ERIC SHRILEY, the 3000m Olympic steeplechase finalist in Melbourne in 1956 and AAA’s Champion in 1956 & 58 said to me quite recently “Maurice Herriott was our finest steeplechaser we ever had and, that I should try and talk with him!”
A steeplechaser not quite making the Olympic 3000m steeplechase in 1964 was Tim Johnston, an international cross-country and marathon man. He made some good points about the steeplechase as an event, when I spoke to him regarding the 1960’s.“Roelants and Herriott were the best. Roelants had that running ability and Herriott had incredible hurdling ability.’ He added “I think steeplechasers have been helped more than anything by the synthetic track. Some of those water jumps that we had to go over were like places where cows go down to drink in the river, and that must have made about 2 seconds a lap or more difference.”
Now for some of Maurice Herriott’s successes as a steeplechaser
1958 AAA’s Junior 1500 steeplechase in 4:20.7. Th year before he won AAA’s Junior Mile steeplechase in in 4:50.5
He won the Senior AAA’s 3000 steeplechase in 1959 and 1961 to 1967 inclusive.
On August the 5th 1963 he ran 8:40.3 for a UK record taking Chris Brasher’s UK record off the books of 8:41.2, set on Nov 29th 1956 in Melbourne. Maurice also took the UK record down to 8:32.4 on October 17th 1964, as his final UK record.
In the British Empire & Commonwealth Games at Perth in Australia in 1962, the result was 1.Trevor Vincent (Australia) 8:43.4 2nd Maurice Herriott (England) 8:45.0; 3 Ron Blackney (Australia) 9:0.6. It was that year in 1962 that Maurice, the Sparkhill Harrier, won the AAA’s race in a Championship record of 8:43.8 at the White City, with Dave Chapman of Woodford Green 2nd in 8:46 and 3rd was Ernie Pomfret of the Army in 8:54. The reason I mention those two names is, they quite often joined Maurice in International matches.
1964 Tokyo Olympic Final
Gaston Roelants of Belgium told me in Tokyo that, as he had been having trouble with his leg, he thought it best to go into the lead straight away in the final, so he could see the obstacles in front of him clearly and, would therefore be less likely to make a mistake also, it was noted at that time he had won 27 steeplechases since 1961.
In Tokyo Roelants surged in the 5th lap and, by 2000 was 12m ahead, with Maurice Herriott running with Frenchman Guy Texerau in 7th place. In the final lap Roelants was tiring a bit and 10m ahead of the fast finishing in 2nd placed Maurice Herriott, who gained the valuable silver medal.
Tokyo 17th of October,1 Gaston Roelants (Belgium) 8:30.80’ 2 Maurice Herriott (GB) 8:32.4. 3rd, Ivan Belyayev (URS)(UKR) 8:33.8.
It was in 1966 that he came 4th in the BE & Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica in 8:33.2. The winner was Peter Walsh of New Zealand who ran 8:29.6.
Also, Maurice ran in the European Games in Budapest in 1966 but apparently it was a very rough house race, and, he got buffeted about by a couple of athletes.
Despite that fact he did finish 8th in 8:37. The winner was Viktor Kudinskiy (SU) in 8:28.6.
The European Cup was at Stuttgart on 11th of September 1968
The first 4 were Kudinski (SU) 8:41.0; 2 Herriott (UK) 8:42.3. 3,Szklarczyk( Pol) 8:42.8; 4 Texerau (France) 8:47.2.
In Mexico at the Olympics of 1968 Tim Johnston (8th in the Marathon) told me out there at the Mexico Olympic training track, ‘It was a ’B’ waste of time running any distance race at such a high altitude as Mexico’ John Jackson the 1969 AAA’s Steeplechase Champion also spoke to me about that after being eliminated in 9th of 13 in 9:11.4 in his steeplechase heat and, of course. that same thing
applied to Maurice without a doubt. Maurice Herriott was 7th of 14 in his heat in 9:33 not qualifying, suffering from the effects of altitude very badly that it made him ill (Oxygen deprivation). Even Gaston Roelants was only 7th in the Final in 8:59.4. Amazing for such a great steeplechaser!
· That really ended Maurice international career that had been so impressive in the 1960’s.
· He won the first ever Sports Writers award in 1964 and became a Lifelong hon member of Sparkhill of Sparkhill AC.
At the very start of his days as an athlete, It was after he finished a Trial race for the County, when he was 13 year old at at Moseley Secondary Modern in Birmingham, that he turned to athletics as his sport to do and, the Sparkhill AC club coach Tom Tom Heeley, thought he should not train on the roads but do quality work on grass. ,
,All his life one can say Maurice was ‘A Grafter’ like his Father, who was a miner. Maurice used to shift heavy loads of groceries as a youg lad. He left school at 15 and worked for BSA on a production line. He loved his athletics and in the 1960’s would train three times a day and still do a’45 hour week job. When he had finished in the early 70’s with athletics, with all the rewards he was pleased to receive,he went to live with his wife Merina in the Isle Man where, for 14 years, he crewed on a deep sea trawler and eventually became a Manager of a re-cycling plant. So he always kept busy..