EAMONN MARTIN Born 9th 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 athletics, he has an abundance of enthusiasm for the sport. In 2024, he was the man behind the introduction of holding an international cross country at Parliament Hill, which he described as ‘the home of cross country running’. Recently he has been a UK team manager. The late Mel Batty, a character in the sport, who was a world class athlete, coached Eamonn and in turn, Eamonn took up the mantle of coaching Adam Hickey, the 2018 National Cross Country Champion. Coming straight to the point about his personal achievements, Eamonn felt his best result was at the Bislet Stadium, Oslo in 1988, when winning the 10,000metres, in 27:23:06, which was a British record and he finished ahead of two World class runners, Salvatore Antibo (Italy) and Arturo Barrios (Mexico).
When did he first achieve running success? ‘I won the English Schools cross country title, in 1973. That was my first full year of running and that convinced me that I should pack up football, because I was dabbling with football as well as running. I won the English Schools cross country as a footballer, there is no doubt about that’. Tim Hutchings was second to Eamonn in the English schools and home international 1500, back in 1977.
Eamonn’s initial success over the Road and Country were followed by a handful of PBs in 1982, something that only twelve months before, he could hardly have dreamed of. In 1982 he had improved his 1500metre time, firstly to 3:45:00, then soon after, he sliced a chunk off, with a time of 3:41:12. This was when winning for the Southern Counties v Combined Services, Achilles and British Police at Crystal Palace on the 5th August, ten days after he had run 13:47:65, in his senior debut over 5000metres, in the AAA Championships, improving his previous four year best of 14:48:00. Earlier came some credible performances on the country. He had represented England in Europe and won several races on the road. He won a 10K in Oslo, beating Oyvind Dahl of Norway and some seasoned UK competitors.
Eamonn Martin won the National Cross Country in 1984, when Roger Hackney gave him a good race. He won the National again in 1992, when he was the favourite and Billy Dee was second. His coach Mel Batty won twice, in 1964 and 1965.
Eamonn Martin’s heroes were Dave Bedford and Jim Ryun. ‘When Jim Ryun fell over in the Olympic 1500, I was really quite upset about it’ he said.
Despite having two Achilles tendon operations and not being placed in the Olympics, World Championships or European, he achieved a lot. He won the Commonwealth Games 10000metres in Auckland, New Zealand on the 27th January 1990, in 28:08:57. He won the AAA’s Championships 5000 in1988 and 1990 and the AAA’s 10000metres in 1989 and 1992.
Eamonn Martin showed his great ability as a road relay runner, as the fastest, on the long stage in the National at Sutton Coldfield twice.
He went up distance to do his first Marathon, in the London of 1993 and won in a sprint finish, 2:10:50, from Isidr Rico of Mexico, who did 2:10:53. Eamonn’s second fastest Marathon was in Chicago, when he ran 2:11:18 on the 15th October1995.
Some PB’s of Eamonn:
1500 3:40:54
Mile 3:59:30
3000 7:40:94
2 Mile 8:18:98
5000 13:17:84
Half Marathon 62:52
As a V40
5000 14:38:68
5Miles 23:35:00
Marathon 2:17:22