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5th Apr, 2026, Alastair Aitken

Two 0f The Greatest Field Eventers of All Time

JANIS LUSIS (Born Jelga, Latvia, USSR. 19th of May 1939) 1,80/5’11/90kg. JAVELIN His achievements included Olympics 1964: Bronze in Tokyo, 1968 Gold in Mexico City, 1972 Silver in Munich. European...
29th Mar, 2026, Alastair Aitken

ALIMA ATHLETE TO MIDDLESEX PRESIDENT

Alima Diabate, who was once a handy Highgate Harriers club 100/200m runner and now sometimes fills in with some field events in the Southern league, as well as being a Highgate Harriers coach, was...
6th Mar, 2026, Alastair Aitken

THREE DOUBLE OLYMPIC GOLD 400m Hurdlers

GLEN DAVIS (USA) won IN Helsinki in 1952 & in Melbourne in 1956; EDWIN MOSES (USA) 1976 in Montreal & 1984 in Los Angeles; ANGELO TAYLOR (USA) 2000 Sydney & 2008 in Beijing; FELIX SANCHEZ (Dominica)...
12th Feb, 2026, Alastair Aitken

EAMONN MARTIN

EAMONN MARTIN Born 9 th October 1958 in Basildon. Height 1metre 82, 68Kgs. By Alastair Aitken When we met, Eamonn worked as a components engineer at Ford Motors. Regarding his ongoing interest in...
16th Jan, 2026, Alastair Aitken

A Remarkable Man

Derek Wood (JD Wood) died at 95, peacefully at home in Enfield his wife Jacqui related. Derek ran at the White City over 3 and 6 miles back in the 1950's, and worked his way up to being a Bank Manager...
26th Dec, 2025, Alastair Aitken

TWO OF THE BEST 200M RUNNERS OF ALL TIME

Usain Bolt, the World record holder of the 100 & 200m and, gold medallist at three Olympics & Don Quarrie, an Olympic 200m gold medallist in 1976, 2nd in the Olympic 100m Final and, six times he...
26th Dec, 2025, Alastair Aitken

Jim Ryun

Jim Ryun [Born 29th April 1947 in Wichita, Kansas, USA. Racing Weight 76kgs, 6ft 2inches tall. This gave him a sleek appearance, with an impressive stride. To my mind, he was the ‘the greatest miler’...
3rd Dec, 2025, Alastair Aitken

ROGER KINGDOM

Only two athletes have won the Olympic 110m High Hurdles title in Olympic history and, they were Lee Calhoun (USA) in 1956 & 1960 and Roger Kingdom in 1984 & 1988. However, an interesting comment was...
7th Nov, 2025, Alastair Aitken

DAVID HEMERY

To my mind David Hemery, like the ‘late’ Ron Clarke, was a perfect Genteman of the track. It was an amazing breakthrough when David Hemery ran his World record 400m Hurdles of 48.1 in Mexico City, on...
5th Oct, 2025, Alastair Aitken

RICHARD DAWSON

Richard Dawson, a popular Highgate Harrier, died recently. Richard, who was only in his 50's, was a good 400/800 runner on the team and ran 1:52.14 for 800 in 1995 at Crystal Palace. Greg Smith, a 400...
10th Sep, 2025, Alastair Aitken

TOMMIE SMITH

I met Tommie Smith at Lancaster Gate, after he had beaten Commonwealth Champion Wendell Mottley of Trinidad, over 400m in 1966, at the White City Stadium. (45.3 to 45.7) Smith did not like the...
15th Jun, 2025, Alastair Aitken

BEN NOAD

Ben Noad (Born May 6th 1976) is a supreme organiser and Athletics Consultant, plus being a good coach. He was the man behind the successful Festival track races at Wimbledon Park stadium in the Summer...
28th May, 2025, Alastair Aitken

Tribute to Tim Johnston

As a member of the RRC, having run 21 marathons (the first 19 in London) and interviewed thousands of athletes over many years, I felt that one deserved a strong mention in the RRC magazine— Timothy...
6th Jan, 2025, Alastair Aitken

John Anderson

(Born in Glasgow 28/11/31 died on 27/7/24) Very few coaches ever could point to having a more varied career than John Anderson. Over his 92 years of life, he was the Chief Referee for the Television...
20th Dec, 2024, Alastair Aitken

Alan Simpson ‘Rotherham-Super Miler’

Born 22 of May 1940 & Died 25th of October 2024 In a way one could think of Alan Simpson, as a ’Nearly Man’, not having achieved a gold medal in the major outdoor Championships’ but, looking back and...
12th Oct, 2024, Alastair Aitken

HIGHGATE AWARDS PRESENTED

Amongst the Highgate Harriers club awards presented at the club's AGM, on the 7th of October, 2034 were - Priority Award for club senior Athlete of the year Alex Lepretre and, the Junior Jewell award...
12th Sep, 2024, Alastair Aitken

Hassiba Boulmerka

Premier International athletics in itself has a certain amount of pressure put on the athlete, to perform very well in championships, but for Hassiba Boulmerka (Born 18-Jul-1968, Constantine, Algeria)...
9th Jul, 2024, Alastair Aitken

‘The Four Minute Mile’

The late, Mel Watman, to my mind the ‘Greatest’ athletics writer and previous. Editor of the old Athletics Weekly, that was not a monthly, said regarding the mile as an event. “No other athletic event...
4th Jun, 2024, Alastair Aitken

Mike McLeod

Michael James McLeod, born 25th of January 1952, a friendly, unassuming character, who caused a ‘Great Star’ in the North East of England with his winning road races. I think of him as the ‘Elswick...
4th Jun, 2024, Alastair Aitken

Noureddine Morcel

If one had to point to who were the ‘Greatest’ competitors over 1500/One mile. in history, one could not possibly leave out the Algerian Noureddine Morceli. He was unbeaten in 15/1500/Mile races in...
26th May, 2024, Alastair Aitken

Middlesex T & F Report For the Association

I thought it would be good to begin this report by talking to one of the officials Richard Priestley, who was President of the Middlesex Athletics Association in 2015/16 and has been Middlesex Team...
26th May, 2024, Alastair Aitken

HARRY TEMPAN THE RENAISANCE RUNNER DIES AT 99

(Harry Tempan was born 20/5/25 and died on the 27th of April 2024) He was not a name that was known, amongst those who were in the public eye but, someone who loved his running till he was 94 and...
23rd May, 2024, Alastair Aitken

NIGHT OF THE 10,000M PB’s Short accounts from the night

Sawam Barwal from India, who works in the Indian Army and is 26 years old, was 3rd in the Asian half-marathon Championships in 1:04.30. In the ’C’ race at Parliament Hill track, he looked very smooth...
26th Jan, 2024, Alastair Aitken

LONDON INTERNATIONAL ABBIE DONNELLY & INNES FITZGERALD

British Cross Challenge (World Trial) – ABBIE DONNELLY of Luke Welligton AC was The Women-s10k winner at PHF. Lead coach Rod Lewis but helped by ex-veteran Champion Bill Foster, when at Loughborough...