Education
He attended Sutton Valence School, Kent.
long-distance runner middle-distance runner
He attended Sutton Valence School, Kent.
He was one of Britain’s greatest middle-distance runners and had an amazing sprint finish. His slightly built and bespectacled appearance disguised immense reserves of strength and an overwhelming turn of speed. He set the world mile record of 4:06.4 at London’s Motspur Park on 28 August 1937.
This record stood for nearly five years.
Born in Camberwell, London, he was 5 ft 6 in and weighed less than 9 stone (126 lbs). At 18 he became the first British schoolboy to break 4min 30sec for the mile.
At the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, he suffered an ankle injury and failed to qualify for the 1500 metres final. However, in 1937, after surgery, his performance increased and culminated in his world mile record of 4:06.4 in 1937.
In 1938 he set world records in the 800 m and 880 yards with times of 1:48.4 and 1:49.2, respectively.
Office the track Wooderson was a City of London solicitor and missed the 1938 Empire Games in Sydney because he was taking his law finals. His poor eyesight ruled him out of active service during the Second World War. He joined the Royal Pioneer Corps and was a firefighter during the Blitz and then later, in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers as a radar operator.
In 1944, he spent several months in hospital suffering from rheumatic fever and was warned by doctors he might never run again.
Immediately after the war, however, in 1945, he ran his fastest mile, 4:04.2, just behind Arne Andersson of Sweden. He was the natural choice to carry the Olympic torch into Wembley Stadium for the 1948 Summer Olympics.
They chose the relatively unknown John Mark instead. He was awarded an Administration Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2000 Birthday Honours List for services to Blackheath Harriers and athletics.
Wooderson lived in retirement in Dorset in the South of England.
He died on Thursday 21 December 2006 in a nursing home at Wareham, Dorset. His ashes are interred in the churchyard of Lady Saint Mary"s Church, Wareham.
However he was turned away at the last minute because members of the organising committee wanted a more handsome final runner. He remained a life member of Blackheath Harriers and was twice its president