UKC

One of my great childhood heroes, and a climber too;
"Former British athlete Sir Chris Chataway has died at the age of 82.
Chataway, who broke the 5,000m world record in 1954, is more famously remembered as the man who helped pace Sir Roger Bannister to breaking the four-minute mile barrier the same year.
He was named the first-ever BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1954.
Chataway, who also won the Commonwealth Games three miles title in 1954, was knighted for his services to the aviation industry in 1995.
Bannister led the tributes to "one of my best friends" who had been suffering from cancer for two-and-a-half years.
"He was gallant to the end," Bannister told BBC Sport. "Our friendship dated back over more than half a century.
"We laughed, ran and commiserated together. People will always remember him for the great runner he was but it shouldn't be forgotten that he had an extremely distinguished career off the track.
"My family and I will miss him sorely and our thoughts go out to his family and many friends who were so fond of him."
Chataway's son Mark paid tribute to the resolve shown by his father in later life.
"We were struck by his amazing qualities of humility and strength, especially in these last few years," the 53-year-old said.
He also described his father as "a very compassionate and wise man" and said his father's passion for running remained with him in his advanced years.
"He ran with a couple of my brothers in the Great North Run about three years ago, doing it in a very respectable time."
He also completed the half marathon course of just over 13 miles in one hour, 38 minutes, 50 seconds at the age of 75 in 2006.

In reply to Al Evans:

One always had the impression he was a very decent man, who did so much with his life.

"He was gallant to the end..."

Mick

In reply to Al Evans:

1 hour 39 for a 1/2 marathon is respectable for a man in his 20's let alone a 75 year old, that's 7.5 min miles.
Chris Brasher who also paced Roger Bannister designed Brasher Boots but I didn't know Chris Chataway had any involvement in the outdoors, what climbing did he do?
I'm a little surprised at you admiration for him though given he was a Conservative MP!

In reply to pec:

When I was a fell runner, I think he lived in Burnsall, anyhow he was the local hero and had held the record for The Burnsall Fell Race for many years.
Anyhow one of my proudest moments in running was to beat CC's record in that race. Fact that I finished about 15th and was beaten by the first woman (Carol something or other, she always beat me in the short ones) was irrelevant, I could never get close to his 5,000mts time, or even his mile time.
The Climbing bit comes from Chris Brasher and John Disley two of the other pacemakers on the RB 4 min mile, both of whom were in the CC at the time, John wrote an instruction book on rock climbing which was a bible when I started out. I think they even tried to get Roger out climbing but I don't know if they managed it, but I'm fairly sure CC did a bit of climbing.

In reply to pec:

I also have a high regard for Sebastian Coe, politics does not downplay their acheivements.

In reply to Al Evans:

Sad news he was one of my childhood heroes.

In reply to pec:

Some words on Cameron McNeish's blog site here: http://cameronmcneish.wordpress.com/

As told to Cameron by Chris Brasher.

Phil

In reply to BlownAway:

So I was right, he had climbed, also interesting that he supported Cameron on 'The Great Outdoors'

In reply to Al Evans:

I met Chris on several occasions in the mid to late 90's as we were in the same running club. For such a remarkable man he was very pleasant and very quiet, the exact opposite of the ebulliant Brasher. Although he was obviously getting on I'm still sad to hear this

In reply to BlownAway:

I thought they'd gone to Scotland to get away from it all and had a vague notion they'd climbed Clachaig Gully. Didn't know they'd been benighted though! Just getting up to Glencoe with three of them crammed into a two-person sports car must have been challenging enough.

And then to come back and break the huge psychological (and physical) four minute mile barrier.

Proper hard!

Mick