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