Page 4 - BBHAC Winter 2016-17 Gazette

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Hemery called him and got Having won the Tennessee later and another 1.47 relay eg
him interested in attending state 800m twice before he the following day. His 400m
Boston University but he ended won it again for the third PB had come down noticeably
up going to Memphis State consecutive year and after to 48.22 and most weeks he ran
University in January 1978 on a running an indoor PB he made on the 4x400m relay team and
scholarship instead. the NCAA Champs indoors even ran a 4.10 indoor mile and
In that year he clipped his best finals in Detroit. His tactics 4.06.4 outdoor mile that year.
800m time a little further but had now changed from his His was a career which
the races were mainly local on early years and after winning promised much and even the
the college circuit in Tennessee, his heat with a front run he opportunity to compete at the
Florida, Alabama, Kentucky made the final and finished highest levels of all although
and Mississippi. In 1979 he 2nd behind reigning champion in a highly competitive era the
ran well on the college circuit Evans White having led until ultimate accolade of Olympic
and further lowered his PB to
1.48.53 and won the conference the final stride. In doing so he selection did not materialise due
meeting which is what his beat Agberto Guimaraes who to the presence of Ovett, Coe,
scholarship was based on. Then went onto finish 4th in the and many others.
in 1980 with the Olympics in Moscow Olympic 800m behind However he had attained some
Moscow due that summer he Ovett and Coe. Long term this recognition at international level
ran well that winter on the gained him an All American and won two England Schools
country with a large contingent honour when in 1998 the 800m and had a 2nd place
of UK athletes at Memphis like University of Memphis inducted too, schoolboy international,
Steve Anders, Geoff Cooper, him onto their Hall of Fame. senior international and 4 great
Tony Blackwell, Gerry Helme, His Memphis University 800m years studying, running and
Jim Wise and Garry Nurse. record still stands after 37 years! travelling in the US. He raced
Back in the UK at domestic These performances pushed against the likes of Steve Ovett,
level he did run again for the him into a position of possible John Walker, Mike Boit, Harald
national league team but mainly contention for international Schmid, Nick Rose and Garry
as a 400m and relay runner. He selection and he ran in Cook and his contemporaries
had competed for the Club in Knoxville, in an open race from the school days included
the Southern League from 1975 with US Olympic athletes GB legends like Daley
and had helped them get back lowering his PB to 1.47.01 and Thomson, Eamonn Martin
into the national league. “One more importantly inside the (who would go on to be the
time I flew back from the US for the Olympic qualifying standard. Club guest at the annual dinner
Club to compete in a qualifying match That particular day at the in 2017), Tim Hutchings and
which we won to get promotion to the Dogwood Relays he also ran Olympic bronze medallist Gary
national league”. a 1.49 800m only 45 minutes Oakes. In the summer before he
went to the US despite suffering
from glandular fever he did
represent GB against France
and ran a pb at that time of
1.49.8 as an 18 year old, and a
slight improvement from the
previous year.
Sadly his athletic career was
curtailed due to injury sustained
whilst playing rugby for
Beccehamians RFC soon after
returning from the US having
earned a BA in Geography in
December 1981. In one ill fated
match he broke his ankle and
leg. “After almost 7 weeks in hospital
they said I would never walk without
a limp after all the pins and plates
“In 1979 Nick ran well on the U.S college circuit including this race over were put in, and a punctured lung did
400m in Memphis.