Some Athletes find that their careers are like a shooting star. They blaze across the night sky and attract our attention, but just as quickly as they appeared they are gone.
This may not be true of Peter Radford in the United Kingdom but it would be a fair assessment globally and even possibly within the commonwealth.
Peter Radford was born in Walsall, England on 20th September 1939. As a child he was not well at all, and at the age of five was diagnosed as having a serious kidney compliant. As a result he spent much of his childhood in bed or in a wheelchair.
Gradually his condition improved, and while contact sports were deemed risky Radford was able to take up athletics at the age of 12, not only did he enjoy the sprints but he showed a great deal of promise and joined the Birchfield Harriers.
By the age of 15 he was All England Schools 100yds Champion. At the age of 18 he was selected for the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff in 1958. He came fourth in the 100 yards, and was a semi-finalist in the 220 yards. The 100yds event being his first ever international race! He would take home a gold medal when England won the 4×110 yards relay.
At the European Championships he finished third in the 100m final, and in a match against France in Paris set a UK and world junior record of 10.29 for 100m and 20.8 for 200m. While still only 18 years old he held British Records in all indoor and outdoor sprint distances up to and including 300 yards.
In 1956 Aldersley Athletics track opened in Wolverhampton and this was where Peter trained.
He continued to break records and in 1960 broke Harry Hutchens’ 300 yards record, set in 1884, with 29.9.
It was at the Aldersley Athletics track on the 28th May 1960 that he took part in the Staffordshire Championships as part of his preparation building towards the Rome Olympic Games. He flew around the cinder track and broke the world record for 220 yards with a time of 20.5 seconds; The time and record were also accepted for the 200 metre distance.To give the event some context Peter Radford was the the first Briton to set a world record in the sprints for 46 years!
He had become the first British-born sprinter to set a world record since Willie Applegarth in 1914. What was equally impressive was earlier that day he equalled the European record for the 100yds with a time of 9.4 seconds and was only a tenth outside the world record in his heat. He had then run in the final an hour before his world record breaking 220yd sprint.
HIs form was excellent heading into the Rome Olympics and he was a serious contender for the 100yds Gold medal. When the gun sounded he was the last away, but caught the field over the final 30-40 yards and was still gaining on his opponents at the finish. He finished third and had to settle for bronze but had done so in a UK record equalling 10.3. Radford has said looking back on that race, that it was a “race that I not only could, but should have won.” What a double that would have been after his health problems as a child, as the winner of the women’s 100yds Wilma Rudolph had also suffered illness as a child! (Inspirational Athletes – 1)
He would claim another Bronze medal in Rome when he combined with fellow British athletes David Jones, David Segal and Nick Whitehead in the 4×100 metres relay. The USA finished first in that race but were disqualified for a baton exchange outside the permitted zone. This elevated Great Britain to third. However analysis of footage since the Games has shown that Radford’s baton pass to David Jones at the first changeover was also outside the permitted zone. Great Britain were incredibly fortunate that they too were not disqualified.
In 1962 Radford won a second British Empire and Commonwealth Games Gold medal in Perth, Western Australia as a member of the England 4×110 yards relay team.
In 1963 the two nations involved in the controversial Rome olympic relay met at White City in England and Radford alongside Ron Jones, David Jones and Berwyn Jones, not only defeated the USA but created a new world 4×110 yards relay record of 40.0.
He represented Britain as a quarter-finalist at both 100m and 200m at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, but a recurring knee problem forced him into retirement after the Games.
For at least another two decades, he was the most successful sprinter in Birchfield Harriers’ history. In 2013 over 50 years after he set the World Record he was honoured with a mural in the foyer at the Aldersley Leisure Village, which today contains the stadium where he achieved his record.
After retiring he moved to the USA and Canada for a while before becoming very involved with the sport that had given him a new lease on life after almost six years in a wheelchair.
He served as Vice- Chairman, Chairman and Executive Chairman of the national governing body, the British Athletics Federation, from 1992 to 1997. He became a very strong campaigner against performance enhancing drugs, and in 1995 he addressed the IAAF Congress to oppose the IAAF Council’s lenient position on sanctions. He argued for the need for serious doping offenders to be banned for life. He also chaired the Council of Europe’s International Anti-Doping Convention Group for four years.
Radford was also the Professor of Sports Sciences at the University of Glasgow and Brunel University. He is a respected athletics historian, and in 2001 had published the biography of the 19th-century Scottish athlete Robert Barclay Allardice, entitled “The celebrated Captain Barclay: sport, money and fame in Regency Britain.”
In 2016 he was inducted into the Uk Athletics Hall of Fame.
He is acknowledged as being the go-to expert on 18th century athletics, and has also held the position of President of the National Union of Track Statisticians (NUTS).
When you read so much about the 10,000 hours required to be a successful sportsman and you think not only how late Peter Radford was able to commence his athletic career and the results he achieved once he started he is a truly remarkable athlete. He was certainly in a hurry on the track and it appeared that he was hellbent on making up for lost time when he was finally able to compete. .
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