, Paul Ereng, went uncommented as the crowd rose to Tom McKean’s 800m victory (1:45.41) over Johnny Gray and Robert Kibet, the two fastest men over the distance this year at the time of writing   ….     McKean’s win, after the previous year when he appeared to give up on pursuing Aouita in the 1000m, confirmed a trend which has seen the Bellshill man show much more nuance and determination in recent outings.   A win in front of his own home crowd will presumably have accelerated his rehabilitation.”     Again there is the referral back to the Miller Lite and the use of the word rehabilitation twice in the same magazine makes him sound like an alcoholic rather than what he was – a superb athlete who at times made mistakes in a  high-speed, physical contact sport.

Earlier in the year, Tom of course won the SAAA title again prompting this unrestrained outburst from Doug Gillon: “Never mind his European and Commonwealth medals.   This was the greatest race of  Tom McKean’s  career – a solo run with 200m splits of 24.78, 49.91 and 76.22 represented a pace inside world record schedule.   Kilmarnock’s Alan Murray knocked lumps off his personal best, but McKean was a class apart with a native record which was one hundredth of a second faster than his Commonwealth silver medal.   More important, it demonstrated that he can run world-class times off a fast pace, building the confidence for an even more famous win over Olympic champion Paul Ereng a week later.   result:   1.   T McKean (Bellshill)   1:44.79;   2.   A Murray (Kilmarnock)   1:48.83;   3.   T Baltos (Knau)   1:49.62;   4.   D Strang (Haringey)   1:49.68;   5.   J Ostengard  (Denmark)      1:51.18;   6.   J Schweer (W Germany)   1:51.88;   7.   S Murray (Kilmarnock)   1:53.17;   8.   G Brown (SUAC)   1:54.93.”  

If the 1989 races were really remarkable, then have a look at his schedule for 1990 where he had 19 races listed against 4 for Coe and 9 for Cram.

1990 was of course Commonwealth Games year again and after his silver back in 1986, even better was expected of Tom.    He had won the European Indoor Championship in March 1990 in 1:46.22 – a memorable feat in itself but it was kind of lost in the build up to later in the season.   Writing in “Scotland’s Runner” in February 1990, Doug Gillon reckoned that McKean now had the maturity to thwart the inevitable Kenyan team tactics and put Sebastian Coe’s swansong out of tune.    Brian Whittle was also running the 800m and Doug warned not to rule him out of the final shake-down.   The final result tells its own tale.

What was the story this time?      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kpgpgni3JQ8    will give you a very clear video of the entire race.    Coe and McKean in the first four, beautifully placed each with a clear run just didn’t do it and slipped back down the field.   A much more interesting run to watch was Brian Whittle’s.    There had been talk before the race of Tom and Brian working together on a plan to defeat the Kenyans but both parties denied it.    Brian took off like gang-busters for the first 200m and at that point slowed down and started looking back: there are different ways of looking back – looking back to check that all is in order and with a degree of confidence, or there is looking back in a panic with fear of being caught obvious to all but Brian seemed to be looking for something ….   Maybe he was just puzzled that in a field of that quality he was anywhere near the front.   Whatever the reason, he was in a position to come through on the inside as they entered the straight and was only beaten for third by 13 hundredths.    Alan Campbell wrote “I’m not going to dwell on the torment of Tom McKean, and having publicly backed him in the past, don’t intend to abandon him now.   He ran yet again like a donkey when most was expected of him, but one day he will triumph.   He’s too fine an athlete not to.”   

Alan’s last comment proved to have some substance when it came to the European Championships in Split.   Having been second at the last Europeans in 1986, he could reasonably have been expected to be a contender again.   However recent experiences led people  to take a dimmer view of his chances this time.   But he came good with a gold medal from a major championships.    His team mates this time were not Coe and Cram but David Sharpe (Cram’s training partner at Jarrow) and the erratic Matt Yates.   The story in figures:

Round One, Heat one of three:   1.   Sudnik   1:49.71;   2.   McKean   1:49.87;   3.   D’Urso   1:49.81;   4.   Selle   1:49.94   (Sharpe was second in Heat Two in 1:48.30)

Semi-Final: Second of Two:        1.   Piekarski   1:47.45;   2.   McKean   1:47.49;   3.   D’Urso   1:47.77;   4.   Miolovic   1:447.94.   (Sharpe was third in the first semi-final in 1:45.82)

Final (Result):   1.   T McKean (GBR)   1:44.76;   2.   D Sharpe   1:45.59;   3.   P Piekarski (Pol)   1:1:45.76;   4.   A Sudnik (URS)   1:45.81;   5.  S Popovic (URS)   1:45.90;   6.   T Viali (Italy)   1:46.04;   7.   G D’Urso (Italy)   1:47.29;   8.   M Yates (GBR)   1:48.42.

Alan Campbell wrote in the September “Scotland’s Runner”      “Tom McKean may be to the English language what I am to 800m running, but his succinct two-liner after Yvonne Murray had won the 3000m in Split was an appropriate summarisation of a golden night.    “We did the biz,” said an ecstatic Tom, “That’s sweet!”   Perhaps only Tom McKean and Tommy Boyle will ever know just how sweet.   But for the rest of us, sharing their joy from afar, it was a night to savour alongside the greatest-ever Scottish sporting triumphs.   I will leave it to Doug Gillon to report first-hand in the next issue on the celebration in Yugoslavia, but on a personal note my thanks to all the British athletes in Split, their coaches and their back-up supports for giving us something to really celebrate.”   I have read and re-read the November issue of the magazine, and the December one but could find no report from Doug.  The finish is pictured at the head of the profile.

Tommy Boyle has been praised profusely and correctly for his ability to get sponsorship for his athletes but detail is often missing.   In 1991 there was one article in “Scotland’s Runner” of the job that had been found for Yvonne to provide her with an income, a routine and a career after athletics and there was one in the April issue detailing the sponsorship received by Tom from Giltron Office Equipment.  “Tom McKean has won new backing worth £50,000 over the next two years.    The support comes from Giltron Office Equipment and provides McKean with the same level of backing as his previous sponsorship arrangement with Glen Henderson.   McKean, who is now employed by Giltron, works for 12 hours a week, allowing him the flexibility he needs as he prepares for next year’s World Championships in Tokyo and next year’s Barcelona Olympics.   Under the deal, the Paisley-based company also picks up all bills for physiotherapy, physiological testing and necessary travel.”    It is an interesting article and gives more detail and it can be read at Ron Morrison’s website www.salroadrunningandcrosscountrymedalists.co.uk where all magazines are available in the Archive.

Tom’s 1991 campaigns began comparatively late and his first race was reported in “Scotland’s Runner” as follows.   “Tom McKean, the European 800m champion was stunned in his first race at the distance this year, when he was outsprinted by fellow Scot Brian Whittle in the Dairy Crest Great Britain v Germany match at Crystal Palace – a match in which Ayr Seaforth’s Whittle was not even deemed worthy of a place.   Whittle’s win was against all the odds, though no surprise for the under-rated Ayrshire runner.   The British 800m team placings had gone to McKean, European silver medallist David Sharpe, and Steve Heard.   But it was Whittle who came off the final bend as the only challenger to McKean, running him down some 25 metres from the line to win in 1:46.58 to the Bellshill man’s 1:46.81.   McKean was not particularly perturbed and certainly he did nothing tactically wrong.   “Joachim Dehmel went from 300m out, and I had to go with him,” said McKean.   “it was a long sprint for my first race, particularly without having done any speed work.   I dare not start too early, or I would be over the top before the races that matter – the AAA championships which are the world trials and the worlds themselves.”   It was a gutsy run by Whittle who had the benefit of a European Cuo 4 x 400m relay leg to sharpen him up.   Ironically the Dairy Crest win earned him nothing, since he had requested the race, and when it came to a rematch with Heard two days later, Whittle was out-dipped on the line losing by one-hundredth of a second in 1:46.77.”      

He then went on to win the Panasonic AAA’s Championships and Trials – his first AAA’s title.   He won well in 1:45.67 from Steve Heard (1:46.53) and Brian Whittle (1:46.63) and secured his place in the GB team for the World Championships to be held in Tokyo from August 24th.   Once there, Tom shot himself in the foot.   It was entirely his own fault.   I quote, “Tom’s departure from the qualifying round of the 800m could not be blamed on anything but his own carelessness.   Running a perfect race for about 798m but slowing up at the line, he let in America’s Mark Everett and fast finishing Kenyan Billy Konchellah.   After a slow race, third was not enough to put him through to the final as a fastest loser.   The Scot summed up what everyone else was thinking when he admitted that he had messed it up.   He felt that he had run exactly to plan until the very last stride but was not making any excuses.”   Doug had told it exactly: it was a great race to watch with Tom running a beautifully judged race and then, when he knew he had qualified, eased up.   Unfortunately neither Konchella nor Everett knew that Tom had qualified and sped past him literally two metres from the line (the grid helps you judge at times like that!).   I couldn’t find a video link for the race – it would be a wonderful teaching tool for any coach of young athletes. “A micro-second of lapsed concentration”, said Doug.   How close was it?   Well the official IAAF archive give the first three times of the first three athletes in the first heat of the first round as – Konchellah – 1:47.35, Everett – 1:47.37, McKean 1:47.38.   Three one-hundredths separating first from third.

1992 was another Olympic year and you had to go through “Scotland’s Runner” until June before you found serious mention of Tom, and according to Power of 10 his first race was in June.   The article. by Doug Gillon, read, European 800m champion Mckean expected to become a father as we were going to press.   Perhaps it is as well that he has signed a new shoe contract and believes he is running faster than ever.   Having returned from training at 7200 feet in Colorado, under the eye of Commonwealth discus gold medallist Meg Ritchie in Arizona, he said, ‘We are looking forward to our first child and the responsibility will, I’m sure, help make me more committed.  In Tucson (3000 feet), over  600 metres, I was running two seconds faster than I would normally be running a month from now.”    Footwear company New Balance have signed up McKean and although they do not normally make sprint shoes – which is what McKean normally races in – they have launched a new range in his name, the TM800.   McKean, and the shoes, will have their inaugural race during the first week in June,    “We’re looking at meetings in Italy, France and Spain,” he said.   McKean will run in a 4 x 800m relay at Sheffield on June 5th, he joins Peter Elliott and Kevin MacKay in a team which may be completed by Ayr Seaforth’s Brian Whittle.”

His season is summarised in the following table:

What are we to make of that?   Barcelona was at the start of August.   Tom had seven good races, only once out of the top three and that was fourth.   Going into the Games he was quited as saying, “I am running faster than I have ever done before at a major championship.   I am right on course and have only the fine tuning to do.”    And then one round in the Barcelona first round which he won.   So what happened in the Olympic Stadium?   The first round was fine but Doug as usual has the word for us: “Once again McKean found the Kenyans too hot to handle. finishing third behind Kiprotich and Tanui in 1:44.39.   Kiprotich won in 1:43.55 with Tanui second in 1:44.12”    (Herald, 17 August 1992.)

In an article in the Herald on 15th August 1992, Doug Gillon wrote as follows (neither Yvonne nor Tom ran as well as hoped in the Olympics and the article deals with them both: I am only quoting the bits about tom but the full article, entitled “Boyle must bring out  drawing board again” can be seen online.)   “Going back to the club environment, more than anything else, brings the exaggerated consequences of Olympic failure into perspective.   It is nevertheless a reality which Boyle finds hard to confront.  He has been forced to go back to the drawing board before, more than once in McKean’s case, but this time he does so in the knowledge that nothing will ever be quite the same for Scotland’s two European champions who fell so short of expectation.   “With McKean the only self-doubt is whether I could have done more,” says Boyle, “We have tried the psychological approach, but there aren’t too many people around who are skilled in that area.   Now we are going to have to examine that aspect even more deeply for both of them.   Tom would have run 1:42 (his Scottish record is 1:43.88) by now if we had been able to resolve his problem at the highest level – namely the inability to overcome fear of failure.”   You can see the telltale signs on the start line.   Instead of staring straight ahead, all externals blotted out, he fidgets, fiddles with the chain around his neck, and looks about.   “But if Tom has the courage to continue, then the least we can do is explore ways of overcoming this.   We have not spoken about the race itself because it would serve no useful purpose.   Nobody knows better than Tom what went wrong.”

McKean said, “God knows I so much wanted to run well in Barcelona, but if it is possible, failing to make the final has made me even hungrier.   A lot of people have sacrificed a great deal for me.   I just have to pack my suitcase and get on to the circuit, run it out of my system.   In four years I will be 32, the same age as Johnny Gray who won the Olympic bronze, so an Olympic medal is not necessarily gone for ever.   I will need to reassess my goals.   I may miss the World Championships next year, perhaps do an indoor season, and think about the Europeans in two years time.   They come just before the Commonwealth Games and that may be a problem.  I have been in shape to run a personal best for the past three years and haven’t had that little bit of luck, or the right race at the right time to do it.  Hopefully, that might come before the end of this season.”       

The table above shows that as Tom said, he got back on the circuit with races at Sheffield, Cologne, Berlin, Brussels, Belfast, Turin and Rieti.   The right race for his personal best did not materialise.   He also, as he suggested fitted in a decent indoor season in 1993.   1991 was significant for another reason – Tom and Tommy split after a long association as coach and athlete.    For that reason in particular, although the season was remarkable in other ways, this year will be looked at in more detail than any so far.   Indoor season first.

On 23rd January in the Kelvin Hall, Tom started his campaign with a win in the West District 800m in 1:49.01 and was quoted as saying: “When I was out in Cyprus (warm weather training) I put on an extra five pounds in weight due to the amount of liquids I had to drink,” he explained.   “But obviously I’m highly delighted with the run.   I felt I timed it just right, I’m getting fitter and feel I’m right on target for next weekend (the Pearl Assurance international).”   even days later in the Kelvin Hall in the international against Northern Ireland and Russia he won the 800m in 1:46.86 ahead of David Sharpe (1:46.92).  There was another international indoors, the match against Northern Ireland and the USA at Birmingham on 13th February where he finished second to David Sharpe ((1:47.76) in 1:47.78 with Martin Steele third in 1:47.85.   In the AAA’s Indoor 800m championships on 27th February, he won in 1:47.27 from Alex Rosen (1:51.28) and assured himself a place in the team for the World Indoor Championships in Toronto in March.   The story there was that he he won his Heat and then won the Final.   If you don’t mind a slightly blurred video or a German commentary, you can see it here  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfoaiuDhNqU .   It was a good race to watch if you were a Scot: Tom went to the front early. took it at his own pace and won looking comfortable.   It brings to mind the words of Dunky Wright’s old marathon adviser who told him to get to the front, don’t let anybody past and he’d win.   “McKean adopted the tactics that brought him his European 800 metres titles indoor and out – running from the front – and was never headed in his three races.  ….  His critics will decry an apparently slow winning time.   But McKean had led through 400 in 51.89, constantly increasing the tempo as challengers came alongside, then easing back when the the threat was repulsed – uneconomic and fiercely taxing.   And the world’s fastestr man of the indoor season – Giuseppe D’Urso of Italy, failed even to make the final.   “My gold means a lot to me” said McKean, “But I am delighted for so many people, especially Tommy Boyle after all he has had to put up with from me over the years.   And I hope it goes some way to re-paying the people of Scotland after having let them down.”    With simple grace, in an emotion-charged aside, he added: “I dedicate a piece of this medal to Derek McLean the son of my former sponsor who died of cancer.   Hopefully it is also an omen.   I won the European indoor title in 1990, then claimed the outdoor in the summer.   Now I want to repeat the pattern with the world gold in Stuttgart this summer.” 

Tom McKean winning in Toronto, 1993

His next race was not until June 19th in Belfast where he was fourth in 1:46.17 and the next article I can find by Doug is from the ‘Herald’ of 25th June which is headed “Europa Cup 800 metres may be a race too soon for McKean” and goes on to say, “Tom McKean arrived here last night chasing the immortality which a fifth successive European Cup victory would bring, and intent on laying a ghost which will haunt the forthcoming two-day athletics feast.   The Lucozade Motherwell man is already the only male athlete to have taken more than three titles in the same event, the quality ofwhich achievement is endorsed by the fact that the combined might of two Olympic champions, Seb Coe and Steve Ovett, could amass only three Europa wins over two laps.   But Tom Boyle, coach to the world indoors 800m champion, warns that expectation of a further success from McKean on Sunday evening may be too high.   “Tom is possibly not even fifth fastest in the field on current form, and it really is asking a lot of him to deliver in only his second race of the season,” insisted Boyle, attempting to put the race into perspective as McKean flew out.   “The Byelorussion and Russian relay teams at Portsmouth earlier this month beat Britain and fielded men faster than Britain’s Olympic finalist, Curtis Robb.   That shows they are right on form.   The Spaniard Gonzales beat Tom in Belfast on Sunday, and the Pole Piekarski, who finished behind Tom, was playing games and giving nothing away.   Add to that the likelihood of the Germans fielding the European 1500m champion Jens-Peter Herold and Italy lining up Andrea Benvenuti whose best time of 1:43.92 last year was faster than the Scot’s, and you have probably the best quality field of the meeting.   “Yes,” agreed Boyle, it will be very hard and if Tom wins it will be a great slice of history.   But frankly, it does not matter.   Indeed Boyle confirmed that Britain’s needs in this contest of one-per-event were almost rejected.   “For Tom the only event that matters this summer in the World Championships in Stuttgart.”   Following the disaster of his last outing in Stuttgart, it was doubly important to Tom to run well there.   Tom ran in the Europa Cup and was generally felt to have had a good tactical run but nevertheless finished third and so ended his perfect run in the event.   His time was 1:47.32 but he was outkicked in what Doug called ‘ominous fashion’ by Andrei Bulkowski.   .

The Edinburgh Trades Week is in the first two weeks in July and on 2nd July, at the GB v USA v Northern Ireland match held in conjunction with the holiday, Tom ran in and won the 800m from a top class field including Martin Steele, David Sharpe and Matt Yates in 1:48.19.   In the AAA’s on 16th/17th July, Tom was third behind Martin Steele, whose athletic star burned brightly for a brief spell in the early 90’s, who ran 1:47.83 to beat Hezekiel Sepeng of South Africa (1:47.84) and Tom’s time was 1:48.05: his third third in the AAA’s in two years.   He was accordingly chosen for the World Championships in Stuttgart, having achieved the qualifying time prior to the third place.

The shock to the Scottish system came in Doug Gillon’s article in the ‘Herald’ of 4th August, 1993.   Under the heading of “Parting of the ways for McKean, Boyle” the article read,

“Tom McKean made a double confession last night.   He has ended his 19 year old relationship with coach Tom Boyle, and faces a race against a virus to be fit for the World Championships which begin at Stuttgart a week on Friday.   The parting between the world indoor 800m champion and the man who has steered him to Commonwealth and European medals, and four Europa Cup victories, is “completely amicable”, insisted 29 year old McKean. “I do not plan any other coach,” he said, “I simply felt it was time to move on.   We had some minor differences of opinion over training details, but really with perhaps only anther three or four years left in the sport, I feel I want to try out a few ideas of my own.   If they do not work, I have nobody but myself to blame.   Over the past few years, Tommy has been encouraging me to think more for myself.   I have nothing but respect for him, gratitude for what he has done for me.   It has not been an easy decision after all these years.”  

The coach, who steered McKean and  his stablemate, Yvonne Murray, to unique world indoor and outdoor title doubles, put together the most scientifically based training programme for McKean, and arranged some of the most beneficial sponsorship packages in Britain for his protégé.   But last night he was clearly surprised only by the timing of McKean’s announcement.   “Tom should be preparing for the world championships and to running for Great Britain, and should not have got involved in this just now,” he said.”   It was clear from this and other articles that Doug felt Tom had made a mistake in parting from Tommy.

Came the championships with three rounds – heat, semi-final and final.   Doug Gillon in the ‘Herald’ of 14th August, the day of the first heat, reported that McKean was happy to take on the world.   “The last time Tom McKean was in Stuttgart he was cosseted by some of the most scientific preparations British sport had seen.   His sponsor was a dealer in German cars, and the Motherwell man was chauffeured in limo luxury.   That help preceded the most memorable sight in British athletics history – Seb Coe, McKean and Steve Cram sweeping up the straight claiming the three 800m medals.  … He is (now) a man without a sponsor and has recently split from coach Tom Boyle, ending the longest partnership in British athletics.   And McKean’s only chance of a car is if he wins one of the 38 Mercedes on offer to the winners.  ………….. But in McKean’s mind the battle must be harder than ever.   If he could not do it before with all his needs pandered to, how can he win now?   He stands on his own with his poorest season behind him, not having broken 1:46, ranked outside the world top 25 and only third Briton behind world number one Martin Steele and Curtis Robb?   Or so the rhetoric goes.   “There is no pressure on me,” insists McKean. “The virus that has held me back seems to have cleared, and I am going well.   I won the world indoor during the winter.   I haven’t gone soft or fallen apart.   I have just been unlucky with illness and I am confident that I will run well.”   ….  McKean’s poor times this season have caught up with him.   He is unseeded and only fourth fastest in one of the toughest first-round heats tonight: it includes American Mark Everett (1:44.43 this year),  former world 1500m champion Abdi Bile, Italy’s Giuseppe D’Urso and former Scottish 1500m champion, Mbangyi Thee of Botswana.   If McKean survives beyond tomorrow’s semi-finals, it will be a significant personal triumph.”

 In the first round, Tom was in Heat Five of Six where he and D’Urso finished in the same time of 1:48.79 with Mark Everett third in 1:48.89 with all three qualifying – it had been close with the fourth man (Abdi Bile) being timed at 1:48.90   The semi-final was held the following day, 15th August, and in the third of three, with two to qualify, Tom won in 1:45.64 from William Tanui (1:45.74).    Among the non-qualifiers for the final were Barbosa and Johnny Gray who were last in their  heats.   Doug’s report on the activities was in ‘The Herald’ of 17th August.   Tom McKean, after a split with his coach, is, improbably, just one race away from tunes of glory in Stuttgart tonight and he has the chance to claim the medal he covets most at the World Championships.   The Bellshill Bullet has been off target at all four outdoor global championships he has ever attended, thrice failing to reach the final and finishing last in the other.   Nt a medal of any colour from two Olympics and world outdoor championships, and at 29 time is running out with recent poor form leading to claims that the bullet may be a spent force.   But McKean insisted last night, ” I may never have a better chance than in this final.   It is wide open and my kind of race – no front runners.   I have nothing to lose.  People said that reaching the final would be my greatest achievement, meaning I wasn’t going to reach the final at all.”   Tonight at 7:25 UK time, McKean and his British compatriot Curtis Robb line up against three Kenyans, Billy Konchellah, Olympic champion William Tanui,  and Paul Ruto, plus Giuseppe d’Urso (Italy), Hezekiel Sepeng (South Africa) and Freddie Williams, a South African-born Canadian beaten by McKean at this year’s world indoor final.   The Kenyans believe they are invincible and given that they will run as a team, must have a head start.   Konchella, who won the world crown in 1991 and 1987, is confident he can do so again, and dismisses all, save McKean.”  

Into the final and Tom was run out of it in 1:46.17.   There were only 1.46 seconds between first and last – and Tom was last.   How did the press see it?   From ‘The Herald’ of 18th August, 1993:

“McKean last as Kenyan Ruto even surprises team-mates”

That the 800m winner at the World Athletics Champ behind Olympic championships last night was a Kenyan should surprise nobody.   They have monopolised the last two world and Olympic titles at the distance, after all.   But the identity of the winner, Paul Ruto, shocked the Kenyans.  They had even left the 32 year old out of their team book of pen portraits, so little did they rate him, with both the Olympic and world champions in their team.   Yet it was Ruto, who has not won a grand prix or the international circuit this year, who held off Italian Giuseppe d’Urso and the two-time previous winner, Billy Conchellah.    Ruto clocked 1:44.7 with d’Urso on 1:44.86 and Konchellah three hundredths of a second behind.   Perhaps it should also have come as no surprise that Scotland’s Tom McKean finished last.   That after al is where he finished the only other time he finished in an outdoor global final – in this event six years ago in Rome. …McKean the world indoor champion, was unlucky – barged sideways by the South African Hezekiel Sepeng 60 metres from the line, with the fast finishing Konchellah alongside him in overdrive.   The Wishaw man admitted, “I would have been placed no better than fifth or sixth.   But if I’d barged like that I would have been disqualified, like I was in the 1988 Olympics when I did something similar to Rob Druppers.”.   It was damaging but by no means a mugging although McKean, who finished just  behind Olympic champion William Tanui, rounded angrily on Sepeng in the athletes tunnel…”You whacked me,” he said gesturing with his fist.   Then he shrugged and walked off shaking his head.  

Britain’s Curtis Robb took fourth in 1:45.54.   “We thought we’d run as a team”, said McKean, “but when Ruto went out we didn’t know whether it was a Kenyan ploy, or a burn up.”   McKean and Robb went through the bell together, sensibly third and fourth, behind Tanui and Ruto who led in 51.22 with Konchellah last.   McKean got himself slightly boxed after the leaders reached 600m in 77.92, but would have salvaged dignity  had he not been impeded.   “I made the final and wasn’t even expected to get there.” …. National Coach Frank Dick pointed out, “If that had been a European final tonight, Britain would have won silver and bronze.”   “I suppose so,” said McKean, “and you can take it I’ll be there next year, chasing European and Commonwealth titles.   I am not finished.”   

Yvonne Murray did not do well there either and they both ran at Sheffield in the McDonald Games.   Tom’s race had no fewer than 13 starters and, according to the press, he was bumped at the break and never looked likely to recover.   He finished ninth in 1:48.54, one place behind Curtis Robb and both complained afterwards about the size of the field.    There ended Tom McKean’s epic season: A World Indoor Championships gold medal at one end, and a last place in the final of the world outdoor championships bracketing a split from Tommy Boyle.

For the statisticians among us, Tom had 15 of the top 20 and was ranked second in the 400m with 48.0 in Scotland; in the UK lists he was third (behind Martin Steele (1:43.84) and Curtis Robb (1:44.92) with his season’s best of 1:45.64 although he had more top times listed than either of the other two (13 McKean, 10 Steele, 7 Robb).    His 400m time ranked him 45th in the UK.

The Scottish Athletics Yearbook for 1995 summarised Tom’s 1994 season as follows: “Once again Tom McKean comfortably headed the Scottish rankings and failed to do himself justice on the international scene due to injuries and lost training.   He failed to qualify for the European final and tailed off last in the Commonwealth final.”   Tom did nevertheless win the Scottish 800m title on 25th June from the very fast finisher Paul Walker (trained by John Anderson) in 1:48.69 to 1:48.85.    He had 10 of the top 26 times recorded by a Scot.    The British Athletics annual he was up a place to second Briton, behind Martin Steele, with his season’s best of 1:46.20 an he had six times worthy of inclusion to Steele’s nine and Craig Winrow’s fourteen.   In the NUTS merit ratings, he was third – as he had been the year before – behind young Craig Winrow and Martin Steele.   Competitively at British and international level, he raced in the Indoor International against Northern Ireland and Russia in Kelvin Hall on 29th January and won in 1:47.60 from Andrei Loginov of Russia (1:47.63).    Much less impressive was his run in the GB V Northern Ireland v USA in Kelvin Hall on 12th February where he was a poor sixth in 2:00.2 – the explanation however was that he was knocked off the track on the last bend and had to get back up and he gamely ran in last for the team.   There was clearly a problem, either during the event or brought into the match but in the absence of other reports on it, it is impossible to say why this was.   It could not, as McEnroe might have said, been serious because he won the AAA’s indoors on 18th February in 1:48.46 from Martin Steele (1:48.59) and Craig Winrow (1:48.72).

 He was not selected again until the middle of August when he raced in the European Championships in Helsinki where he was sixth in the third heat of the first round in 1:49.41.  Doug quoted Tom in an article in ‘The Herald’ on 16th August.   “Despite his humiliating first round exit from the European Championships, Tom McKean has decided to go to the Commonwealth Games.   He will travel to Victoria tomorrow.   Memories of a catalogue of premature dismissals at Olympic and world level gave serious thought to ending his season.   ‘It was a heck of a way to surrender my title,’ he said,’ but I have talked it through with my family.   They have been very supportive, and feel I should go to Canada.   So I have told the Scottish Federation I will.   There was never any question of my retirement.’   Helsinki does not hold happy memories for the Scot, at the World Games here earlier this year he finished last and then second last in his heat in these championships in   1:49.41  – six seconds outside his best, set back in 1989.   Previous poor showings by the world indoor champion have been more of a shock – when his form had appeared good.   But McKean had not run a single good race this year.   ‘I have been through this before and it does not get any easier,’ said McKean, ‘ but there is no point in running away from it.   I hope a few more days will see me much sharper.   A couple of niggling injuries, calf and groin, meant I was unable to do some of the work I would have wished.   I have reviewed my heat several times on video.   I did nothing wrong.   I just had no pace when I needed it. ‘”   It might be of course that the Tommy Boyle back-up machine would have helped him avoid the injuries or at least provided swifter assistance at the right moment although Tom still had access to what SAF had to offer to all its elite athletes.

In the Heats in Victoria, Tom ran well, and Doug saw him as confident and workmanlike against better quality opposition that at the Europeans.   The heat was won by Patrick Konchellah in 1:46.88 with Craig Winrow second (1:47.84, McKean third  with Martin Steele fourth.   Looked good but the race wasn’t .  In the final Winrow was fourth, Steele sixth and McKean seventh.    Under the headline “Now McKean May Quit” on 27th August, Doug Gillon reported, “Even sharper than the razor which cut away the hopes of Tom McKean, Patrick Konchellah sprinted off the bend to victory in the 800m.   The Kenyan bearing a name which creeps unbidden from the Scot’s worst nightmares, emerged to haunt McKean who had concealed a foot injury for the past week and now is contemplating retirement after having finished in 1:50.6.   Konchellah clocked 1:45.18 ahead of South African Hezekial Sepeng, 1:45.76, and Zimbabwean Saveen Nghidi, 1:46.6.   “It was dark during the night and I stepped on a safety razor in the bathroom of our quarters,” said McKean, pulling off his shoe and sock to reveal the cut.   “There was a lot of blood – it was like a slaughterhouse.   The wound required seven stitches.   I could not run at all for two days, but I doubt if it made any difference in the end – too many injury breaks this year.   My legs just didn’t have it.   The pace quickened, I tried to go faster but they were just going away.   I have no sponsorship, and can’t expect any now.   I’ll need to find a job and that may mean the end of my career.”   The winner, Konchellah, is the younger brother of twice world champion Billy, who beat McKean when the Scot placed last in the 1987 World Championships, and who won again in 1993, after having pipped McKean with a dip finish when the Scot faltered on the line.”  

Tom is one of the most optimistic and forward-looking runners I have come across and there was an article in ‘The Herald’  on 27th October 1994 which read: “Tom McKean has joined the growing band of Scottish exiles at the English club Haringey in a move which he hopes will help kick-start athletics career.   If he goes over the top in training, which he believes led to his worst season in a decade.   During the campaign just ended McKean surrendered the European 800m title without reaching the final, and he failed to break 1:46 for the first time since 1985.   His move from Lucozade Motherwell to the London club, which also has David Strang, and Ayr Seaforth trio  Brian Whittle, Gregor McMillan and Hugh Kerr on its books, completes the split with his former coach Tommy Boyle.   McKean now has no sponsorship, either with Motherwell District Council which helped launch his career when he laid slabs for them on the YTS programme or with anybody else.   “I intend to join another Scottish club within a few weeks – probably Lesmahagow,” said McKean, “I have had a six-week break and the groin, knee and foot injuries which troubled me have cleared.   I have joined Haringey because last season I could not get the right kind of races early on.   This will give me what I want.   I will not be changing my training methods – I am convinced last season’s build-up was correct – I just did not know when to stop.   I was too enthusiastic, and tried to pile one good session on top of another but Ian Callender has teamed up with my training group and he will tell me when to stop.”   Callender, the policeman who used to lean on the teenage McKean in track sessions to accustom him to the physical rigours of the event, is now a coach.   McKean confirms that he will do an indoor season, including the West District and Scottish events, and possibly the Great Britain v France match in Kelvin Hall, “But I will not defend the world indoor crown I won in Toronto”, he said.”

What a year!    Lots of selections, quite a few good scalps but a dismal record in major competition.   His opinion about not knowing when to ease up in training and doing too much, is easily believed if you know anything about athletes.   Many seem to work on the principal if one aspirin is good, then three must be better.   I have runners who would slip in extra weight training sessions when they thought I didn’t know about them, and the number of distance runners who think free time is wasted by not going for a run is legendary!   I remember when Liz McColgan split from John Anderson, there was a similar situation reported when she was doing too much and she was quoted as saying that husband Peter kept telling her she was doing too much.   A coach to whom he was responsible, or even a friend with access to his training diary could have pointed it out to him.     So when Tom said that, it had the ring of truth about it.    The other thing is that there have been several reports of athletes who split from Tommy having the entire package removed at one fell swoop: Tommy gave them a package that included medical back up, physiological testing, immediate Physiotherapy for injuries, sponsorship and race: the whole kit and caboodle.   Give up one part of the package and you give up the entire package.   That might have been very useful to Tom in 1994!   Enough with the editorialising, let’s get back on track and with 1995 in particular.

True to his word, Tom did join a Scottish club, and it was Lesmahagow.   In ‘The Herald, on 14th January, Doug’s article was headed “Fit again McKean dons new colours for 800m return.” and went on to read “Tom McKean returns to the job he does best when he races the 800m in the West of Scotland Indoor Championships at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall.   Last autumn, following a dismal Commonwealth Games, stepping on a razor and slicing his foot the week before the Victoria final was the unkindest cut in a catalogue of minor injuries that troubled him all season.   “I lost eight weeks out of 15 from May to August”, said McKean yesterday.   “Nothing major but they combined to ruin my season – the worst I’ve ever had.   Yes, I did think about quitting but I took six weeks off, sorted my body out and had some great physio from the Scottish team’s Joan Watt.  Now I’m looking back at the best winter I have had in years.   No niggles, no injuries, just consistent good training.   It’s been brilliant, injuries destroy your confidence and confidence is what breeds success.   I’m just looking to win the District title, to blow out the cobwebs.   It will be my first race since Victoria and I hope to run in some International races indoors..”   McKean’s plans include next weekend’s Scottish Indoor Championships and the UK selectors know he wishes to run against France at the Kelvin Hall, and the USA in Birmingham.   “But no matter how well I run – even if I were to break the world record – I will not do the World Indoors in Barcelona,” he says.   His wife Yvonne is expecting their second child in five weeks, and he adds, “Having a good outdoor season is the most important thing for me.   I have no sponsorship of any kind and need a good season to land some help.”   Today’s race, the first in the colours of Lanark and Lesmahagow, will be no walkover.   It promises to be the event of the day.   He faces one reigning world champion, 17 year old Boclair Academy pupil Andrew Young, who took gold at the World Schools outdoors Olympiade last year, plus the fourth and fifth ranked Scots outdoors last year, Strathclyde student Ewan Calvert and Clydesdale’s Grant Graham.”

He won the West District title comfortably enough though and was selected along with Craig Winrow to compete against Russia in Birmingham.    The race turned into a battle but this time our hero was not involved.   “With bodies skittling around in his wake, Tom McKean battled to his fifth consecutive indoor victory of the year helping Britain beat Russia in the men’s international  at Birmingham on Saturday.   But a clash which left team-mate Craig Winrow sprawled on the infield and a Russian disqualified may lead to Guests being banned from such races in future.   “I feel they should not be allowed,” said Verona Elder, UK team manager at the McDonald’s international.   “The person in there has earned their British vest and should not have to worry about guests.”   McKean had dominated a modestly paced race, waiting for the challenge.   But when European champion  Andrey Loginov charged in pursuit in the final 70 metres, he clashed with English guest Martin Steele.   Their arms windmilled, Steele barged Winrow, and the man ranked UK Number One outdoors last season crashed to the ground.   Loginov got to within a foot of McKean who won in 1:50.04 then castigated both Winrow and Steele.   “Craig was unfortunate but should have got up,” said McKean, “I finished when I went down against the USA last year in Glasgow.   We could have lost that match by one point.”   McKean agreed that guests are a distraction.   “The priority is to win for Britain, but if challenged, even by a guest, the instinct is still to respond.”    

In the second indoor international that winter he won the match 800m against France and Northern Ireland in Kelvin Hall on 17th February in 1:48.72 but had not run in the AAA’s championship and did not go to Barcelona for the World Indoor Championship.   Having also won the Scottish indoor championship in 1:49.85 on 22nd January as well, he headed into the track season in good shape and looking like his old self, albeit that the times were a bit slower than before.   But the season did not go as hoped for.   Tom dropped out of the Scottish 800 metres final – he went to the front at 200m and tried to slow it down but teenager Des Roache jumped the field coming into the finishing straight for the first time and got almost ten yards on the field.   The charge after him was on and the runners were almost all big men – Tony Morrell and Gary Brown being probably the biggest – and with 150 to go and Roache still leading and Tom surrounded by men all over 6′ tall, Tom had a recurrence of an old injury and stepped off the track.   The race was won by Paul Walker who had switched from John Anderson to John Lees’s training group came round the field in the finishing straight and took the gold.   No matter, Tom was again injured and there was no championship here.   Nor was he successful in the English Championships where he could do no better than seventh in 1:50.70 in a race won by Curtis Robb in 1:46.78.    In the British Merit rankings, he had slipped back to fifth behind Robb, Strang, Winrow, Cadwallader and Ireland’s Gary Lough.   I had not been a good year for him.

The Statistical Yearbook review of 1996 read:  “Tom McKean was absent from the rankings for the first time since 1981 having retired from competitive athletics, and his usual top-class runs were sadly missed.”.  

Tom’s championship record has been covered well enough above but his times and how they rated against the best in Scotland, Britain, Europe and indeed the rest of the world had not.   The following table lists his annual best time and where they were ranked n the first three.

Tom was an outstanding talent who was well brought on by Tommy Boyle.   Both benefited from the arrangement and it is pointless to try to say who gained most.   It would be good for Scottish athletics were Tommy to publish either as a book or as a series of articles what he knew when he started, what he learned and what other coaches could take from it.    I’m not talking about a wee sensational book about his relationship with his athletes – he is widely said to be a ‘my way or the highway’ kind of coach (as are many another including Jim McLatchie) – but a book on coaching theory and practice.   Should Tom have split with him in 1993?   I don’t know anything about disagreements of previous differences of opinion – it’s not my business anyway – but it would be strange if a 29 year old athlete who had travelled the globe, spoken to a myriad of athletes as well as learned from his own experiences did not want to try out his own ideas on himself before it was too late.   In Tom’s case the effect of having been told time and again that he was nothing without Tommy (one of the excellent Doug Gillon’s sentences that grates a bit still in the one about Tommy marking his card before every race and when he follows them he is devastating and when he doesn’t ….) must have had some kind of multiplier effect.   He read the columns as well as the general public.    Mind you, when you come to the end of the day, it’s the athlete who makes the coach famous.    I remember Peter Coe at Jordanhill one day saying he took on Wendy Sly (Olympic silver medallist at the time) because he wanted a challenge and a wee coach from Glasgow remarked that he had two women who couldn’t break 2:15 if he really wanted a challenge!   Scottish athletics was really fortunate to have had the two Toms in their corner all through the 80’s and into the 90’s.    And I still want that book from Tommy!

Tom McKean has been inducted into the Scottish Athletics Hall of Fame.

Winning the Scottish Universities Cross-Country Championship in 1986

There have been many outstanding women endurance runners in Scotland in my time in the sport but very few have made it to the Olympics.   Liz McColgan, Yvonne Murray, Karen McLeod – and Lynne McDougall.    I remember one of the very good senior men I was coaching in the late 1980’s phoning me after a road race with the boast that he had out-kicked an Olympic 1500m finalist!   It was Lynne that he outkicked.   Although she is now perhaps better known as a top class road and marathon runner, she ran in the Los Angeles Olympic final back in 1984 and was also an outstanding 800 metres and cross-country runner.  There were also representative races over the country with three runs in the World Cross-Country Championships at Madrid (as an Intermediate), Rome and Gateshead and a GB vest on the road when she ran a 6K leg of the Yokohama Ekiden Relay.   A popular member of any team, she is said to be incredibly good at impersonating people – and she was particularly good at doing a couple of Scottish athletics officials!   There was one occasion when with a Scottish team in Italy  she wanted honey for breakfast and was reduced to flapping her arms like wings and saying “Bzzzzzz!”   She was however superbly talented and the range of her abilities and length of her stay at the top can be easily shown by her appearances in the Scottish and British All-Time ranking lists.

Add in one Olympics and two Commonwealth Games and you have an idea of the quality of which we speak.   How about championships won?   Scottish Senior victories in the 1500m were in 1982 (4:16.2), 1986 (4:10.23), 1988 (4:13.99), 1989 (4:08.14) and 1996 (4:30.05); SWAAA 3000m in 1991 (9:24.43) and 1993 (9:28.45).   In the AAA’s Indoor Championships she won in 1984 (4:16.89), 1988 (4:26.00) and 1989 (4:21.96); in the WAAA Under 17 championships she won in 1981 (4:25.76) and 1982 (4:27.0) and in the WAAA Under 15’s Lynne won in 1979 (4:34.34); In the UK Championships proper she finished second to Zola Budd in 1984 (4:10.80) and won in 1989 when Zola Budd was history in 4:11.31; she won the CAU 1500m in 1996 in 4:21.85 and won the British Schools International in 1981 in 4:25.39.   What a record.   I can’t think of another Scottish athlete – male or female – with such a list of successes.   She seems to have been competitive from the very start – Fiona Meldrum says that they both ran their first race at the same time (they were 9 or 10 years old at the time) and remembers it as being a very hard race for both of them.

 But Lynne’s story is also one of a catalogue of disasters defeated and hardships overcome; disasters that would have seen a lesser athlete, whatever the talent, depart the sport.   Lynne has answered the questionnaire and, before looking at her career in detail, we should read what she has to say.

Name:   Lynne McDougall

Club:   Victoria Park/McLaren Glasgow/City of Glasgow

Date of Birth:  18th February, 1965

Occupation:   Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow

How did you get involved in the sport: I loved running from when I was very young and have vivid memories of testing myself running various distances in Primary 1 and 2 in Ayr.   When I moved to Glasgow with my family I went to Simshill Primary and became friends with Andrea Calderwood whose dad, Bobby Calderwood, was of course a very good runner.   We went along to Victoria Park and I was lucky that the middle distance coach at the time was Ronnie Kane who was, I think, one of Scotland’s best ever coaches (although probably underrated).   I was 9 and began to compete in cross-country.

Has any individual or group had a marked influence on either your attitude to the sport or individual performances?    Two of my coaches have had an important influence on my athletics.   Ronnie Kane, my first coach, provided an excellent introduction to the sport and a firm basis for development.   He was wholly committed as a coach and had an intelligent and methodological approach.   He encouraged all of the people in his group, no matter their abilities, to be as good as they could be.   His attitude was far from the parochialism we sometimes see in Scotland now – our key championships were always the AAA’s and the English National Cross-Country Championships and we often went to England seeking fast races.

My second coach, John Anderson, also had a very important influence.   I was introduced to John by Jimmy Campbell (who coached Christine and Evelyn McMeekin).   I was not sure what to do after Ronnie Kane died in 1982 and had no coach.   I linked up with John prior to the European Junior Championships in 1983.   Not all of John’s athletes were international athletes at that time, but the majority were and this made me feel that I should emulate their approach to training, racing and life style.   This kind of group atmosphere, mixing with well known athletes through John’s contacts, and John’s training programmes which emphasised a lot of quality running helped me to improve rapidly.   Within a year of starting working with John I had knocked 5 seconds off my pb for 800m and 10 off the 1500m.   I never ran was well as I did in that 1984 season for a range of reasons but I continued to work with John on and off over the years.   When I eventually began to train for the marathon I again sought guidance from John – he is one of the most knowledgeable athletics coaches in the world.

My partner, Allan Adams, has had an important  influence on me in my latter years.   I learned a lot about long distance running from him and he helped me in training.   He has a very professional approach to training.   I particularly like his attitude to racing where he is competitive but also pleased to see others do well.   If he has a bad race he bounces back very quickly and stays very positive.

What exactly do you get out of the sport?   I used to enjoy winning races or doing well – it gave me a great sense of satisfaction!

There have been times when I have been fit and I know that I pushed myself to the limit.  I cannot imagine going through life and never experiencing this.   This means that despite not achieving all the things of which I think I was capable there have only been a few times when I have abandoned running (and even then I only stopped competing but continued to run) so it defines me and is a constant source of well-being.

More prosaically, through running I have been able to see the world.   I would never have been able to see all of the places I have visited otherwise.   I have also met many remarkable people from all walks of life, countries and backgrounds.   I would never have been able to meet all of these people without being involved in a sport like this.

Can you describe your general attitude to the sport?   I don’t think that I have a general attitude to the sport.   It has been different at different times of my life and at different parts of my career and I must admit that I have struggled sometimes to achieve the right mental approach because I have let external factors and my emotions distract me.   From observing successful athletes I think that there seem to be a few common factors in their attitudes including love of the activity of running (not just winning), self belief, focus on their own performance and a positive outlook.   Only some people are born with such an attitude and the rest of us have to learn these things.

What do you consider to be your best ever performance?   I think I ran well at the Scottish Championships in 1989 when I set a new Championship record.   I had a lot of personal difficulties at that time and yet I was able to overcome them on that day, win and get the Commonwealth Games qualifying time that I needed to go to Auckland in 1990.   I got my attitude right that day!

And your worst?   That’s easy!   In 1998 I ran in the AAA’s 5K.   My heart was not really in it and I was over-anxious and stressed before the race.   Not surprisingly I started badly, and the gradually got slower and slower until I was walking and then I walked off the track.   That is the only race I have ever not finished and I never competed on the track again.

What did you do apart from running to relax?   To relax – the usual things … sitting around and watching telly!   I have no other talents such as other sports or arts so did not have any hobbies.   However I do think that it is important to have other interests.   I qualified as an addictions counsellor and did a Masters while I was running.

What goals did you have that are still unachieved?   Many!   I ran my fastest times while I was still a junior when I was certainly not training as hard as I could.   A variety of factors in the years after that made it difficult for me to put in place all the things that need to come together fro an athlete to be successful.

What has running brought you that you would have wanted not to miss?   The opportunity to compete in many different parts of the world.   I found some of this stressful but at the time it was very exciting.   Taking part in major games like the Olympics and Commonwealth Games was particularly exciting because in addition to the competitions these brought along with them a lot of opportunities such as meeting new people or travelling to new places.

Can you give some details of your training?   Two things that I think are important are intensity and being specific in training.   The first means that you have to spend quite a lot of your time running fast if you want to be a serious athlete.   This means at race goal pace and faster.   The second means focusing on the training that is specific to your event.   So if you want to be a track runner you need to do track sessions!   I trained on the track 3 times a week when I was a track runner.   I am inclined to think that people are not really training intensively enough or specifically enough these days.

When I was competing on the track my key sessions were:   8 x 300 with 3 minutes recovery; 4 x 600 with 5 minutes recovery; 3 x 1000 with 7 minutes recovery; plus sprint sessions like 150 -200 – 150 in increments of 10m with walk back recoveries.   I also ran 3 – 4 miles fast once a week and ran an hour or 10 miles once a week.   I trained twice a day with a total mileage of around 60 miles a week.

I took up marathon running comparatively late in my athletics career and did my first when I was 35.   When I was a middle distance runner I did relatively little mileage but quite a lot of intense running and ran sub 34 minute 10K’s off this kind of training.   I did very little racing over longer distances and in fact I ran only one half marathon before I did my first marathon.   My training for the marathon changed a bit from my track training in that I increased the length of my sessions and runs.   A typical week might be something like this:

Monday:        am   5 miles          pm   5 – 7 miles

Tuesday:        am   5 miles          pm   Track session, eg 1000m/600m x 5 with same distance jog recovery.

Wednesday:   am   5 miles          pm   1 hour steady

Thursday:       am   5 miles          a ‘stepping stones’ session like the one above but perhaps of 9 or 12 miles duration

[Lynne explains: ‘Stepping Stones’ is when you run one mile at one pace and then another at a faster pace: eg in a 12 mile run, you might do six at marathon pace and six at 10K pace.]

Friday:           Two easy runs or a rest

Saturday:       Another stepping stones

Sunday:         Long Run               20 miles done at or near race pace (6 min miles)

Doug Gillon, in an article in the ‘Herald’ suggests that the first indicator of her ability was in the winter of 1976 when she won the Scottish Under-13 championship from Linsey Macdonald who would also be an Olympic finalist, albeit in the 400m in Moscow in 1980.    Her record in the Scottish National Cross-Country Championships at the beginning of her career was exceptionally good: in 1977 she was second in the U-13 Championships which she won the following year.   Missing the championships in 1979, she won the U-15 championship in 1980 and in 1982 she won the U-17 National.   As an U-20 in 1985 Lynne finished fourth in the Senior National which she won in 1985.      But good as that record was, a better indicator might have been her track running in the same year.

Lynne receiving her award for winning the Gallery Street Mile in 1983

(This was a Street Mile from Lenzie to Kirkintilloch organised by the BMC and Strathkelvin Council in connection with the Luddon Half Marathon)

As a ‘Girl’ (ie Under 13) Lynne ran an 800m in 2:21.9 which had her at the top of the age group rankings but it also placed her fourth Junior (Under 15) and fifteenth Intermediate (Under 17); her 1500m time of 4:52.3 was also top of her age group but placed her second Under 15, third Under 17 and nineteenth Senior!    At this point she was training with an excellent group under the guidance of Ronnie Kane who had been a Scottish cross-country internationalist and a regular and dependable member of the outstanding Victoria Park team of the 1950’s.   The group contained such excellent athletes as Fiona McQueen. Judith Shepherd and Janet McColl, all of whom made the difficult transition to senior athlete having negotiated the pitfalls on the way up that lose the sport so much talent.   After winning the National in 1978, Lynne had another good year as an Under 15 on the track.   She won the West District 800m in 2:22.3 and was second in the East v West fixture in 2:15.0.   At the SWAAA it was the 1500m that she tackled and won in 4:46.5.   The 800m time ranked her second in her age group and her 1500m best for the season of 4:39.8 topped her age group.

In 1979 Lynne continued to progress: she won the West District 800m, the East v West 800m and the Scottish Schools on 16th June in a season’s best of 2:15.13 which was two seconds clear of Angela McGeown from Paisley who managed to top the rankings for the season with a late-season 2:14.9.   She won the Junior SWAAA 1500m and in the UK Schools she won in 4:29.6. which was a UK age 14 best at the time. Add in a victory in the WAAA Championships and you have successful summer. Her season’s best at the distance was 4;29.6 which was run at Grangemouth on 16th July: the time was eleven seconds up on Sharon Morris and a whole 20 seconds up on Yvonne Murray,

1980 had a third place in the WAAA Under-17 indoor championship 800m at Cosford in 2:10.6.In 1981 she tackled only one senior championships – that was at the West District 3000m which she won in 9:53.4 – preferring to run at the Intermediate Championships where she won the Scottish in 2:11.9 and the East v West which she also won (2:10.0).    In the Intermediate rankings she was fifth in the 400m with 58.2, first in the 800m with 2:08.9 and first in the 1500 with 4:23.8.   Lynne ran in two women’s internationals that year.   In the match at Meadowbank against Denmark and Eire she was fifth in the 1500m in 4:29.8 and in the match against Norway and Wales at Ardal in Norway she was again fifth in 4:24.6.   It should of course be noted that she was racing against senior women of international standard.   Her travels that year included Antrim, Oldenburg (West Germany), Ardal, Dublin, Birmingham and Crystal Palace as well as the Scottish circuit.    She was at this point still a pupil at King’s Park High School.   Her performances showed a remarkable consistency for a 16 year old: often enough a young runner has one or two or even three performances in a season that rank with the best of the Seniors but Lynne had many more than that.   Her 1500m performances in 1981 included:    4:23.8 (Antrim, 24/5), 4:24.7 (Oldenburg, 13/6), 4:24.7 (Grangemouth, 28/5), 4:24.7 (Ardal, 29/8), 4:25.6 (Dublin, 4/7), 4:26.9 (Birmingham 19/9) and 4:27.1 (Crystal Palace 25/7).   On the Women’s All-Time lists her 4:23.7 that year placed her ninth on the seniors list but first on the U-17 list to equal her top rankings for the U-15’s and U-13’s.   An outstanding year by any measurement.

If 1981 was good, 1982 was better!   At the age of seventeen, she had no fewer than five times in the Senior women’s rankings with the best (4:15.7) being third behind Christine McMeekin (4:14.87 and Yvonne Murray (4:15.1).   Her best 800m time of 2:06.87 was fourth and she was even in the 400m lists with 58.3 seconds.   At the end of the season she had moved up to fourth on the all-time list.   It was a time when the standard of women’s middle distance running in Scotland was good – her rivals included the McMeekin twins, Yvonne Murray, Andrea Everett and Elise Lyon (Wycombe Phoenix).   In the SWAAA senior championships, she won the 1500m from Christine McMeekin with 4:16.2 to Christine’s 4:16.7 while in the West Championships she was second in the 800m with 2:14.7 and in the schools championships she defeated Andrea Everett with 2:09.6 to 2:11.8.    There was a women’s international that year in Maribor, Yugoslavia against England, Yugoslavia and Spain and Lynne was again in the 1500m where she was sixth of the eight runners with a time of 4:18.19.   Her racing venues in 1982 included Crystal Palace, Maribor, Cwmbran, Amsterdam as well as all the Scottish venues.

1983 was the year when Lynne had her first taste of a major games when she was picked for the European Junior Championships at Schwechat in Austria.   Running in the 1500 metres she qualified for the final along with Elise Lyon from Brighton where she was fourth in 4:15.39 behind the Romanian winner, Margareta Keszeg, who was timed at 4:13.17 with Elise tenth in 4:22.13.   This was to be her first Games occasion but by no means her last.   She comments on the event: “I was quite pleased with this performance.   I had been the top ranked Junior in Europe the year before but then Ronnie died and it was a difficult winter.   I had a terrible run in the world Cross-Country in Gateshead.   I started being coached by John just prior to the championships and this really helped to turn things round and so to be that close to a medal after a period of turmoil was quite good.”

1984 was Olympic year and Lynne started off on 14th January winning the indoor 1500m in the WAAA Championships at Cosford in 4:16.89 and in the international fixture two weeks later she represented Britain against the GDR and finished third in 4:14.11.   The next result of any consequence was in May in the UK Championships at Cwmbran when she was second in 4:10.81.   Two weeks late, on 10th June, at Gateshead in the Olympic trials Lynne was second in 4:06.99.   Eighteen days later in Oslo Lynne was second in 4:09.27.   The Olympics were in Los Angeles in August and the Soviet bloc boycotted them in retaliation for the American boycott of the Moscow Olympics in 1980.   Nevertheless the standard was very high indeed and in the 1500m for Britain Lynne was accompanied by Christine Boxer and Chris Benning.   Her first race in the arena was on 9th August and she finished fifth in the second Heat in 4:09.08 to qualify for the final.   Two days later in the final, Lynne was eleventh in 4:10.58.    As a nineteen year old, the youngest in any endurance race final at the Games, she could not have been disappointed in this result although the papers made a big deal of Lorraine Baker – 20 years old – who made the 800m final and even more of Zola Budd.  The actual race was fascinating with the issue in doubt right to the last few strides: the field was still bunched with 600 metres to go and Lynne was in the bunch – have a look at the race on YouTube,  just go to 1984 Olympics and then type in Women’s 1500m and you’ll get it.  Lynne has this to say about the Games: “This was a wonderful experience.   People were very kind to me because I was one of the youngest members of the team.   I think I could have run better in the final if I had been better prepared mentally.   However this was only me second senior GB vest!!!”   It should be noted that at this point many of the top Eastern European women, and some others too, were suspected with good reason of having used drugs to reach their peak and of course the whole thing came to the surface in 1988 with Ben Johnson’s disqualification and the many stories about other medal winners.   She was probably ‘cleaner’ in this respect than several ahead of her.   Two weeks after returning from Los Angeles, Lynne raced to 2:01.11 for 800m at Crystal Palace which was a Scottish record that still (September 2011) stands.   Two days later in Budapest she was fifth in 4:05.98.   Still racing in September she was fourth in the Mile at the IAC meeting at Crystal Palace in a time of 4:30.08 on 7th September and on the sixteenth on the international against Yugoslavia in Karlovic, Lynne was third in the 800m in 2:02.37 to bring the curtain down on a very successful summer season.

1985 was not nearly as busy a year however she started by winning the Scottish Cross-Country Championship from Yvonne Murray.  Doug Gillon had this to say about it in the ‘Herald’ of 25th February: “The women’s championship at Rosyth saw Lynne MacDougall carve out yet another victory over Yvonne Murray.   Lynne stalked her capital rival hoping to outsprint her towards the end.   The Edinburgh girl, aware of the danger, tried to get away, opening a 30 yard gap, but the Olympic finalist remorselessly cut her down and went away to win by twenty two seconds.” For summer 1985 Lynne is only on record with an early season indoor 1500m in the international against the Federal Republic of Germany at Cosford where she was first in 4:14.51.  This time placed her twelfth in Britain and second in Scotland (behind Yvonne Murray)  at the end of the year.   The ‘Glasgow Herald’ of 17th April 1985 had this report from Doug Gillon: “Lynne MacDougall, the Olympic 1500m finalist from McLaren Glasgow, has been struck down by a knee injury on the eve of the 1985 track season.   For the past few days she has been able to run for only 15 minutes at a time and is now reconciled to the fact that she will not be able to compete until July at the earliest.   “I went to Portugal for warm-weather training, she says.   “I had been there only four days when I twisted a knee and damaged the ligaments.   I haven’t really been able to train now for three weeks.”   Lynne was in Portugal with the International Athletes Club and treatment was readily available.   “The damage was done on the tight bends of the cross-country course,” she said.   That means she will miss the UK Closed Championships in Ulster next month, an event which looks increasingly likely to be affected by considerable defections following IRA threats.   Lynne however is looking philosophically at injury.   She has degree exams which will determine whether she does an honours year or not.”   

 She won the Scottish Universities Cross-Country Championship at the start of the 1986 (it was to be six years before she ran over the country again) and she is pictured at the top of the page crossing the finish line. All these races were in the early part of the year. 1986 however was Commonwealth Games year – and they were to be held in Scotland too.   There were many complaints about the size of the team, the selection procedures and the whole financing of the Games but Lynne made sure that she was selected when she won the SWAAA Championships in June with a time of 4:10.23 on 14th June.  The report in “The Glasgow Herald” said: Since her appearance in the Olympic 1500m final, Miss MacDougall has suffered prolonged injury problems.   That doubled with the build-up to her final examinations for a degree in psychology at Glasgow University continued to hamper her.   Last week she struggled to finish a detached sixth in the women’s 1500m before completing her finals in midweek.   But she produced a gutsy performance clinging grimly to the shoulder of Dundee’s Liz Lynch before striking for home from 280 metres out, slicing six seconds from her own championship best.”     On 19th July she ran a very good 1000m at Birmingham where she finished sixth in 2:38.67.    The Games started on 24th July and became known as the Boycott Games as 32 nations stayed away in protest at the Thatcher Government’s links with apartheid South Africa.   26 nations attended however.   Lynne was in the 1500m representing Scotland along with Yvonne Murray and Christine (McMeekin) Whittingham.   Qualifying for the final she finished in a time well below her usual – 4:17.25 in eighth place while Yvonne was fifth in 4:14.36 and Christine was eliminated in the Heats in 4:33.01 when finishing sixth in the first Heat.  Lynne’s own take on the event is as follows: “I struggled over the 1985/86 winter after being out all of the 1985 season with the knee injury.   It was really difficult to get back to the shape I had been in at the beginning of 1985 where, as I think the Scottish Cross-Country win over Yvonne Murray indicates, was probably the best shape I have ever been in.   At least I made the final!”   The season ended on 8th August with a Mile at Crystal Palace in 4:34.10 in the IAC/GP meet.      By the end of 1986 she was in four separate Scottish ranking lists: sixth in the 800m with 2:04.4. third in the 100m with 2:38.67, third in the 1500m with 4:10.23 and first in the Mile with 4:34.10.   Lynne did not turn out in either the West Districts or the UK Championships but did race in the Scottish Championships at Crown Point on 19th June where she was second to Karen Hutcheson.   The ‘Scotland’s Runner magazine reported as follows: “Karen Hutcheson led from the start with an even paced 66.54 for the first lap and a time of 3:04.75 at the bell.   Behind her, a slow-starting Lynne MacDougall fought back, closed on Jill Hunter, and passed her on the last bend to take second but victory was Hutcheson’s in a personal best of 4:14.04.   Placings: 1.   K Hutcheson 4:14.04;   2.   L McIntyre 4:30.47;   3.   J Hunter   4:21.24.”   By the end of 1987, Lynne was second in the 800 (2:04.67), third in the 1500m (4:11.27) and third in the Mile (4:13.24).   Running at that level is of course an expensive business and in May 2009 there was an announcement of a marketing campaign organised by Dundas Marketing in Edinburgh for several of John Anderson’s group of athletes including Lynne, Liz McColgan and Lynsey MacDonald with Dave Moorcroft also on hand.   The article in ‘The Glasgow Herald’ of 10th May 2009 is worth looking at it is easily found on the internet.

1987/88 would be much more active for her.   On 7th November she was second woman in the Glasgow University road race in 26:15 behind Sandra Branney’s 25:18.   On 20th December she dropped a distance or three to win the West District Indoor 800m championship with a time of 2:13.1.   Into 1988 and Lynne won the Springburn Harriers Jack Crawford Memorial Road Race in 29:20 and then the Nigel Barge Road Race in 26:08.   On 23rd January she was second in the AAA Pearl Assurance Indoor 1500m at Cosford in 4:26.50.    Two high profile indoor 1500’s followed and were reported in ‘Scotland’s Runner’ as follows: “Lynne McIntyre, disappointed to lose out in the tightest of finishes at the Dairy Crest International at the Kelvin Hall, had only a week to wait for revenge.   The Glasgow AC woman had been given the same time, 4:18.27, as Bev Nicholson against France but eight days later, competing against Belgium and Holland at Ghent she had eight seconds to spare over Nicholson as she clocked a season’s best of 4:16.39 to finish second.”   The good form continued into summer 1988 where she finished fifth in the final of the TSB/Kodak Olympic trials in 4:12.50 while Karen Hutcheson was eighth in 4:15.85.   On July 22nd in the Scottish Championships at Crown Point track in Glasgow Lynne again defeated Karen Hutcheson in a field that was considerably better than the previous year.   ‘Scotland’s Runner’ again:   Lynne McIntyre, showing some welcome signs of returning to form, relieved Karen Hutcheson of her 1500m title after the duo had dropped Chris Whittingham about 700m from home.   In the end, McIntyre won comfortably putting in a sub-66 second last lap to pull clear.    1.   L McIntyre   4:13.99;   2.   K Hutcheson  4:18.06    By the season’s end she had best times of 2:05.46 for 800m (fourth ranked), 4:12.50 for 1500 (third ranked) and 9:35.1 (sixth ranked).

Scottish women’s 800m, 1989.

Lynne (13), Abrahams (21) are both clear, Bevan is behind Lynne in the black vest and Anderson is immediately behind number 16.

At the end of 1988, the Commonwealth Games guidelines for 1990 were released and for the women’s middle distance races they were 2:02 (A Standard) and 2:05 (B standard) for the 800m, 4:08.5 and 4:15.0 for 1500m and 9:00 and 9:15.0 for the 3000m.   Lynne knew her targets from that point.   Ending 1988 with a victory in the Glasgow University Road Race in November, there is no record of her competing indoors or on the country in winter 1988/89 with the first run in 1989 being n the Dunky Wright Road Race in Clydebank where she defeated Sandra Branney to win in 29:26 to Sandra’s 31:02.   On the track, in the HFC Bank UK Championships in Jarrow Lynne won the 1500m in 4:11.31 from Alison Wyeth (4:13.33) and Sonia McGeorge (4:14.24).   It was reported by Doug Gillon in the July 1989 issue of ‘Scotland’s Runner’ thus: “A new Scot on the gold standard was Lynne McIntyre (1500m) clearly almost back to   the form which earned her an Olympic final place in Los Angeles.   She was rewarded with 800m selection for the International Select at Portsmouth the following week.”   If this was a good run she excelled in the Scottish Championships at Crown Point.   This was one of the years when the governing body saw fit to invite a ‘squad from abroad’  to compete on the excuse that they were raising standards in the championships – we had the Australians at Meadowbank but this year there was a visiting team of Indians taking part.   However in her favourite event, the 1500m, the report read as follows: “This was clearly a two-horse race as Lynne McIntyre and Karen Hutcheson left the pack early on to take on a duel of their own.   They set up a fast pace and constantly increased the gap between themselves and the rest of the field.   The two stayed together into the final lap. the split time at that stage being 3:02.73.   With 350 to go Lynne started to pull away from Karen and started her long sprint for home.   Karen was unable to respond to this sudden burst and at the end of the race there was about 20 metres between them.   Lynne’s time of 4:08.14 beat her own championship best performance by over two seconds and was within the Commonwealth Games selection standard of 4:08.50.   1.   L McIntyre   4:08.14; 2.   K Hutcheson   4:12.26; 3.   Laura Adam   4:18.44.”   (Adam had already won the 3000m on the previous evening.   Not content with that, the report for the 800m reads: “Lynne McIntyre and Sue Bevan took up the running in the first lap of the 800m, the final of which was only one hour and twenty minutes after Lynne’s excellent 1500m victory.   The pace was unhurried as they went through the bell in 64 seconds.   With 300 to go Lynne took the lead in a bid for home and was closely followed by Sue Bevan and Mary Anderson.   By 200m to go, Sue was putting on the pressure and then Mary started to come to the front at the 150m mark.   Into the straight and any one of the leading pack could have won.   As they neared the finish, Mary Anderson seemed lost for pace ad India’s Shiny Abrahams seemed to come from nowhere to take the lead.   Lynne McIntyre made a valiant bid to catch her over the last few metres and almost did so, but Shiny had just made it to the line to win.   1.   S Abrahams   2:06.72; 2.   L McIntyre   2:06.77; 3.   M Anderson   2:07.76; 4.   S Bevan   2:08.32.”    (Anglo-Scot Sue Bevan was comparatively young at this point but she was to go to become a Scottish International track runner over 800m both indoors and out in the 1980’s)   Lynne now had her qualification for the Games and at the end of the summer in 1989she was ranked second to Yvonne Murray in both the 800 (with 2:03.43) and 1500 (4:08.14).    When it was announced that only 22 athletes would be selected for Auckland with only ten of them women, there was a real stushie with SAAA Secretary Ewan Murray pilloried for saying that no one would go ‘just for the trip’.    Ruth Booth the women’s team manager was ‘upset and amazed’ at the lack of places and the SWAAA complained formally.   Nevertheless the team went as selected and Lynne was there.   November 1989 was another victory for her in the GU Road Race – this time in 26:15 for the 5.5 mile course from Ruth McAleese (27:34).

In February 1990, Doug Gillon previewed the Commonwealth Games in ‘Scotland’s Runner’ and had this to say about Lynne: “Lynne McIntyre with solid warm-up outings at 1500m and 800m is beginning to regain the form which took her to the Olympic 1500m as a teenager, and cannot be dismissed as a medal prospect in the metric mile.”      Further through the same issue of the magazine in an article entitled ‘For Love Or Money’ which dealt with the difficulties for athletes of trying to balance a full-time athletics life style with the need to earn money to put bread on the table, the following comments were made: “At least £10,000 a year is what several of the Auckland Scots calculate athletics is costing them.   …. For McIntyre that Commonwealth Games equation came true in 1986.   The 13th Games in Edinburgh provided the scene for her proudest moment in a successful international athletics career.   Wearing the dark blue vest of Scotland in Meadowbank was more fulfilling to the Glasgow woman than any of the other numerous occasions when she has competed for Scotland.   “At Commonwealth Games time it becomes very important to be Scottish,” Lynne says, “and because they are the ‘Friendly Games’ as well, it is so much better that we compete as a small country.”   …..  “I think that if we competed as a British team the Games would be viewed in a different light – it would be just another competition.   A further reason is that the English are so good they would make up most of a GB team”   …..   The Commonwealth Games can provide Scottish athletes with the level of competition to inspire them and to promote pride in themselves and in their performances.   Not all international appearances for Scotland can do this, as Lynne recalls, “I think the worst I have ever felt in a Scottish vest was when we competed against Birchfield Harriers and the Midlands.   There we were – a National team – taking on a team from an English club and a region!   It was an opinion of our standards before we even started.”      (I should maybe add, that for many years after this the same fixture continued – it was designated a ‘Scottish Representative’ team and a ‘Representative fixture’ with the word ‘International’ carefully avoided.   The Midlands Select was always of a very high standard and it was not at all certain that we would beat them.   To add to the lack of a sense of occasion, the vests and tracksuits were issued to the athletes and taken back again afterwards!    I remember coming back after one such encounter at a time when the Scottish kit supplier was changing from Asics to Nike: the track suits were issued, taken back again and then a sale was held on the bus with the track suits going for £5 each!   Only the green eye-shades were missing).

However, Lynne went to the Games in Auckland and right well did she do there!    After a lot of trouble with injuries and other problems she went and was fifth in the final – but good as that sounds, it was even better than it sounds.   The Games were the third to be held in New Zealand and to the great relief of the organisers, there was no boycott as there had been in Edinburgh in 1986.    Lynne made the final of the 1500m easily enough as did Yvonne Murray and Karen Hutcheson.   In a fast race, Lynne missed the silver medal by one second – in fifth place!    The result:   1.   Angela Chalmers (Canada) 4:08.41; 2.   Christina Cahill (England) 4:08.75; 3.   Bev Nicholson (England) 4:09.00; 4.   Yvonne Murray (Scotland)  4:09.54; 5.   Lynne MacDougall (Scotland) 4:09.75; 6.   Debbie Bowker (Canada) 4:11.20  …. 10. Karen Hutcheson (Scotland) 4:13.77.   Lynne says “This was another great experience.   The New Zealanders really ensured that it was an athlete friendly Games and it had a much better sense of occasion than the Games four years previously in Edinburgh.   I ran 4:07 in an Open Graded in Australia prior to the Games so I knew I was coming back to good form.   Unfortunately I had a very sore tendon in the lead-up to the Games and this limited my training in terms of volume although my track sessions were very good.   I think I managed to compete well at this Games despite this because I was away from my home environment for eight weeks training in Australia.”

 By the end of the year she was second in the 800m rankings with 2:04.43 to Yvonne Murray’s 2:03.57 and third in the 1500m behind Liz McColgan and Yvonne with 4:08.88.   Still plagued by injury, there had been times when it seemed that she would not be able to run in Auckland but with a lot of medical assistance, she did and that made the year a big success.   There was however a price to pay in the form of operation on ankle tendons.

 In 1991 there was only one race – the national 3000m championship which she won.   Doug covered it as follows in the ‘Herald’ of 6th July 1991: “McIntyre Is Back In The Big Time.   Scotland’s forgotten Olympian Lynne McIntyre, ended the wilderness years when she won the 3000m crown, the first track to be decided in last night’s opening session of the Scottish national athletics championships.   The City of Glasgow woman was an Olympic finalist over 1500m in Los Angeles at the age of 19.   But for six years she has been plagued by back and ankle tendon injuries.   Surgery last year repaired the ankle damage  and at Crown Point Stadium, now aged 26, the three time former national  1500m title-winner showed a flash of her former glories in her first championship outing at the longer distance.   She sprinted clear of Hayley Haining with 250m to go to clock 9 minutes 24.23 seconds.   “There were quite a few times that I thought of giving up athletics,” said psychology graduate McIntyre, “I was not only frustrated by the injuries but at not being able to run as fast as when I was younger.   But now I am going to try to make the Barcelona Olympics.” 

As it turned out, other than that, Lynne did not race at all either on the road, on the track or over the country.    It looked like the end of a first rate career in the sport …… it looked like it but there was more to come.    There were Olympics in 1992 and Lynne was never one to pass up on a challenge!   There was an article in ‘The Herald’ on 13th January 1992 by Doug Gillon which began: “Lynne McIntyre, racing cross-country for the first time in six years, captured the Scottish closed 4000m title from defending champion Vicki Vaughn yesterday at Irvine and earned herself a certain place in the Scottish team to contest the world championship trial at Basingstoke on February 9th.”   Not just back in business but straight in at international level!   The race was run in perfect conditions on ‘a perfect course’ at Irvine Riverside in an extended version of the article in ‘Scotland’s Runner of  February 1992, she told Doug that there had been a planned progression back to racing fitness. she knew that if the tendons broke down she was finished.   But now?   “I’m quite motivated about Barcelona , at either 1500m or 3000m, but my times haven’t improved for seven years . and after so many disappointments I’m reluctant to admit to Olympic possibilities, even to myself.”   Doug added that it was a ‘timely boost’ for McIntyre after several seasons when her career teetered on the brink.   The result of the race was – 1.   L McIntyre   15:09;   2.   V Vaughan   15:15;   3.   A Rose   15:32.

But nothing was ever easy for Lynne.   ‘Scotland’s Runner’ again:  “National 4000m champion Lynne McIntyre who entertained hopes of a medal, withdrew just before the gun with a leg muscle problem and required minor surgery on her return.   She expects to be back in training in a fortnight.”   It didn’t turn out well for her though and she was absent from the SWAAA Championships and the Olympic Trials nor was she ranked in any event at all at the end of the year.   Her next appearance in the Scottish Championships was on 10th July 1993 at Grangemouth when she won the 3000m in 9:28.4 from Sue Ridley (9:34.9).   “… Lynne McIntyre regained the 3000m title, breaking clear at the bell from last year’s winner Sue Ridley …. she proved that she has regained her appetite for the competitive fray,”   reported Alasdair Fraser for ‘Scotland’s Runner.   But it was not until the end of 1995 that Doug Gillon wrote the following in the ‘Herald’ under the headline ‘McIntyre plans to put athletics career back on track.’   1993 was also the year when she won the first ever Glasgow Women’s 10K Road Race.   The race, famous for both the quality of athlete at the ‘sharp end’ and the huge numbers of runners taking part is still being run and Lynne is still racing in it.   If you go to YouTube and type in ‘Lynne MacDougall’ you will get a film clip of her finishing first in the 2009 race.

The athletics jury which has already condemned 30-year-old Lynne McIntyre one of sports under-achievers may yet have to reconsider.   Twelve years after she was the youngest Olympic 1500m finalist at 19, the City of Glasgow woman hopes to return and win selection for Atlanta in the same event.   Why not?   She has overturned a catalogue of disasters, any one of which would have buried a person of lesser moral fibre.   In 1984, McIntyre was seventh in Los Angeles.   A week later she set a British junior 800m record (2:01.11) which still stands.   Were it not for South African Zola Budd’s passport of convenience, she would also hold the 1500m mark.   Charting the rise and demise of the former Lynne McDougall is simple, but behind the statistics – as many Scottish senior outdoors titles as Commonwealth champions Liz McColgan and Yvonne Murray combined – and the belief that she can run faster after a 12 year absence, lies a saga of triumph against emotional and physical adversity.   The death of her coach, and then her father, painful injury, surgery, and then divorce – all while earning an honours degree and a distinction in a post-graduation Masters – conspired against her.   Budd and McIntyre, the two youngest in that 1984 team, exchanged little conversation, with Budd a cloistered pawn in a newspaper circulation war.  However McIntyre, dismissing two Commonwealth Final appearances as incidental, hopes to have the last word.   Just two months after her seventeenth birthday, belying her frail physique, she won the Scottish senior 1500m title, setting a senior native record.   It survived a week, broken by future Commonwealth 10000m champion  Murray – one year her senior.   Two years later McIntyre won the national senior cross-country title with Murray second.   And when Murray won the 1986 Scottish 1500m title, the older McColgan – later that year to become the Commonwealth 10K senior champion – was runner-up.   In 1989 she set a Scottish championship 1500m record which still stands, and the future European and World finalist, Alison Wyeth, was runner-up when McIntyre won the UK 1500m title.

“But perhaps none of this should have surprised.   In the winter of ’76, she had given a clue by running future Olympic 400m finalist Linsey MacDonald a close second in the Scottish under-13 cross-country championships.   A few months ago, despite having kept in modest shape – enough to pick up what, by her own standards, were soft Scottish track and cross-country titles in the interim – McIntyre was contemplating final retirement.   Instead after her flickering enthusiasm had been kept alive by Gerry Barnes and Bill Parker, she returned to John Anderson, the man who had helped steer her to Olympic success following the death of much-loved Glasgow coach Ronnie Kane.   Anderson refused to help her unless she was serious.   “I told him I was back because I felt I’d never fulfilled my potential,” she said. “If I could achieve that at 19, psychologically immature, I know I can run faster now.   I got a poor degree at Strathclyde (she dismisses a second-class honours degree in psychology) and don’t want to look back on my athletics in the same way.   Perhaps I can do as well in my athletics, second time around, as I did in my masters.   It was perhaps no coincidence that she sought out Anderson within days of her former husband re-marrying.   “It took me three years to sort out my life after our marriage broke up,” she said.   “I felt ineffectual – as if I could not control my life.   It was hard working out where I went from there.    But women, I think, do better than men in that situation because they confront themselves.   We internalise it while men just carry on.”   Listening, one understands why at 21, she counselled drug addicts and alcoholics full time, and why now she co-ordinates the Glasgow Healthy City project which attempts to address the problem of urban regeneration by combating unemployment, poverty and deprivation.   She realises winning Olympic gold   might be easier than changing Government attitudes.   The elfin face is remarkably unchanged since 1984, I observe.   “Surprising, considering I enjoy a Glenmorangie – with a dash of water – and a good dry white wine,”  she says with a laugh.   The heresy: “There’s more to life than athletics.”   Perhaps that truth reveals why she might just succeed in turning back the clock.   Unlike most top athletes, she puts something back.   Responding to an initiative by fellow 800m internationalist Carol Sharp, McIntyre will help present a Puma-backed conference next week end at Jordanhill College which will attempt to reverse the pattern which sees Murray as the only Scott, Sharp and McIntyre apart, to have broken 2:03 for two laps in more than a decade.   Perhaps en route to Atlanta, Lynne will retrace her footsteps and show the way.”

Back with John Anderson, Lynne ended 1996 with six of the top sixteen Scottish 1500m times as follows:

The top time of 4:17.10 ranked her fourteenth in Britain.   She had also run 2:08.37 for 800m which placed her fourth in Scotland and 36th in Britain.  In July however, there was a Scottish silver and bronze at the British Championships in Sheffield with Yvonne Murray (15:39.08) second and Lynne third (15:43.03).  There was also a road 5K in 17:15 which was sixth best time by a Scot that year.   The Annual Yearbook commented, “Lynne MacDougall’s successful comeback continued with a list topping of 4:17.10 – the slowest time to top the Scottish rankings since 1977 – a year when a 12 year old Miss MacDougall appeared in the lists for the first time with a 4:52.3.   She also won her fourth National in a close finish with Irish holder Ann Tevek.”   In 1997 her road racing had gone up to 10K and she was third in the rankings after winning at Ayr in 33:42.   On the track she had four of the top seven 1500m times (4:12.4 at Crown Point in August, 4:16.6 at Sheffield in February, 4:20.1 at Enfield in June and 4:22.8 at Grangemouth in July) prompting the following comment from the statisticians: “32 year old MacDougall took advantage of a mixed race at Crown Point to record 4:12.4 – her fastest run since 1990 – and recorded four other winning races under 4:24 with a victory in Malaysia in 4:23.7 in thick smog in September.”  The Malaysian race was an interesting one: Lynne had been sent on a fact-finding errand by Scottish Athletics to Kuala Lumpur ahead of the following year’s Commonwealth Games and while there, they had won the Malaysian Championships (‘despite 80% humidity and serious air pollution’)! Also in 1997, Lynne had three of the top five Scottish times for the 5000m – 15:45.03 in Sheffield in June placed her second, victory at Crown Point in 15:51.7 in June placed her third and 16:04.01 at Birmingham when she was third behind Yvonne Murray in July placed her fifth.

The rankings in 1998 took an interesting turn in that there were ranked places in three road races and only one track position.   The statisticians said in their yearbook, that she had concentrated on road running  that year and certainly her placings showed that.   In road racing, Lynne was first in the rankings for 10 miles when she won in Manchester in August with 55:58, second for 5 Miles when she won in Glasgow in February with 26:23, and third for the 10K when she was first in Belfast in 33:32.   On the track she had second and sixth in the 5000m – 16:01.41 when finishing fifth in Turku, and 16:21.8 when winning at Crown Point in August.  Unfortunately, because of injuries she could not run in the Commonwealth Games.

Unfortunately in 1999, Lynne appeared nowhere at all in the ranking lists.   The injuries that had denied her a third Commonwealth Games after she had been one of the first to be selected, had not gone away and were still causing her some difficulty.

By 2000 Lynne was committed to road running – at home she was ranked fourth at the five miles distance with her 27:49 when finishing second in Glasgow in November behind Hayley Haining, Katie Skorupska and Gillian Palmer.   She was top of the 10K road distance with her winning time from Leeds in December of 33:22 from Hayley Haining’s 33:38.   At ten miles her winning time from Carlisle in November of 57:37 placed her fourth.   She also had the top two half marathon times of 74:50 (Reading, March) and 75:43 (Glasgow, August) as well as a creditable 79:31 at Bristol in October when she decided to drop out, then changed her mind and turned in a time that many men would be pleased to call their own!.   But at the longest standard distance of the marathon she topped the rankings with 2:38:22 from second placer Trudi Thomson’s 2:40:40.  This was turned in when she was first British female runner to finish in the London Marathon which meant that she was the UK  Women’s Marathon Champion.     The picture below was taken in August 2000 when Lynne and partner Allan went for a running holiday in America.   In the North Reading, Mass., 5 miles Allan won the men’s race in 24:52 and Lynne was fifth overall and first woman in 28:43.   They’re entitled to smile!    The statisticians welcomed her not only to road racing but also to the veterans’ ranks with “New veteran Lynne MacDougall, in her first serious road racing season, recorded excellent times in the 10K, half-marathon and marathon.”

Lynne with partner Allan Adams after they won a double victory in America in 2000

Despite appearing on no fewer than five Scottish all-time ranking lists, Lynne in 2001 stuck to road running where the ability that had her as one of the best ever at distances from 800m to 5000m on the track indicated that she was certainly one of the best of her generation on this surface too.    As a V35 she was ranked second to Hayley Haining at 10000m with her time of 34:30 when finishing eighth at Cheltenham in September and topped the lists at 10 Miles (55:28 when winning at Carlisle in November), half marathon (74:24 when finishing in fifteenth in the Great North Run at South Shields in September) and in the marathon (with 2:37:40 at London in April).   As far as championships were concerned she won the Scottish 10,000m with a  time  of 34:41 and it was her second national title at the distance with the first being in 1993 when she was timed at 34:28.

In 2002,  she retained her first place in the marathon rankings with the improved time of 2:36:29 when finishing second in Seville in February.  This gave her the qualifying time for the Commonwealth Games in 2002. But there was an unexpected problem.   Doug Gillon covered it with his article in the ‘Herald’ of 14th June that year.   Under the headline “Injury Gives MacDougall Much To Chew Over”,  he said:   “Scotland yesterday confirmed the first three places in the Commonwealth Games team for Manchester:  Marathoners Simon Pride and Lynne MacDougall and Sarah-Jane Cattermole for the 20K Walk.   An Olympic finalist 18 years ago in Los Angeles, MacDougall reached the Commonwealth Games 1500m final in 1986 and 1990 but ran her fastest marathon in Seville earlier this year.   She is an uncertain starter for the Bank of Scotland team however.   “I have a back injury which may be related to my teeth, perhaps my bite is out of alignment, and have missed some training,” she said.   “I am to see a specialist and will go only if I am fit enough.”   As it turned out, she didn’t think she was and missed the Games. Doug from the ‘Herald’ on 31st August 2002: “City of Glasgow’s MacDougall ruled herself out of Scotland’s Commonwealth Games team with a back problem.   She was a bitterly disappointed spectator when the Manchester bronze medal went with a 2:36:37 which was 15 seconds above what she had run in Spain.   “It’s been a bit de-motivating,” she said.   “I haven’t raced since that marathon but my back injury has gone and I’m back in training.”    Her other ranking places in 2002 were third in the 10000m with 34:19 recorded when winning at Paisley in September and third in the half marathon with 76:24 which she ran at Glasgow in September when she finished tenth.      Incidentally when she won the half marathon at Alloa in March, Allan won the men’s race to reprise the American result from 2000!

She appeared only in the 5 Miles and 10K ranking lists in 2003 – fifth with 26:08 in February for her run at Alsager in Cheshire and sixth with 35:24 two weeks later at Grangemouth where she finished second – but the Annual Yearbook noted that Gillian Palmer, Kathy Butler and Lynne MacDougall were all injured in 2003 which left the way open for such as Susan Partridge and Hayley Haining over the shorter distances and Trudi Thomson over the longer ones.   It was now five years since her last track race and although still racing well her career at the very top was by now over.   However, unlike many of her rivals she kept her love for the sport and kept on racing domestically: in 2005 she was third in the 5K Challenge in Glasgow with a time of 19:43; in 2007, by now a V40, she is on the record as having run run a 3K in November round Glasgow Green in 10:51 after having already run two 10K’s, in 37:34 in May and 37:56 in June – all three were in Glasgow.   Lynne ran the Women’s 10K in Glasgow in 2008 in 38:09, in 2009 in 38:54, in 2010 in 38:49 and in 2011 in 39:21 (second V45).

Settled now and living on the south side of Glasgow with Allan and their son Josh, with a good job which she loves at Glasgow University, she is very contented with her life but continues to run – and I believe she will continue to do so just because she loves to run.  She is still mentioned in despatches (eg in the ‘Sunday Herald’ preview of the 2009 Glasgow Women’s 10K there is a this: “25 years after she was the youngest Olympic 1500m finalist, Lynne MacDougall, now a mum, is in action again …).    There was also

Settled now and living on the south side of Glasgow with Allan and their son Josh, with a good job which she loves at Glasgow University, she is very contented with her life but continues to run – and I believe she will continue to do so just because she loves to run.  She is still mentioned in despatches (eg in the ‘Sunday Herald’ preview of the 2009 Glasgow Women’s 10K there is a this: “25 years after she was the youngest Olympic 1500m finalist, Lynne MacDougall, now a mum, is in action again …).    There was also another excellent article covering the various aspects of her career as a runner, student, graduate, mother, etc, in ‘The Herald’ of 3rd May 2010 in the course of which she says “I’m retired, so I only run four times a week.”   Her running career was stellar and, but for the dreadful injuries and the toll they exacted, it could have been even better.   She is an excellent advertisement for the sport and indeed a first class role model for any young sports person.

Ron McDonald (4) at Airdrie Highland Games with Hugh Barrow (7), Dick Wedlock (half hidden behind Ron) and Harry Gorman (2).

 Ronald MacDonald was born on the 7^th of November 1952. He was an athlete of enormous talent but suffered many injuries. Nevertheless he produced fine performances on track, country and road, from his days as a Youth in 1969 until 1982. He was an invaluable member of two clubs, Monkland Harriers and Clyde Valley AC, and ran for Scotland many times.    His career will be dealt with in the following order: Cross-Country; Road; and finally Track.

In 1970, Ronnie MacDonald defeated his friend and rival Jim Brown by five seconds to win the Midland District Youths CC Championships and Monkland Harriers won the team award. He followed this up by an even closer victory in the National Youths CC, only four seconds in front of Jim Brown and Lawrie Spence. Monkland were team victors once again. Subsequently, Ron was 13^th and a team counter for Scotland in the ICCU Junior CC International at Vichy, France.

Ronnie’s success continued in 1971, when he only just managed to win the National Junior CC, sharing the winning time with Jim Brown! Both young men were coached by Tom Callaghan. However Ronnie’s shorter but ferociously determined rival Jim was gaining in stamina, winning the Midland District Junior and Senior CC three years in a row between 1971 and 1973; as well as triumphing in the National Junior in 1972 and 1973, when Monkland won the team title both times. When MacDonald and Brown battled against each other in the National Junior, they ran absolutely flat out, creating an enthralling contest for spectators. In the International Junior CC at San Sebastian, Spain, after leading for most of the way, Jim Brown was outsprinted and finished third, with Ian Gilmour 13^th and Ronnie MacDonald 14^th. Scotland won a rare silver medal (behind the Auld Enemy). This was the best Junior performance for seven years.

In 1972, Ronnie represented Scotland in Spain, along with experienced team-mates Lachie Stewart and Dick Wedlock. Then Ron was third in the National Junior, behind Jim Brown and Paul Bannon. Once more he was selected for the International Junior CC, this time at Cambridge , where he was 23^rd, with Jim Brown second and Lawrie Reilly 20^th. Scotland were fifth team.

In late January 1973, Ronnie MacDonald was recovering from a hip injury. He restarted training on New Year’s Day and built up to 50 miles a week, all on grass. In the Scottish Inter-Counties CC Championship at Irvine, according to reporter Ron Marshall, “he nursed himself through the field from the half-way point and steadily drew up to join the front-runners. His third place (21 seconds behind Dunbartonshire’s Colin Youngson, eleven seconds behind Ayrshire’s John Ferguson and just in front of Dunbartonshire’s Hugh Barrow) was a satisfactory conclusion.” Ronnie also led the Lanarkshire team to victory, three points in front of Dunbartonshire. A month later, Jim Brown retained his National Junior title, with Ronnie fourth and Monkland won the team. This year was the fourth and final time Ronnie MacDonald ran the International Junior CC, only on this occasion the Championship was the inaugural IAAF World Junior CC, which took place at Waregem Racecourse, outside Ghent, Holland. Jim Brown succeeded in winning a marvellous gold medal and his team-mate Ronnie was a counter yet again in 13^th position, with Davie McMeekin and Lawrie Spence the other counters in 17^th and 27^th places. Only Nat Muir and Ronnie MacDonald have run four consecutive International Junior CC Championships for Scotland.

Ron MacDonald excelled in his first year racing in the 1974 Senior National CC, when on his local course, Drumpellier Park in Coatbridge, he finished third, behind Jim Brown and Andy McKean. Ron was of course selected for the World Senior CC at Monza, Italy, and ended up second Scot (31^st), well behind Jim (4^th) but gaining revenge on Andy (46^th). Scotland was seventh from 15 teams. Then, in late 1974, Ron won the annual Inter-Area CC match, with his Scottish team-mates packing well to defeat the North, South and Midlands. Then in November 1974, the newly-formed Clyde Valley AC triumphed over the two main Edinburgh clubs in the first-ever SCCU Relay Championships at Bellahouston Park. The winning team was: Roy Baillie, Jim Brown, John Graham and Ron MacDonald.

For some time after that, Ron MacDonald was frequently injured, but he showed signs of a cross-country comeback in 1980, when we finished 11^th in the National CC. His team won silver. Later that year, he was a member of the Clyde Valley outfit that came second in the National CC Relay. However he came right back to top form in 1982, with fourth in the National (with Jim Brown sixth and their team second); followed by a final run for Scotland in the World CC Championship in Rome, when he was fourth Scot (95^th), behind Nat Muir (26^th), Allister Hutton (30^th) and John Robson (85^th), but in front of Fraser Clyne, Alastair Douglas, Lawrie Spence and Ed Stewart.

On the road, Ron MacDonald twice won the prestigious 5-mile Nigel Barge Road Race at Maryhill, just after New Year: in 1971, at the tender age of 18, beating Commonwealth Games 10,000m representative Dick Wedlock by 3 seconds, to record 22 minutes 4 seconds. In 1982 he repeated the feat, this time beating Alastair Douglas by five seconds.

On New Year’s Eve 1974, Ian Stewart defeated a strong field to win the Madrid ‘Round the Houses’ Road Race, and with the backing of Ron MacDonald (4^th), Bill Mullett (6^th) and Nat Muir (7^th), Scotland won the team prize, from Portugal and Spain.

Ron first ran the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay for Monkland Harriers when they finished ninth in 1971. Barely 19 years of age, he was second-fastest on the classy Stage Two, only 25 seconds behind Commonwealth 10,000m champion Lachie Stewart. In 1973, Monkland improved by one place, with Ronnie tackling the longest Stage Six, where he was 4^th fastest behind Andy McKean, Dave Logue and Ian Stewart.

Ronnie just beaten by Dave Moorcroft in the AAA’s Junior Championship, 1971

Clyde Valley AC won bronze in 1974, with Ron second-fastest on Stage Two, behind Lawrie Reilly. Another third place in the fastest-ever year of 1975. Ron was second-fastest, only ten seconds behind Dave Logue, on Stage Six. In 1976, Clyde Valley were fifth, with Ron less-fit but tackling the Eighth Stage.

1979 saw Clyde Valley winning silver in the inaugural Scottish Six-Stage Road Relay at Strathclyde Park. They repeated the feat in 1980, both times being denied victory only by the last leg heroics of Edinburgh Southern’s finest runner, Allister Hutton. The Clyde Valley men at this time included Ron, Jim, Joe Small, Brian McSloy, John Graham, Ian Gilmour, Peter Fox and Colin Farquharson – an extremely talented bunch, indeed.

In 1980 Clyde Valley succeeded in winning gold in Scotland’s favourite road relay. Ron moved his team up three places on Stage Two, sharing second-fastest on Stage Two with Ian Elliot, only 14 seconds behind Nat Muir. They were second in 1981, with Ron fastest on Stage Four. His swansong was in 1983, when his team won bronze, with Ron gaining two places on Stage Two.

Ron MacDonald’s career in cross-country and road-running is very impressive. However his greatest successes came on the track, particularly over 1500m and the magic mile.   As a Youth in 1969, Ronnie won the West District 800m 1.59.0 in front of list-topper Davie McMeekin. He won both the Scottish Schools and the SAAA Youths 1500m  in front of Frank Clement and recorded a season’s best of 4.01.4.

A Junior in 1970, he ran 1.59.3 for an early season 800m but his focus was on 1500m. He won the SAAA Championship in a close finish with John Ross, with Frank third. On the first of August, Ronnie MacDonald also won the AAA Junior 1500m at Kirkby, Liverpool, in a PB of 3.50.5. He was deservedly awarded GB Junior colours for the European title meet in Paris, where he qualified for the final. His stamina was also evident, with 3000m (8.39.8); and 5000m (14.48.2), after easily winning the Scottish Schools title. He set his 5000m PB when coming fourth in the Schools’ International in Santry, Dublin on 13^th July.

Then, in 1971, Ronnie reduced his 800m best to 1.56.8 and subsequently won the SAAA Junior 1500m (3.49.5) after a close finish with Frank Clement. However Craig Douglas battled to restrict him to silver in the SAAA Senior 1500m. Ronnie’s new PB was set at Hawyards Park on 5^th June, with a winning 3.46.0. This was set when pipping Adrian Weatherhead in a 4.04.0 mile victory. A fortnight later, Adrian ran a mile in 3.58.5! Ronnie topped the Scottish Junior 3000m list with 8.07.2. He picked up a bronze, one place behind Jim Brown, in the AAA Junior event. Ronnie retained his Scottish Schools 5000m title in a solo 14.24.6.

In 1972, Ron MacDonald became a Senior on the track. For 800m, he recorded 1.54.0. In addition he won the West District title. He made real progress in his favourite 1500, winning a slow SAAA Senior Championship after a terrific sprint with Craig Douglas and Jim Dingwall. He produced five times below 3.48 (with a best of 3.43.0 to reach the AAA final at Crystal Palace, where he finished 8^th (3.44.6).

After recovering from a hip injury, Ron produced some good late season performances between the first of September and the sixth of October: 5000m in 14.35.2  and 1500m in 3.46.5 for two wins at Meadowbank; and a mile in 4.02.5 9 (fifth place at Crystal Palace).

In 1974 he showed better sustained form. On 18th May at Westerlands, Ron MacDonald won an 800m in 1.52.6. He finished second in the Scottish 1500m ranking lists (3.43.1) behind Frank Clement; and also picked up a silver medal in the SAAA event at Meadowbank on 22nd June, with only Klaus-Peter Justus of the GDR in front. Ron’s fastest 1500m of the season took place at Crystal Palace, a track on which he always seemed to run well. The yearbook goes on to state: “Ron MacDonald joined the select band of sub-8 minute 3000m runners, when on 20^th May at Crystal Palace, he won an early season race in the fast time of 7.55.4, defeating among other stars David Black, Commonwealth silver and bronze medallist.”

1975 was another successful season. Ron MacDonald won silver again in the SAAA 1500m on 28^th June at Meadowbank, behind Lawrie Spence. Then Ron produced 3.46.0 on 1^st August at Crystal Palace. Then he gained revenge on Lawrie in Reykjavik on 19^th August, by winning the 1500m (3.49.9) in a Scotland versus Iceland International Match. An odd feature of this competition was that Allan Wells, future 1980 Olympic gold and silver medal-winning sprinter, finished third in the long jump and ran the anchor leg for the winning 4x400m relay team!

Ron’s good form continued. On 23^rd August he ran a mile in 4.04.1. On 30^th August he broke the four-minute barrier at Stretford with 3.59.7. Then on September 1^st at Gateshead, he won the mile in his best-ever time of 3.59.1. Ron rounded off the season with another win: 8.08.4 for 3000m on the 6^th of September at his home track in Coatbridge, just in front of Jim Brown.    I do not have yearbooks for the 1976 and 1980 seasons, but Ron seems to have given up track running, since he does not appear in the ranking lists for 1977, 1978, 1979 and 1981. However he did run 8.03.9 in a winning 3000m at Haringey on the 7^th of July 1982.

Eventually the injuries became too frequent for Ron MacDonald to compete at a high level. However this article has made clear how many fine races he ran. Undoubtedly he was unlucky not to make the team for the Commonwealth or European Games, since at his talented best he would have been very competitive with the stars, especially over 1500m.

Representing GB in Kelvin Hall (Karen is Number 2)

Karen Hutcheson (Date of Birth 23rd September 1965) was a first class athlete who in the course of her career represented Pitreavie AAC, Queen Anne’s High School, Lochgelly and District, Berry Hill Mansfield, Nantes and Roches-sur-Yon..   She began her career training with Jimmy Bryce’s squad in Fife before moving to Mansfield in England and training with Alan Hargreaves.   She has now slipped almost totally from the consciousness of Scottish athletics fans and aficonados but if we take a quick look at her best times her quality quickly becomes evident.

Karen first appears in the record books as a member of Pitreavie AAC in 1982 as an intermediate – ie an Under 17 athlete.   She is nowhere in 1982 but what a year she had if 1982 was her first in the sport!   Her best 400m time was 58.8 seconds which ranked her fifth Inter and 34th senior, at 800m she ran 2:12.8 which placed her second and 18th among the seniors and in the 1500m she was again second Inter but 16th senior with a time of 4:30.5.   In the 800 and 1500 she was s behind Elise Lyon of Wycombe Phoenix who would go on to win the Euro Junior 1500m.   Karen also recorded marks at the Mile (4:55.7 at Hendon) which placed her first Inter and seventh Senior and the 3000m, not an event normally run by her age group, in 10:03.0 which placed her seventeenth senior.    Competitively she won the SWAAA 800m at both East District (2:17.36) and in the East v West in 2:15.7,  and she won the 1500m in both East Championship (4:43.75) and SWAAA (4:38.0).   The year was remarkable for both the range of events and how well she ran in them – and to end the year with four championship titles is not a bad way to go.

In 1983 she ran well enough to set persona; bests in 800m (2:09.12 – ninth among the seniors), 1500m (4:22.97 – tenth) and 3000m (10:07.67 – eighteenth).   There was one personal best in 1984 and that was at 1500m where she ran 4:27.15 but better than that, Karen won her first SWAAA senior title at the distance.      There were two recorded times for 1985 and these were 2:08.28 for 800m and 4:25.4 for 1500m   The last three time were all ranked at ninth in Scotland (35th and 45th GB).   There was also another SWAAA medal – bronze in the 800m.   She was almost exactly contemporaneous with Liz McColgan , Yvonne Murray and Lynne McDougall and no doubt the races between them all helped them all to develop their talents.  At the end of summer 1985 she was twenty years old and really ready for the senior fray.

SWAAA Championships, 1984, Meadowbank: young Karen in blue behind 672.   Leader – Carol Sharp

The women’s rankings for the 1986 were only published to a depth of five deep – sometimes not even that – and Karen only appeared in the 1500m list at number five with 4:18.72 behind Yvonne Murray, Chris Whittinghame Lynne McDougall and Liz Lynch.  She had however been third in the WAAA indoor 800m at Cosford in 2:06.35 behind Kirsty McDermott and Helen Thorpe.   In 1987, she repeated the performance with third in the WAAA Indoor 800 in 2:06.06 behind Janet Prictoe and Lorraine Baker, and then on 15th March at Cosford she turned in a 1000m in 2:44:45 which still places her eighteenth in Britain for the distance indoors.  . The UK Championships was limited to British entries and in 1987 it was held early season in Derby.   Karen did well here too finishing third in the 1500m in 4:17.04 behind Bev Nicholson and Shireen Bailey. On 14th June in Mechelen in Belgium, Karen raced to a 4:13.7  1500m which has her twenty second in the British All-Time Under 23 rankings.   1987 however was also the year when Karen won her first SWAAA 1500m.   The report in ‘Scotland’s Runner’ read as follows: “Karen Hutcheson led from the start with an even paced 66.54 first lap and a time of 3:04.75 at the bell.   Behind her, a slow-starting Lynne McDougall fought back, closed on Jill Hunter and passed her on the last bend, to take second, but victory was Hutcheson’s in a personal best of 4:14.04.   Pleased to be champion but disappointed that neither Liz Lynch nor Yvonne Murray had been there to help her to a to a faster time.”       Result:  1.  Karen Hutcheson  4:14.04;  2.  Lynne McDougall    4:20.47;  3.  Jill Hunter   4:21.24   with Karen MacLeod and Violet Blair close up in fourth and fifth.     In the ranking lists at the end of the year, Karen appeared in the 1500m with 4:13.07 which placed her fourth,  the Mile with 4:35.24 and the 3000m with 9:01.46 and she was third in both of these as well.   In front of her in the 1500 were Yvonne, Liz and Lynne, and in the Mile and 3000m it was Liz and Yvonne!    By now she was running for Berry Hill Mansfield.

In the 1988  SWAAA 1500m championships Karen went in as defending champion against Lynne McIntyre whom she had beaten by six seconds the year before.   The race is described in ‘Scotland’s Runner’ as follows: “Lynne McIntyre, showing some welcome signs of returning to form, relieved Karen Hutcheson of her 1500m title after the duo dropped Christine Whittingham about 700m from home.   In the end McIntyre won comfortably putting in a sub-66 second last lap to pull clear.”   Result: 1.   L McIntyre   4:13.99;  2.  K Hutcheson  4:18.06;   3. C Whittingham  4:22.67.   At the end of the summer season, Karen was ranked in both 800m and 1500m.   In the 8700m she was fourth with 2:05.46 behind Yvonne Murray, Chris Whittingham and Lynne McIntyre but ahead of internationalists Sue Bevan, Liz McColgan and Carol-Ann Grey.    In the 1500m she was fifth with 4:15.85.   The list was headed by Yvonne (4:06.34), Liz, Lynne and Christine with Anglos Laura Wright and Sue Bevan immediately behind her.  It really was a very good time for Scottish women’s middle distance running.

January 1990 was of course Commonwealth Games year and all Scots athletes had set their sites on competing in Auckland, New Zealand at the start of season 1989.   Karen was no exception and she started 1989 with a win in the SWAAA Indoors 800m in the fine time of 2:06.32..   Doug’s report in ‘Scotland’s Runner’ said “A further class run was the 2:06.32 victory by Anglo Karen Hutcheson who the previous week had won the Omron Games 1500m at Cosford.”    She returned to the Kelvin Hall to represent GB against West Germany where she won in 4:13.52 which was a Scottish indoor native record.   Doug’s report read: “One of the best contests was the women’s 1500m, where Karen Hutcheson  the former Pitreavie runner, now based in Mansefield, had revenge over Nicky Morris who had beaten her for the Omron Games title at Cosford.   Hutcheson won by just 0.9 of a second which, when the SWAAA get around to formalising such matters, should presumably be recognised as a native record.   The 5’4″ powerhouse went on to beat Lynne McIntyre for the 1500m crown at the AAA/WAAA Championships a week later, the only Scot to win a title.   With it Hutcheson gained European Indoor selection.”    Then on 19th February at Den Haag in The Netherlands, she ran 4:10.76 where she was out of the first three.   At the end of the indoor season  Karen appeared in two lists: the 800 where she led all the rest with 2:05.71 and the 1500 where she was second (behind Liz Lynch) with the 4:10.76.

Summer 1989 saw her finish second in the short-lived UK Championships at 3000m behind Liz Lynch in 9:00.61.  On 18th June she raced over in Sittard in the Netherlands she ran 2:04.84.   In the Scottish Championships at Crown Point in Glasgow she had a terrific race with Lynne McIntyre of Glasgow AC and the report on the race in ‘Scotland’s Runner’ read: “This was clearly a two horse race as Lynne McIntyre and defending champion Karen Hutcheson left the pack early to take on a duel of their own.    They set up a fast pace and constantly increased the gap between themselves and the rest of the field.   The two stayed together into the final lap, the split time at that point being 3:02.73.   With 350 to go, Lynne started to pull away from Karen and started her long sprint for home.   Karen was unable to respond to this sudden burst and at the end of the race there was about 20m between them.   Lynne’s time of 4:08. 14 beat her own best championship performance by over two seconds and was within the Commonwealth Games qualifying standard of 4:08.50.”   Karen’s time was 4:12.26.        In the ranking lists published the following month, Karen was third in the 3000m behind Yvonne and Liz.   The relative times were 8:38.51, 8:44.93 and 9:00.41.   Next was another Anglo, Laura Adam on 9:07.61.  (She was also ranked third in the 800m with 2:04.94 and third in the 1500 with 4:11.33)   The qualifying time for the 3000m  in the Commonwealth Games in Auckland was 9:00.00.   After the usual wrangling over selection procedures and priorities, Karen was picked for the Scottish team.    Selected without having done the actual qualifying time put added pressure on Karen but the presence of  two of her long time rivals and friends in the same event must have had some calming effect, however slight.   Like most Scots I watched the race unfold on television and the excitement grew as the race went on and the three Scots led the field for several laps but let Doug Gillon tell the story.   The report that follows is from the ‘Glasgow Herald’ of 29th January 1990.

“For five glorious laps of the Mount Smart Stadium here last night three petite Scottish lasses led the Commonwealth Games 3000m final.   It looked for a while as if Liz McColgan, Yvonne Murray and Karen Hutcheson might pull off a unique medal monopoly for Scotland.   But in the end the slim blue line cracked, succumbing to their fatal flaw, lack of finishing speed, as Canada’s Angela Chalmers sprinted past to clain the gold.   Murray, the Olympic bronze medallist and last year’s Europa and World Cup champion at the distance, had been good enough to outsprint Chalmers over  1500m last summer in Brussels, but was passed today in the final 40 metres with McColgan having to battle with Hutcheson for the bronze.   But the Scots have still got another shot at gold.   McColgan is adamant that she still has every chance of winning the 10000m on Friday, while Murray is due to run the 1500m heats earlier on the same day.   ‘After a run this evening we’ll know whether Yvonne has recovered enough to compete in the 1500m,” said coach Tommy Boyle this morning.   In that race the ESPC woman would face being outsprinted by Chalmers again.  

Last night’s race was less than 200 metres old when McColgan squirmed from the pack with a muttered oath audible to her friend and rival, Murray.    Already McColgan had detected that the race could play into the hands of the fast finishers.   The Dundee Hawkhill Harrier swooped to the front and, after a sluggish 36.4-second  opening 200 metres, reeled off laps of 67 seconds, 70, 71, 71, 71.   In line astern the other Scots followed but could not dislodge the menacing figure of Chalmers.   McColgan led through 1000m in 2:53.98.   Had she maintained that pace the outcome might have been different but she reached 2000m in 5:52.43, easing the pressure on the Canadian, who had shown her hand with a fast 800m victory over Murray on the same track the previous weekend.   With exactly two laps left, Murray surged clear, jettisoning her two compatriots with a 32.5-second 200m but she could not sustain that momentum and Chalmers clung on delaying her own challenge until the final 80 metres before winning in a Games record time of 8:38.38.   It was eight seconds faster than she had ever run before.

Murray clocked 8:39.46, with McColgan taking the bronze in 8:47.66.   But perhaps the gutsiest performance of all was by Fifer Hutcheson, selected despite not having achieved the qualifying standard of 9:00.0.   She passed McColgan with 530 metres left in a bid to win the bronze medal but was outkicked in the end by McColgan.   The smallest of the Scots hung on to record 8:48.72 – 12 seconds faster than she had ever run in her life.   Murray said she had run ‘exactly the way we had planned, I knew all about Angela’s speed but she ran very well.   I had intended hanging on to Liz, but hoped she would push it more and we might have dropped the Canadian.’.   On a windy night with a hint of drizzle, the conditions did not favour McColgan.   ‘The weather was against my tactics,’ she agreed.   ‘If it had been less windy it might have paid off.   It was very hard to front-run.   But I don’t like jogging along, I’d rather race.    I’ve been running tired for a few days – there’s nothing wrong, but the change of climate from Australia to here may have told on my body.   I’m not too happy about the run because I believed I could win.    But it has blown the cobwebs away for the 10000m on Friday.’

She reprimanded an intrusive Kiwi scribe who rudely criticised her race plan.   Told that he tactics were all wrong, she replied, ‘How would you know?   Have you run in any races?’   Asked if she still thought she could win the 10000m against the New Zealanders the Olympic silver medallist said, ‘Yes because I’m better than them.'”

I’ve quoted the article in full mainly because it’s a good article with an excellent account of the race but also because of the comments from Yvonne and Liz.   Liz went on to win the 10000m on Friday from Jill Hunter of England by 10 seconds (32:23.56 to 32:33.21).   Yvonne was fourth in the final of the 1500m in 4:09.54 to Angela Chalmers’s winning 4:08.41.    With Lynne McDougall fifth in 4:09.75, there were five in 1.34 seconds!!!    Karen also ran in the 1500 and was tenth in the final in 4:13.77.  The Games run was at the very start of the year and she ran well for the rest of 1990.  Immediately on her return,  Karen won the SWAAA indoor 3000m in 9:23.59.    That year she had personal best times of 2:09.2 for 800 (seventh in Scotland), 4:10.28 for 1500m (fourth, behind Yvonne, Liz and Lynne) and of course the 3000m at the Games was a huge pb at 3000m.

1991 must have been a kind of anti-climax after the wonderful year that had been 1990 but there were good runs nevertheless.  She was third in the UK Championships behind Liz Lynch and Jill Hunter in 9:11.66.  As for times, she ran 800 in 2:10.1 ranked her fifth in the country, 4:12.97 placed second of the country’s 1500m runners and 9:02.22 saw her third fastest Scot over 3000m.   Karen started 1992 with a win in the WAAA indoor 3000m in 9:11.99 ahead of Sonia McGeorge and Zara Hyde.   Best performances from Karen that summer were a 1500m in the WAAA’s at Sheffield where she was fifth in Heat 2 in 4:21.91 in June, 4:32.85 for One Mile when she finished sixth at Bordeaux on 2nd February which ranked third in Scotland   and    9:07.36 for 3000m when she won at Walnut, USA, on 17th April which was fifth fastest time by a Scot for the distance.

In 1993 she had become Karen Hargrave and appeared in two lists with very good times recorded indoors.   In the 1500m she ran 4:22.05 at the annual international meeting at Lievin in France on 28th February where she was second in the race and ranked top Scot indoors  and second over the whole year.   Up to 3000m where she was ranked at second indoors and fourth for the entire year with her time of 9:24.77 which she ran in Kelvin Hal on 30th January.   Karen was still running at a very high level.     Unfortunately she did not appear in the Scottish rankings for 1994 and then when she did appear in 1995 it was noted in the Annual Yearbook that “Karen Hargrave (formerly Hutcheson) now married and living in France recorded five 1500m runs below 4:25 and got within six seconds of her 1989 best.”   Details:    4:15.82     Paris     22nd July;     4:18.36     Paris     21st July;     4:21.03     Viry-Chatillon    16th July;     4:22.78     Beaupreau   3rd June;     4:24.43    Nantes     21st May.    These were five of the top eight times by a Scot and the best put her in second place in the rankings.

In 1995, running in the colours of Nantes, Karen was ranked in the 3000m but not in the 1500m.   Ranked at the end of the season as third individual, she had four of the top 9 Scottish times with:   9:25.4 at Crystal Palace on 27th August where she finished seventh; 9:27.6 at Nantes on 26th May where she was first; 9:31.3 at Beaupreau on 8th April where she was first again; and 9:39.35 at Cherbourg on 7th May where was again first finisher.   In 1996 the recorded marks in the Yearbook are all indoors – 4:25.29 at 1500m and 9:37.33 for 3000m at Bordeaux on 13th January and both were winning times.  Karen ran another double at Lievin on 4th February when she was third in the 1500m in 4:26.90 and second in the 3000m in 9:37.33.   In rankings terms she was third Scot in the 1500 and fourth in the 3000m at the end of 1996.   Her last year of running for Nantes (1997) she was seventh best Scot over 1500m with her best time of 4:26.35 at Fort-de-France on 5th July; she also recorded 4:27.46 in Nogent-sur-Oise on 16th February.   There was not mention of Karen in Scotland in 1998 but in 1999 she appeared – still running in France but for the Roche-sur-Yon Club and was fifth ranked with 9:45.72 at Antony on 23rd May.   One of the fascinating things about this ranking is that the old guard of Murray, McColgan, McIntyre and company had given way to Haining, Skorupska, Fairweather and Fagan.   None of the former were still in the rankings.   Karen next appeared in the Scottish rankings in 2001 as a V35 running 4:48.95 at Angers on 20th February – others in the 1500m lists were Butler, Scott, Parkinson-Ovens and Palmer.   Where Lynne McIntyre and Liz McColgan were running almost entirely on the roads, Karen was still speeding round the track, albeit different tracks against different faces across the Channel.

The trail goes cold at this point and she does not reappear until 2007 although the results make it clear that there probably was not a cessation of activity on her part.   Her most recent appearances according to Power of 10 is in 2007 when there are times of 4:51.71 in Albi in France in March where she was second in the Championats Nationaux Interclubs N1B, 10K at Morlaix in France on 28th October when she ran 37:00 to finish seventh and a half marathon at Pezenas, also in France where her time of 84:28 placed her twenty third.   As recently as June 2008 she recorded 36:21 for a 10K on the road in France at the age of 43.

Karen is undoubtedly a talented athlete who in the late 80’s and early 90’s was among the very best Scotland has produced.  Her best recorded times for all distances are below.

Dick Hodelet (84) in the vets cross-country, with Allan Adams and Donald Ritchie

Richard Theodoor Hodelet (born 13/03/1942 in Rothesay) won the Scottish 880 yards Championship in 1964 and represented his country on the track. He was also a good all-round distance runner, particularly as a veteran.

Dick’s personal bests included: 10.2 (100 yards), 49.0 (440 yards); 1.50.4 (880 yards); 3.58.8 (1500m). His fastest 880 yards broke Jack Boyd’s Scottish Native record, in the annual East versus West match at Pitreavie on 8^th June 1966. Between 1964 and 1968, in the SAAA 880 yards he won one gold medal and three silver medals, after tremendous battles against the likes of Graeme Grant, Mike Maclean and Duncan Middleton. These four “contributed substantially to the advancement of the event in Scotland” according to John Keddie in his SAAA Centenary publication “Scottish Athletics”.

Dick Hodelet is a life member of Greenock Glenpark Harriers (founded 1895) and in 2007 the Greenock Telegraph printed the following article. “One of Scotland’s finest athletes has been inducted into an exclusive hall of fame: Wyndham Halswelle, the 1908 Olympic 400 metres Champion.   One Scottish record set by Halswelle a hundred years ago was beaten at Westerlands by Greenock runner Dick Hodelet in 1968 – and his record still stands to this day. (This was the Scottish Native Record for 600 yards. Halswelle ran 71.8 in 1906; Hodelet 71.5.)    Dick, a member of Glenpark for 46 years, and treasurer for 32 of them, still runs every day. And he is the over-40 record holder of a couple of times never beaten by local athletes – 48.7 seconds for 400 metres in Dublin and one minute 49.7 for 800 metres at Pitreavie, a Scottish record.   Dick was the last finance director at the former Inverclyde District Council. He is a long-standing stalwart of Greenock Glenpark Harriers and was the man behind Scotland’s first mass marathon when he started the Inverclyde Folk Marathon in 1981.”

 His GGH profile states that “Dick Hodelet was the winner of the most club championship titles in this famous club’s history – a feat which is unlikely ever to be matched. (As well as numerous track titles, he won the club cross country championship an amazing ten times.) He has beaten world champions at his best, he still holds Scottish records over middle distance, and the dogged athlete has persevered, despite numerous injuries, to compete year after year, collecting titles in every age group he has competed in. A True Greenock Glenpark Harrier, Dick always insists that the club is called by its full name, never by the abbreviation.”

 The Greenock Glenpark Harriers club records (updated April 2010) show that Dick Hodelet holds these marks at 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and one mile.

When he turned 40 years of age, Dick Hodelet enjoyed several years of great success as a veteran. In 1984 he won the Scottish Veterans CC title, beating no less an opponent than the great Lachie Stewart. Dick won this prestigious race again in 1985, in front of Allan Adams and Bill Scally; and also finished third M45 in 1988. On the track he did even better in 1984, by breaking the Scottish Veterans Championship Best Performances for 1500m (4.11.01) and 5000m (15.17.7).

Nowadays, at the age of 70, Dick Hodelet continues to take part in the Glasgow Parkrun in Pollok Park.

Dick (9) finishing second to Graeme Grant (Dumbarton) and just ahead of Mike McLean (Bellahouston)

That’s Colin’s profile of Dick Hodelet and what follows is Dick’s own profile as printed in the local newspaper after he was asked to look back at his career by Mark Pollard

No Bugles No Drums

 My remit from Mark in writing this article was to detail my most memorable achievements which might inspire the current generation of athletes to go onto bigger things. So with that in mind I make no apology for the following personal trip down memory lane! To allow for more meaningful comparisons with today’s standards I have converted races run in yards to their metric equivalents using recognised factors.

I joined Greenock Glenpark Harriers from Auchmountain Harriers as an 18 year old in July 1960 after Auchmountain Harriers folded. Why Glenpark and not Wellpark? Well three of us walked over from Auchmountain’s clubhouse in Carwood Street one sunny summer’s evening and Orangefield was closer than Old Inverkip Road! I had some success with Auchmountain, winning the youth’s cross country championship and the Renfrewshire junior 800 metre title on the track. For me, at that time, track running was the be all and end all in athletics. All other running was only a means to making me a better runner on the track.

In the winter of 1960/61 as a promising junior I was invited to a weekly Monday night training session in the gym at Stow College in Glasgow, run by the then Scottish National coach, Tony Chapman. It was here that I was introduced to circuit training and this helped me immensely by building up my upper body and generally conditioning my heart and lungs. Any winter that I skipped on the circuit training resulted in a poor track season the next year. Circuit training is maybe a bit out of fashion nowadays, but in my view anyone with pretensions to winning championships must make it part of their winter training regime.

To be honest I cannot really remember any formal coaching at Glenpark. I just went along with what the older guys were doing and they were probably doing what Bill Elder, the club secretary and coach told them to do. As I progressed I can remember the interval training sessions that Jim Spence set as having a big influence on my training. He came up with a lot of innovative and varied sessions which were very tough, remember there was no track at Ravenscraig at this time. We used the Long Dam, the Puggy Line and the dam at Thom Street for interval speed training.

Bill Elder, or Big Bill as he was known to all and sundry, enjoyed unprecedented success over three decades coaching a conveyor belt of talent gleaned from the local Boys’ Brigade ranks where he was a leader in the East Congregational Church on the Bali Brae. Bill was a colossus of a man, whose own running career was cut short by two major accidents. He did not suffer fools gladly and if you were in his bad books he let you know it!

My big breakthrough year on the track was 1963 but it did not start off well. I was eliminated in the heats of the Scottish 800m at Westerlands at Anniesland Cross, a track that was to be the scene of some of my best races in the future. However three days later at the Glasgow Transport Sports at Helenvale, I ran a heat and a final of the 800m in 1m53secs within an hour. I felt that I was now getting somewhere. At the end of the season I beat Hugh Barrow, the Scottish boy wonder of the day who had broken the world mile record for a 16 year old, in an 800m at Anniesland.

As part of my CA training I had to do an academic year at Glasgow University and in 1964 Westerlands was now my home track and training centre along with the Stevenson Building gym where the dreaded circuit training was done! I had a good cross country season prior to the University track season starting in May. The Uni had matches all over the country every week and I would run up to 4 events in a match, as I just loved racing so much. No doubt if I had a coach he would have restricted the amount of races I was running. I ended up with season bests of 11.2s for 100m, 23.2s for 200m, 49.6s for 400m and 1m51.9s for 800m when I won the Scottish Championship at Meadowbank in a new Championship record. This was particularly pleasing as Englishmen were 2^nd, 3rd and 4^th!  I was also in the Uni relay team which broke the Scottish 4 x 400m relay record, running the third lap, passing the baton to one Menzies Campbell who is now the leader of the LibDems! The fastest 800m in the world in 1963 was run by an Irishman, Noel Carroll, who was studying at Villanova University. I beat him at an International at Ayr in July, (the Scottish weather was a great leveller!), and at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels in August. Later in the year he reached the semi final at the Tokyo Olympics. So I knew I was doing something right.

1965 was a poor track season as I had changed jobs in the winter which involved a lot of travelling every day, which cut back on the training, mainly the circuit training! However I managed to put up a spirited defence of my Scottish title, being just pipped by my great friend and rival Graeme Grant.   In 1966 I still did not have a coach, but now working in Glasgow I started training with Graeme at Westerlands. He was coached by John Anderson, the Scottish National coach, now best known as the referee on the TV show Gladiators. So effectively I was also being coached. John coached athletes to Commonwealth, European, World and Olympic medals. John’s philosophy was simple. By the time February had arrived we changed from stamina to speed training. Speed was everything in our sessions. But we had to learn to run fast when we were tired, very tired. A typical session was 30 x 200m in 30 seconds with a 90 second rest. The real killer was 20 x 20 second sprints with a 75 second interval. As most sessions were done on the grass at Westerlands as straight runs you had to turn around and get back to the start and be ready to go again in the 75 seconds!

In June 1966 I ran 1m 49.7s for the 800m on a cinder track at Pitreavie breaking the Scottish National Record having gone through the 400 in 52.3s, then hanging on for grim death in the home straight to fight of a sprint finish from Mike McLean. John Anderson’s sessions were paying off! I just missed selection for the Commonwealth Games in Jamaica. Scotland could only afford to send twelve athletes from a short leet of fifteen; I was one of the three who stayed at home! As a consolation Scotland sent a team to Reykjavik for a two day match against Iceland. I was in great form, winning three golds and a silver. I won the the 800m, 2^nd in the 400m and was in the winning 4 x 400m relay and 4 x 100m relay teams. The sprint relay was the last event of the match and one of our runners took ill just prior to the start and I took his place. Not many runners can say they have competed for Scotland in the sprints and cross country!

I also ran my fastest ever 400m that year, running 48.7s in Dublin. The Irishman Noel Carroll also ran in this race and he was clearly worried about me as just prior to the start I saw him in conversation with the lane steward. Lanes were drawn by the steward offering each runner a choice of numbered sticks which were a bit like an ice lolly stick and turned over. Mr Carroll was first up and he picked the stick on the extreme left which lo and behold gave him the lane inside me!

1967 was another poor track season. I had a lot of injuries and was also studying for my final exams. As far as studying and training was concerned I always felt the one complemented the other. All work and no play as they say makes Jack a dull boy!

1968 track season started well when I broke the Scottish record for the rarely run 600 yards at an invitation event at Westerlands. My time of 1m11.6s broke the 1906 record of the Olympic gold medallist W G Halswelle and still stands today. This was also an Olympic year and I had run well at a trial in Birmingham beating some good guys who went onto the Olympics at Mexico City later in the year. I was invited to a subsequent Olympic trial but could not run as I came down with the ‘flu two days before the race! Such is life.

In 1969 I went to work in Sierra Leone for two years. For many years the country had been dubbed the white man’s grave due to malaria and the heat. I arrived in the February pretty fit as I had won the Glenpark nine miles cross country race the weekend prior to leaving. I had been in Freetown a couple of weeks and went along to a track meeting at Brookfield’s Stadium to see if I could get a run. As the locals had never seen a white man walk fast in the heat and humidity never mind run I was a bit of a novelty!

 There were two events I could run in, the 100m and the mile, neither of which was my best event. As I had very little track work under my belt I decide to run the 100m as a warm up. The stadium was packed as the Prime Minister of Sierra Leone was in attendance. There was much laughter in the stand as I finished a poor third to a guy who won wearing a pair of winkle picker shoes! All of a sudden the milers were my best friends as they made sure I wouldn’t miss the start of the mile! They were anticipating another beating of the newcomer. For the first two laps I thought they were going to be right as I struggled with the early pace. I started to feel better at the start of the last lap and going down the back straight I had caught the local hero and swept by him in the home straight to win by twenty yards. Well it would have been twenty yards but nobody else finished the race as the crowd swarmed around me at the finish! For some reason the Prime Minister, who had arrived in a cavalcade of Cadillacs, decided to leave at that point, the cavalcade creating a dust storm as it drove round the track at 100 mph before exiting the stadium! I had warmed up wearing a Greenock Glenpark tee shirt and for the rest of my time in Sierra Leone people would stop me in the street to shout, ”Hello Greenock”!

I joined a club called the Coca Cola club which within a week of me joining mysteriously changed its’ name to The Republicans! I competed in the Sierra Leone Track Championships that year winning the 400m and 800m and helped my club to four relay victories. I joined the Freetown Rugby Club to try and keep fit and won two Sierra Leonean caps for matches against Liberia. As long as no one tackled me, or I had to tackle anyone, I loved playing rugby, but one tackle on the brick hard ground usually made me hide for the rest of the game! An elderly English gentlemen at one of the games told me later that he had never seen anyone play so well and so badly in the same game!

 I was back in Greenock by 1971 and by that time my track career was winding down. I still enjoyed running and had success in road and cross country events. I won the Glenpark Cross Country championships sixteen times, finished third and first Briton in the World Vets 10K road championships in Perpignan, France in 1983. I also won the inaugural Scottish National Veteran Cross Country title at Falkirk in 1985. I beat Alistair Hutton to win the first leg of the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay. Alistair later won the London Marathon. I am still running and racing enthusiastically to this day.

 So what have I learned about running and coaching? I would say that the people who win Olympic medals are those who were born with natural speed and then work as hard as those who don’t have the natural ability and compensate with harder training. Unfortunately this latter group, in my opinion, will not win major races. I have also been asked why did I not do any coaching. The short answer is that I would not have been any good at it. It takes a long time for an athlete to mature into a winner, and I am afraid I didn’t have that much patience! However I did put something back into the sport, having recently retired as the Glenpark Club Treasurer after thirty two years. I also started the Inverclyde Marathon in 1981 which resulted in a running boom in Inverclyde, This was the first mass marathon held in Scotland, the fruits of which are still evident by the amount of people still jogging in our streets today. I organised this race for six years.

 I hope this article does encourage today’s crop of athletes to see what can be achieved by a local. But they must have confidence and self belief and the ability to train hard today and come out the next day and do it all again! And maybe they will also appreciate that the grumpy old guy who likes to get changed in the corner of the clubhouse by the radiator won some good races and ran some fast times in his day! My 400m and 800m times set in the 1960’s have not been beaten by any local runner. That in many ways is indicative of the drop in standards not only locally but nationally and nothing would give me greater pleasure to see my times go by the board, but only if it was a Glenparker!

 Athletics is a great sport and I have been fortunate enough to be involved in it for most of my life. I still run with Jim Sheridan and Tommy Knight who were in Auchmountain with me over fifty years ago! That level of friendship is priceless.

 Running is simple. When I was younger a popular American coach’s book was called “Run, Run, Run!”  That is the best advice I can give today. Oh, and don’t forget the circuit training!

Winning the SAAA 880 yards in 1955

“Donald Cameron Easterbrook Gorrie was born in India on April 2 1933, the son of Robert Gorrie, a forestry officer, and the former Sydney Easterbrook.  The family moved back to Scotland when he was six, and he was educated at Oundle and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he read Classical Mods and Modern History.

Gorrie first found fame as a middle-distance runner. He broke the Scottish native 880 yards record in 1955, won an Oxford Blue three years running and in 1957 was president of the University Athletic Club. He won championships in the United States and Canada and races in Norway and Czechoslovakia, and competed in the World Student Games. He qualified as a coach, and would in later life be president of the City of Edinburgh Athletic Club and Corstorphine Athletic Club, valued both for his commitment to the sport and for his after-dinner speeches.”

The above brief introduction to Donald Gorrie comes from the Daily Telegraph and tells us a bit about the man, but we are mainly interested in his career as an athlete which was considerably good.   SAAA native record holder (1955). While at Corpus Christi College he was an Oxford Blue three years in succession, President of the University Athletic Club in 1957, competed in the world student games, won races in USA, Canada, Norway and Czechoslovakia.   He was also a member of the Achilles Club and was a vice-president from 2006 until his death in 2012. He was an active committee member and even a cursory glance at the Club annual reports shows that.   Even in 1988 he was the member in charge of US matches.   It is unfortunate that his time at Oxford coincided with that of Bannister, Chataway, Brasher and company and his career possibly suffered a it from lack of recognition because of that.   He only ever competed for two clubs – OUAC and Achilles.  But it is certainly a career worth investigating further.

He was running well enough in 1953 to win his first (of three) British Universities 880 yards titles with a time of 1:54.4, but did not draw himself to the attention of the Scottish athletics public until 1954.  Donald Gorrie was to run very successfully in the matches between the Achilles Club and the various American Universities.  The club had  two series of such contests: against Yale and Harvard, and against Cornell and Pennsylvania Universities.   It is not clear whether he was running in the fixture against the latter two on 12 June 1954, but Derek Johnston won the 880 in 1:53.1 and the 440 in 48.8.   The SAAA Championships were held on 25th and 26th June and Gorrie was entered in the half-mile.   He qualified for the final but finished outside the first six in a nine man field.   The race was won by R Stoddart (Bellahouston) in 1:58.6.

In terms of titles, records and general all round successful athletics, 1955 was possibly his best year.  Staring the year with a 50.1 seconds for 440 yards at Oxford on 12th May, he won his second British Universities half-mile title in the good time of 1:52.8.   These two marks placed him second and first in the Scottish rankings at the end of May.  Then on 11th June at White City in a match for Achilles against Yale and West Point, he won the 880 yards in 1:52.3.   The Achilles team was very strong and won all the running events – Derek Johnston won the 440 and Alan Gordon won the Mile.   Two weeks later at Meadowbank he won the SAAA 880 yards title in 1:54.2 and then just a week later, at Pitreavie on 30th June, in a contest between the SAAA and Atalanta, he not only won the 880 yards but set a new Scottish native record of 1:52.9.  John Emmet Farrell’s comment in the ‘Scots Athlete’ of August 1955 read: “Donald Gorrie was just too classy for that magnificent trier Ian Stuart in the half-mile.”   Further through the magazine there was a report on the championships.   “Heats on Friday.   Again qualifiers went to form.   Last year’s runner-up, Bill Linton, through lack of training possibly, failed to qualify.   Stewart Petty, a previous winner of this event, qualified only as fastest loser.   Main interest in the final centred round the Oxford man DCE Gorrie and speculations as to whether he could beat JC Stothard’s record time of 1 min 53.6 sec sere rife.   At the gun Petty shot away and for the first lap led at a cracking pace.   Gorrie then took over, and piling on the pressure, strode away gamely followed by Stuart (GUAC).   Gorrie was a sound winner, Stuart second and Donachie beat Hume in the run in for third place.   Holder Bob Stoddart was never in the race.   The winner’s time 1 min 54.2 sec was just over half a second outside the Scottish record, but nevertheless a grand performance under the prevailing conditions.”  

Gorrie answered the question of whether he could get the record the following Friday. In an invitation half-mile at Pitreavie he was paced through half distance by JV Paterson and went on to run 1:52.7.    Of the record at Pitreavie, Farrell commented: “Stothard’s 20 year record goes!   Shortly after winning the SAAA half-mile title Anglo-Scot Donald Gorrie set up a new Scottish native record for that distance with a magnificent run of 1:52.7 which, subject to ratification, will erase JC Stothard’s figures of 20 years standing of 1:53.6.”   The ‘Glasgow Herald’ had a full description of the event.   “NEW SCOTTISH RECORD.   Half Mile Feat. DCM Gorrie  (Oxford University) took 0.9 seconds off the 20 year old Scottish native half-mile record at the SAAA v Atalanta athletics match last night at Dunfermline.   Conditions were perfect on the new running track at Pitreavie and Gorrie, along with JB Paterson, planned to attack the record which has been held by KC Stothard since 1935.   It was Paterson’s job to run a 55 second first lap and hold his pace until the beginning of the back straight.   That he did and Gorrie took the lead 300 yards from the finish and won in 1 min 52.7 sec.   Paterson was rewarded for his effort by winning the quarter mile in the fast time of 49.6 sec.”   There were two other runners in the race – both home Scots – and Neil Donachie says:

“I remember the race in which Donald set a new Scottish record on 30th June, 1955, as I was one of the four runners who took part.   It was my first representative race, SAAA  v  Atalanta.   Invitations came by post in these days – I lived in the country and I only had 48 hours notice.   When I arrived at Pitreavie I was advised that Donald, whom I did not know, was to attempt the Scottish record and that JV Paterson would make the pace.   The other two, Stewart of Glasgow University and myself, were ‘invited’ not to interfere with the attempt.   In other words, run as well as you can but keep out of the way.   Donald duly ran 1:52.7 and the only person that I beat was JV who had done all the pacing.   I do not recall what time I ran but I was not particularly quick.    Two months later at the Rangers Sports at Ibrox on the first Saturday in August JV, as he was known to all, thinking that he could beat Donald’s new record tried to get someone to pace him but all declined.   He was annoyed at the lack of support  and in the event JV ran a 49 sec first lap but no one was foolish enough to go with him and he blew up on the last bend.   I heard about this from my training partner, another runner in the race, but I was approached by JV in the week following the race who repeated the story to me.   I was amused and I told him that he should not have shown his annoyance and then ru his race, upping the pace steadily and he might have achieved his aim of making everyone else blow up as well.”

 In the AAA’s championships at White City on 16th July, he was fourth in 1:52.0 in a very tight finish – the winner was Derek Johnston and his time was 1:51.4.   Four men within 0.6 seconds.   His running that season had been so good that he was selected for the World Student Games in August where he won a gold medal as part of the British team which was second in the Mile medley relay in which he ran the half-mile leg.   Another Scot, JGR Robertson from Glasgow University, ran one of the 200 metre legs.   Defeated by Germany, both teams ran 3:14.3 with Spain third in 3:16.0.

At the end of 1955, Emmet Farrell asked what Scots had made the greatest impact in athletics during the past season?   He answered his own question with (in no particular order of merit): Donald Gorrie, Ian Binnie, Joe McGhee, Bill Piper and Ewan Douglas.   It was exalted company for Gorrie to be in – but he was there on merit – Farrell didn’t play favourites!

*

His running in the United States for Achilles has already been discussed but it should be noted that these events were taken more seriously on the other side of the Atlantic than they seemed to be here.   I quote from the New York Herald Tribune of 24th April 1956.

“CONFIDENT OXFORD RUNNERS AFTER THREE TRACK PRIZES.   The four Oxford University middle distance racers comprising “possibly the greatest Oxford ever had, even including Roger Bannister” looked over the American field entered for the Penn Relays this week and decided to go for three relay titles instead of two.   They are solid favourites to win all three.   Of world relay caliber, based on their individual times in the 880 and mile, Ian Boyd, Alan Gordon, Donald Gorrie and Derek Johnston, the British Empire half-mile champion, will try for the two and a half mile distance medley Friday, the four mile and the two mile Saturday.   Boyd, the senior member of the dark blue quartet, and Arthur W Selwyn, an old-Oxonian who is managing the team, disclosed their plans and confidences to local coaches, officials and writers at the weekly luncheon at Leone’s.   Selwyn admitted Oxford will run the four mile as well as the two mile Saturday, because the opposition from Pitt, Michigan, Manhattan and NYU , all of whom have run between 7:35.2 and 7:40.6 this year, does not measure up to pressure competition for the Oxonians.   Fancy that!  

The four mile will be run at 3:10 Saturday, the two mile at 4:35 and the interval is more than adequate for the Britons they claim.   Whether Pitt, which has won 10 of 11 two mile relays this year on Arnie Sowell’s anchor legs of 1:48and up will send Sowell out against Oxford or shift to the spring medley is not definite.   No matter who lines up against Oxford, the British quartet will be favourite to win its three races.   Boyd has run the half in 1:51.9, the mile in 4:07.2, Gordon 1:53.4 and 4:00.7, Gorrie 1:51.5 and 5:15, and Johnston 1:48.1 and 4:10.2.   On their posted times, Oxford has a two mile relay potential of 7:24.9 compared to the world record of 7:27.3 set by Courtney-anchored Fordham in 1954.   It has a  four mile potential of 16 mins 38.6 sec compared to the world record of 16 min 41 sec set by a British national team of Chris Chataway, Bill Nankeville, Don Seaman and Bannister in 1953.   The Oxonians also believe they can beat the world distance medley record of 9:50.4 set by Wes Santee’s Kansas team of 1954.  

When Americans lifted their eyebrows, Boyd said “You don’t know how much we in England have improved since that Bannister team of three years ago.”   Though the British haven’t won an Olympic track title since 1936,   Boyd reported a tremendous national re-awakening of traditional British speed in the 880 and mile, highlighted by Bannister’s celebrated crashing of the four minute barrier.”

How did they do?   The ‘Glasgow Herald’ of 30th April reports:

“Oxford University won two events at the Penn Relays at Philadelphia on Saturday but failed in their bid to improve existing world records.   A sudden rise in the temperature to 83 degrees contributed to disappointing times in both events.   The Oxford team of DE Gorrie, DJN Johnston, A Gordon and I Boyd won by 70 yards in the 4 x 1mile event but their time was 17 min 35.3 sec, well outside the world record of 16 min 41 sec made by a British team in 1953.   Oxford’s winning time in the 4 x 880 yards was 7 min 40.6 sec – 13.3 sec outside the world record mark.   Johnston made up a 15 yard deficit on the last lap and won by 15 yards.”    

83 degrees might be hot for some but the Gettysburg Times reported that the race was run in perfect weather and said that Oxford and Villanova received the plaudits.   Villanova won the distance medley in 9:58.1 which was a new meet record but Arnie Sowell ran in three relays for his college (Pittsburg): in the distance medley he ran the third stage and clocked 2:58.7 for three quarters of a mile, in the sprint medley relay he ran a 1:54.7 half mile, and in the mile relay he ran a 46.9 quarter.   Maybe of more interest to a Scottish/British puiblic was the fact that Ron Delany anchored the Villanova team to victory.   I quote from Time magazine.

“Anchored by Irish Ron Delany, Villanova’s medley relay team ran the distance (2½ miles) in jig time (a meet-record of 9:58.1) at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia to beat Oxford’s English invaders by a long 20 yds. Next day when the Britons came back to run off with the four-mile and two-mile relays, Villanova and Delany retaliated by taking the sprint medley and setting another meet record (3:11.9) in the one-mile relay.”

It was a massive meet, but Oxford and Gorrie had two firsts out of three on a day of heat not usual this side of the Atlantic so it could be considered a success.

Back home, in the British Games at White City on Whit Monday (21st May), 1956, he ran in the  800m invitation where the invited field was JV Beesley (GB), DCE Gorrie (GB), BS Hewson (GB), LC Locke (GB),  K Richtzenhain (East Germany), I Roszavolgyi (Hungary), S Saric (Yugoslavia), DG Stewart (GB), JE Davis (Great Britain), R Moens (Belgium).    There was a lot of class in that field and two English based |Scots (Gorrie and Locke) were in among them.   Mike Rawson won by a yard from Brian Hewson in 1:51.6.  Gorrie raced in Scotland on on 9th June at the Police Sports, before a crowd of 20,000 people he ran in a high quality invitation 880 yards.   He was third behind Brian Hewson and Mike Rawson, all three representing the AAA’s.   The winning time was 1:52.2.   He did not defend his Scottish title at the SAAA Championships two weeks later.  where JV Paterson won in a time 06 seconds slower than Gorrie ran the previous year.   He did contest the AAA’s 880 yards championship on 14th July and qualified for the final where he ran 1:54.4 and was out of the medals.   Rival JV Paterson was fourth in 1:53.1 behind the winner, Mike Rawson in 1:51.3.     The season had been a bit quieter than 1955 but he still had targets, and still had  a lot to give to the sport.   His time of 1 min 52.1 was easily the best of the four.

Achilles team mate Derek Johnson

Always an early starter to the season, his life time best came on 11th March 1957 when he raced to 1:50.8 for the 880 yards.   On 6th April he ran in the Oxford v Cambridge match: “DCE Gorrie, Oxford’s captain, who is a former Scottish champion and and native record holder for the half-mile, won that event for Oxford in 1 min 52.4 sec, beating DI Smith, Oxford’s other runner, by 1.5 seconds.”    He also won his third British Universities championship on 19th May.   The report read:   “DCE Gorrie’s Success.   DCE Gorrie (Oxford) a former Scottish half mile champion, won that event in  the Universities’ championships at Reading in 1:54.2.   JV Paterson ran well and finished third n the 440 yards in 49.4 seconds … ”     Gorrie travelled with the Achilles club to America for the match against Harvard and Yale on June 22nd 1957.   He was victorious in the 880y in a new meeting record time of 1:52.0 – one of two records, the other being RH Dunkley (Cambridge) in the two miles with a time of 9:13.5.   The fact that this clashed with the SAAA Championships, was unfortunate.

His racing career was effectively over but his interest in athletics continued however and he remained on the Committee of Achilles for the rest of his life.   The programme for the Harvard/Yale  v  Oxford/Cambridge in  April, 2009 contained Roll Call of Champions and there it was – 880 yards, 1957, DCE Gorrie (Ox).   Nearer home, although he never represented a Scottish club and raced sparingly north of the border, he was President of Edinburgh AC and of Corstorphine AC .   He even obtained a coaching qualification.    When he died he was described in one newspaper as    “Rangy, stooping and crotchety, Gorrie was a long-standing and passionate advocate of devolution. He forsook Westminster for Holyrood – alienating constituency activists by making the switch and having to find a seat as an MSP for Central Scotland.    Gorrie was one of three Lib Dem MSPs who in 1999 refused to support the party’s Scottish leader, Jim Wallace, forming a coalition with Labour, distrusting that party as centralist and corrupt . He also disagreed frequently with Wallace’s successor, Nicol Stephen, but insisted he was not a one-man “awkward squad””    and went on to cover his career after leaving the sport.

He qualified as a coach, and would in later life be president of the City of Edinburgh Athletic Club and Corstorphine Athletic Club, valued both for his commitment to the sport and for his after-dinner speeches.   Gorrie taught at Gordonstoun, then in 1960 was appointed director of physical education at Marlborough College. Among his charges was Mark Phillips; when in 1973 Capt Phillips married Princess Anne in Westminster Abbey, the Gorries were among the guests.

In 1966 he returned to Scotland, as a researcher and adult education lecturer in Scottish history, and two years later he joined the Scottish Liberals as director of research. From 1971 he was the party’s director of administration; he became vice-chairman in 1974, but left the Scottish party machine in 1975 after challenging Russell Johnston unsuccessfully for the leadership. The next year he set up Edinburgh Translations, which remained his business.    When the city council was restored in 1995, Gorrie was elected Lib Dem group leader, serving until his election to Parliament.   He contested Edinburgh West in 1970 and March 1974 (finishing third), in October 1974 (coming fourth), then again in 1992, losing by just 792 votes to the popular Tory incumbent Lord James Douglas-Hamilton. Five years later, at an age when many contemporaries were heading for the potting shed, Gorrie captured the seat by 7,253 votes to become the first Liberal to represent an Edinburgh constituency since before the war.

As part of Paddy Ashdown’s sizeable new intake at Westminster, Gorrie proved an effective contributor, but he did not take to the life. Having helped vote through Labour’s devolution legislation, he put himself forward for Holyrood and decided not to stand again for Westminster; in 2001 the Lib Dems retained his seat.   At Holyrood, Gorrie had no chance of a ministerial job because of his views on the coalition with Labour. This left him free to embarrass Donald Dewar, the inaugural First Minister, over the soaring (from £40 million to £440 million) cost of the new Parliament building. Gorrie suspected Dewar of treating the modernistic pile as his personal legacy.    He was named Holyrood’s Backbencher of the Year in 1999, and Free Spirit of the Year for 2001.   Re-elected in 2003 at 70, Gorrie retired at the 2007 election.

Gorrie was at various times chairman of Edinburgh Youth Orchestra, and a committee member of the Edinburgh Festival, the Royal Lyceum Theatre, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Lothian Association of Youth Clubs, Castle Rock Housing Association and the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh. He was appointed OBE in 1984, and Deputy Lieutenant for the City of Edinburgh in 1996″.

Alan Duncan Gordon has been described by Doug Gillon as  ‘the Scot whose athletic feats were once airbrushed from history’ was born on 21st September, 1932 in Bolsover, Derbyshire and was one of the country’s best ever milers.   He appeared in the Scottish ranking lists every year from 195 to 1962.  Alan was one of the runners in Bannister’s first ever 4 minute mile in 1954, in 1955 he was sixth in Britain at 1500m (3:48.6) and 11th in the Mile (4:07.9), and in 1956 he ran 3:46.when he finished third in a floodit meeting crossing the line with Chris Chataway, and 4:06.2 for the Mile when setting a new record for the Oxford v Cambridge meeting.   These two performances would be recognised as Scottish records today but at that time, they were not recognised since they were run outside Scotland.   (A report on Helen Cherry’s ‘record’ run at the White City in 1962 going unrecognised said that for record ratification purposes, England was a foreign country.)    In 1959 he appeared in the lists for 1500m, Mile and Two Miles where he was ranked first, first and fourth with times of 3:47.8, 4:06 and 8:52.2.   In 1960 he was third in the Mile rankings with 4:06.4 and in 1961 he was third in the 1500m with 3:53.7 and in fourth in the Mile with 4:12.4.   Finally he was 25th in the Mile in 1962 with 4:21.0.   These figures do not tell even half of the Alan Gordon story – he had been at the top of British miling since the early 1950’s and took part in several of the most important races in the history of the sport: for instance when he took part in Derek Ibbotson’s world mile record setting race, he had taken part in more sub-four minute miles than anyone else on the planet but never broken the time himself. Along with Graham Everett and Mike Berisford he was one of the favourites to be the first Scot to beat 4 minutes for the mile.

He is perhaps best known for taking part in Roger Bannister’s first ever sub-4 mile.    The story of how Bannister was paced first by Brasher and then by Chataway before taking the race on himself with 220 to go and breaking the tape in 3:59.4.   The surge of the crowd forward after the first three were through is also familiar to us all.   Fourth was Alan Gordon, running for Oxford, then an American, George Dole and then Brasher in sixth.   There were several variations of the story of the finish and officially the times of the last three were not taken.   Brasher even said that neither Gordon nor Dole had finished but that was put right.  Doug Gillon’s excellent article in the box below  tells the real story.   It is an often told tale and there is a good description in Bruce McAvaney’s Melbourne speech which can be found at www.grcc.net.au/documents/interviews/Bruce_McAvaney_04.pdf , while Dole’s account of the race from a participants point of view is at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/2378077/My-part-in-Bannisters-mile.html

Gordon’s next big race was at the Whitsun Bank Holiday Games at White City in May 1955, where he paced Laszlo Tabori, one of the group of Hungarians coached by Mihaly Igloi who were taking the world of middle distance running by storm at the time, to a sub-4 clocking.   After Gordon took the field through in 59.9 and 2:00.8, Brian Hewson went into the lead at the bell, reached in 3:02.0.   Tabori won in 3:59.0, Chataway and Hewson were both timed at 3:59.8 and it was the first time that three men ran under four minutes for the distance in the same race in Britain.  Less than a year after Bannister’s mile, it was no longer the fastest in Britain.   There is video which shows this race with excellent shots of Gordon in action at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UytFl3NtTU           The Glasgow Herald report read: “Three runners, a Hungarian and two Britons, ran the mile in less than four minutes on Saturday at the British Games at the White City, London and so emulated J Landy (Australia) and RG Bannister (Britain) the only men who had performed this feat.   L Tabori, the Hungarian returned 3:59.0 and both CJ Chataway and BR Hewson, second and third respectively, were timed at 3:59.8.   … It was a race that  right from the gun promised a fast time, though the White City track was heavy after the deluge of Friday night.   AD Gordon (Oxford University) led the way at a spanking pace for the first two laps with Hewson, Chataway and Tabori behind him in that order.   The first lap was covered in 60 seconds.   After the second lap, reached in 2:00.8, Hewson took over the pace making task with Chataway on his heels and Tabori a strongly running third.   When the time at the bell was announced as 3:03.2 few among the large crowd felt that a four minute mile was possible but 220 yards from home Tabori made his first breath-taking challenge.   Amid vast excitement the red-vested Hungarian and his two white-vested British rivals sprinted at a killing pace down the back straight.   Then Tabori gave ground and it seemed that the home runners had won the day.   Coming round the last bend Chataway forced himself in front of Hewson for the first time, and then, to the amazement of everyone, Tabori running wide into the home straight, swept past his spent rivals and won by about four yards.”

 In 1956 Gordon ran at the Rangers Sports at Ibrox for the AAA team and won the Mile.   The Glasgow Herald commented: “The 1500m was to have been the outstanding event of the programme, which attracted fully 25,000 spectators, but only three of the seven selected runners appeared.   Notable absentees were R Delany (Ireland) and G Everett, the Scottish mile champion and record holder, who after an x-ray examination at a Glasgow hospital was told to rest an injured foot for at least a fortnight.   The race was therefore contested by three Englishmen and in the finishing straight AD Gordon produced a finish that P Driver could not resist.”   The “Englishman’s” time was 3:52.5.   Gordon raced in Budapest as part of a small British team on 18th August and finished eighth in the 1500m in 3:48.8 in a race won by I Roszavolgyi in 3:44.2.   His best for the season however was an excellent 3:46.4 at the White City Floodlit meeting for fourth place in the same time as Chris Chataway who was placed third.

On Friday, 19 July 1957, at the White City Ibbotson set a new British record of 3:57.2 for the mile in a race in which the first four runners were all under four minutes.  The Glasgow Herald report read:    “A mile record seemed in sight from the start of the race last night in which M Blagrve (London) set a fast pace.   The time for the first lap was 55.3 and for the half-mile 1:55.8.   On the back straight during the third lap Jungwirth, who had been lying second, moved into the lead and was followed by Ibbotson, Lewandowski, Delany and Gordon.   With three-quarters of a mile in 3 minutes, the pace had dropped slightly during the third quarter.   On the last lap Ibbotson decided to make his strike 300 yards from home.   Jungwirth closed up to him and Delany came from the middle of the field to challenge Ibbotson.   But they did not have any real hope of catching him and the race was all but over 20 yards from the finish.   Ibbotson said after the race that he had asked Blagrove to run a fast half-mile and his plan worked perfectly.   If the third lap had not been so slow he might have won the race in 3:55.”   The result was after Ibbotson’s 3:57.2, Delany 3:58.8, Jungwirth 3:59.1, Ken Wood 3:59.3, Lewandowski (Poland)  4:0.6 and Alan Gordon 4:03.4 which was to be his career best.  The only unfortunate incident of the day was when one of the officials refused to sign the authentication certificate for the record on the grounds that Ibbotson had been paced.   He was however over-ruled!  The following month, on the first Saturday in August he ran in the Mile in the Rangers Sports at Ibrox where he was second to Ken Wood – a race which did not meet with the approval of the athletics savvy Glasgow spectators!   The Glasgow Herald reports:   “K Wood (Sheffield) was the main attraction in the Mile, and he was subjected to slow handclapping for what was considered a slow quarter and half-mile.   Yet he finished in 4:03.9 – the second fastest time recorded for the distance in Scotland.   Wood gained a 15 yard lead at the 300 yard mark and was well inside 57 seconds for the last quarter.”   Wood  defeated Gordon again on 5th August at the White City in London, in the Emsley Carr Mile where he was third behind Wood (4:02.0) and Graham Everett (4:06.0) in 4:06.8.   Came the 17th August and Gordon was running in the Edinburgh Highland Games where he was behind Wood yet again: first Wood 4:09.4, second AD Gordon, third MA Berisford.     He finished off the season with a 3:45.4 for 1500 in his debut GB v Poland 4:10.77

In the AAA Championships on 12th July. 1958, the Herald report read: “It gave tremendous satisfaction to the Scottish contingent to see three Scots in the first five to finish in the mile – GE Everett (Shettleston) first in 4:06.4, M Berisford (Sale) third in 4:08.2 and AD Gordon (Achilles) fifth on 4:08.3.   Over the first quarter run in 62.6 GW Goddard (Melton Mowbrey) was closely followed by Gordon with Everett lying third, and Berisford last of the nine starters.   Goddard retained his position at the end of the second lap with M Halberg (New Zealand) in second place and Everett still holding third place.   In the back straight of the final lap Everett moved smoothly into the lead followed by Halberg who has been credited with a mile in 4:01.   Enthusiasm ran high when Everett accelerated down the home straight and won by close on seven yards from the New Zealander and Berisford, coming from the rear with a tremendous burst, finished third. ”   In the results places from third were Berisford in 4:08.0, Goddard 4:08.2, Gordon 4:08.3, Morrison (Dartmouth) 4:08.3.   Gordon had qualified for the final by running 4:07.4 in his Heat.   Selected for the Empire Games in Cardiff, he ran below par to be fourth in his Heat in 4:10.7 and failed to qualify for the final.   He had a very good run in the Emsley Carr mile on 2nd August at White City in the race won by Murray Halberg in 4:06.5 from Merv Lincoln (Australia) also in 4:06.5 and Derek Ibbotson in 4:07.7.   Gordon was fourth in 4:09.1 with Graham Everett fifth in 4:14.   There were also times of 5:13.2 for 2000 metres and 8:48.4 for Two Miles that year.

Topping the Scottish rankings in 1959 with 4:06.0 run at the White City on 16th May in a race at the British Games where Everett and Gordon were seventh and eighth. The race was won by Valentin from East Germany in 4:00.8.   The first British finisher was Ibbotson in sixth.   Two days later at the same meeting he ran in the Two Miles where he was recorded at 8:52.2 when finishing eighth and was reported by the Herald as never being within sight of victory.  The time was good enough nevertheless to rank him fourth Scot for the year behind Alastair Wood (8:46.4), Bruce Tulloh (8:50.0) and Graham Everett (8:50.3).    Earlier in the season he had run at the AAA Championships on 11th July where the three Scots in the Mile final were Everett (fourth), Berisford (Sixth) and Gordon (seventh) in a race which started very slowly.    The season ended for Gordon with two races in September: on 3rd September at White City in a Mile won by Herb Elliott in 3:55.4, and then on the eighth in a 1500m he was timed at 3:47.8 to be on of only two Scots ranked that year for the distance, the other being Graham Everett who was one second slower.

There is not much trace of Gordon in summer 1960 – he did not appear in either Scottish or English AAA’s championships, nor in the Whitsun meeting nor was he marked as a contender for an Olympic place – although he did record 4:06.4 .for the mile .   He surfaced again in 1961 with a 4:12.5 at Wimbledon on 9th May which ranked him fourth Scot at the end of the year behind Berisford (4:01.4), Everett (4:05.1) and Hugh Barrow (Victoria Park- 4:10.9).    He also ran a 3:53.7 1500m which ranked him third.  The old order was indeed giving way to the new and in the AAA’s championships the two Scots Berisford and Everett finished seventh and eighth.   Alan Gordon’s only ranking in 1962 was for the mile where he was down in 25th with a time of 4:21.    It had been a vey good career at the top of British athletics with several very fine races.    It was rather galling that the behaviour of the crowd at the end of the Mile in 1954 spoiled the finish for the remaining three runners – no times were taken officially apparently for the fourth, fifth and sixth finishers in an Oxford v AAA’s meeting.   Gordon’s comments below in the interview with Doug Gillon are revealing.

Alan Duncan Gordon’s Scottish records have been recognised, and his role in the most famous race in history is at last secure.  On Thursday he will will be one of the privileged group to join Sir Roger Bannister at a private dinner in Oxford to mark the 50th anniversary of arguably the most iconic sporting moment of the twentieth century, the breaking of the four-minute barrier for the mile. It ranked with the first ascent of Everest in pushing back perceived limits of human endeavour, yet Bannister merely opened the floodgates.  His record lasted just 46 days, and at the 40th anniversary 964 athletes from 60 countries had broken it 4756 times, according to statistician Stan Greenberg.  Now the number is heading for double that. The race is steeped in myth, misinformation, and mystery. And the record possibly should not even have been ratified. Even the world governing body’s official history carried incorrect data until corrected some years ago by The Herald. This has led to the 72-year-old Gordon (below), then a little-known Scottish undergraduate in the field on the Iffley Road cinders, being retrospectively credited with the Scottish record for both the mile and 1500 metres. It was reported, not least by pacemaker Chris Brasher who later became a journalist and founder of the London Marathon, that he had finished fourth, and that Gordon had not finished at all. The reverse is more likely. The undisputed facts always were that Bannister had won in 3:59.4, Chris Chataway followed in 4:07.2, with Bill Hulatt third in 4:16. ”Chris Brasher not timed, GF Dole (USA), and Alan Gordon did not finish,” read the official International Amateur Athletics Federation account which was amended after we spoke with historian Richard Hymans. Even Bannister’s newly-updated edition of The First Four Minutes still fails to mention the names of half of the six-strong field that day. Brasher, subsequently Olympic steeplechase champion, paced the first two laps in 1.58.2. He later wrote that Dole and Gordon had failed to finish, prevented by the crowd. ”This is a myth. Complete nonsense,” said Gordon. ”Brasher, who was spent after his pace-making, actually finished last, and I was fourth, just behind Hulatt. The American, Dole, also finished. In fact, my time, 4:18, was the fastest I’d ever run. I had not broken 4:20 before.” The IAAF account still does not give Gordon’s time, nor Brasher’s. ”Brasher did well with his pace-making, but just jogged after surrendering the lead, and everyone else overtook him, though that is not how he portrayed it. ”I had a very acrimonious correspondence with the Observer newspaper over Brasher’s reports. Chataway and I both took him to task over his account of the race, and he admitted he got it wrong. I was surprised that a fellow Achilles man would do this to a chap, and have made such an error. ”Eventually I got a hand-written, but unsigned note. It demanded to know why I had gone for him.” Some years ago I discovered a contemporary 1954 report quoting Hulatt, detailing his battle up the straight with Gordon. I quoted it to Brasher before his death, and asked whether all six men had completed the race, a crucial question. He said: ”I should think they probably did, but it was bedlam when the race finished.” So it was, but had Brasher failed to finish, Bannister’s record should have been nullified. Brasher admitted to me that he could not move on the track at the end. Did he cross the line? Who knows. ”I’ve got a very good memory,” says Gordon. ”We were 100 yards behind Roger, and my last view of Brasher that night was of him fighting his way through the crowd, towards the finish. When his articles came out, I wondered what the hell he was playing at.” Pace-making was frowned on. Bannister had run the third fastest mile ever, 4:02, in 1953. Brasher had jogged then for two laps, while Bannister completed nearly three, paced by Australian Olympian Don MacMillan. Brasher then took off, to avoid being lapped, shouting encouragement over his shoulder at Bannister. What would otherwise have been a UK record was never ratified. The British Amateur Athletics Board believed the method employed was not, ”in the best interests of athletics”. Gordon now lives with his wife Liz, who is from Pencaitland, near Edinburgh, in an old house, set in three acres with a swimming pool, on the banks of the Rhone, near Aix les Bains in eastern France. ”I ran most days until a few years ago, when my knees gave out. Now I use a couple of poles if I’m walking, but I prefer the bike.” Gordon founded a market research company in Geneva in 1970. He rarely returns to the UK. ”My father and grandfather were Aberdeen graduates. My father was a doctor and my grandfather was a dominie, teaching classics in Turriff. I’ve still got a nephew in Scotland, Richard Gordon. He’s managing director of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society.” Gordon was unfortunate not to break the four-minute barrier. His best 1000m time of 2:22.1 suggests a sub-four mile should have been a formality. ”Yes, I should have done it,” he said. ”Graham Everett [eight-times Scottish mile champion from 1955-63] took me through three laps in 3:00 in the AAA match v Oxford. I just wasn’t in form, and felt I’d let him down. I should also have beaten it at the Empire Games in Cardiff (1958), but made a mess of it. I’d to take unpaid leave for that. My company asked me when I was going to stop this running nonsense, and settle down. ”I was doing a full day’s work, and then taking the Tube to the White City. I remember falling asleep in the changing room before one international. ”I’m totally cynical. I watch the sport now and wonder who is not on drugs. ” The last time the world best for the mile was broken in Britain was by Derek Ibbotson, in 1957 (3:57.2) at the White City. Gordon finished sixth in 4:03.4. This surpassed the Scottish record of the day. Because it was recorded in the official IAAF history, Scottish statisticians retrospectively ratified it after The Herald brought it to their notice. His 1500m best of 3:45.4 (for Britain in Warsaw) has also now been recognised as a Scottish record. At one time Gordon had competed in more sub four-minute miles than any other athlete. He was also one of the first members of the International Athletes Club which revolted against officials. ”They took money as journalists while we didn’t get a centime. After that, the shoe company, adidas, gave us two pairs of spikes a year, but my training was always just 40 minutes, in my lunchtime.”

Support for his comments about the differing standards of support mentioned above is found in “3:59.4: The Quest For The Four-Minute Mile” by Bob Phillips on page 185 where he says: “Hewson was an elegant stylist who had run a 4:05 mile the previous year…. his everyday title was 22829748 Bombardier Hewson BS as he had extended his National Service in the army to three years.   For those who suffered the mixed blessing of two years’ enforced duty in uniform, this might have seemed like a peculiarly masochistic decision for Hewson to have made.   In the circumstances though it was hardly surprising, considering that he was based at Woolwich where the supportive commanding officer allowed him to live at home, less than half an hour’s car drive away.   Such patronage of outstanding sportsmen in the armed service and in business was not unusual in the 1950’s and is often overlooked when the amenities in Britain are unfavourably compared to those in the USA and Europe.   Hewson’s lifestyle, with every opportunity for training and competition, could have been little different to that of Iharos and his fellow-Hungarians.”

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