Brian Whittle

Background

Brian was born in 1964 growing up in the Scottish town of Troon. His father was a sprinter and ran until his late teens but other than that his family background was not overly sporty.

Education

He finished 1st in his heat, 3rd in the quarter final but did not progress past the semi-final. He ran 45.5 on the first leg of the 4 × 400 m relay (team - Whittle, Kriss Akabusi, Todd Bennett, Philosophy Brown) but for once the Great Britain team performed below par and finished fifth in the Olympic final.

Career

He also competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. He is famed for running the third leg of the 1986 European Championships final with one shoe. As a boy, Brian tried a wide range of sports, enjoying many of them.

He has maintained that his talent lay in his ability to train.

At club level Whittle ran for both Ayr Seaforth and Enfield & Haringey. His best performance in the 400 m was 45.22 at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.

He ran the third leg of the race with one shoe running a personal best leg time of 45.09. As he took the baton from Kriss Akabusi, Akabusi stood on his shoe and it ripped off, leaving him to run the race without lieutenant

He also ran in the heats of the 4 × 400 m relay at the 1990 European Championships in Split.

He moved to 800 m after the 1988 Olympic Games and ran in the final of the 1990 Commonwealth Games 800 m in New Zealand, where he finished fourth ahead of Sebastian Coe and Tom McKean. He ran 44.7 seconds for his legal He also ran the 800 m in the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo.

His personal best for 800 m was 1:45.47 in 1990.

Other notable performances included running 45.98 at the 1988 European Indoor Championships in Budapest winning the silver medal - a feat he repeated in 1989. In the 2015 General Election, he stood in the constituency of Kilmarnock and Loudoun for the Scottish Conservative Party, however was unsuccessful.

Achievements

• Perhaps his greatest achievement, and what he is best remembered for, is the manner he which he helped Great Britain win the Gold medal in the 4 x 400 metres relay at the 1986 European Championships in Stuttgart. Whittle also won a relay gold medal in the 1994 Helsinki European Championship 4x400 metres relay team alongside David McKenzie, Roger Black and Du"aine Ladejo. Whittle ran the last leg of the Commonwealth Games 4 × 400 m in 1990 anchoring the Scottish Team to a silver medal. He ran the last leg of the winning 4 × 400 m relay in the Europa Cup in 1989 (Gateshead) helping Great Britain to win the team title for the first time. Whittle was an international schools" high jumper and also competed in the 200m at the 1986 Commonwealth Games making the semi-final. He coaches his middle daughter Rachel (born in 1995), who has 12 national athletics titles (60m, 100m, 60m Hurdles, high jump, multi-events) to her name and competed at the 2009 International Children"s Games in Athens at which she won a bronze in the high jump, silver in the 100 metres and gold in the relay.

Membership

The other members of the team were Roger Black and Derek Redmond, all of whom ran Personal Best times on the day.