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Athletics world mourns legendary supermiler who has passed away aged 92
IN his heyday, Sydney Wooderson was arguably Britain’s most charismatic athlete. Undoubtedly he was one of the most successful, too.
The bespectacled Blackheath Harrier did not look very athletic, but he set world records for 880 yards and the mile and won a European title at 1500m in 1938 and another over 5000m in 1946.
Such was his range, he even won the National cross-country title in 1948.
So it marked the end of an era when he died on Thursday this week aged 92 in a Dorest nursing home.
The slightly built solicitor set the world record at 4:06.4 in a handicap club event in Motspur Park, Surrey, in 1937. He may have looked frail, but his body possessed huge reserves of strength, stamina and speed.
Indeed, his performances inspired those of Roger Bannister and future generations. Sebastian Coe is also known to be a huge admirer of his accomplishments.
An ankle injury prevented him from doing himself justice at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, and had World War II not intervened Wooderson would have won the 1500m at the Games planned for 1940.
A lifelong member and twice president of Blackheath Harriers, Wooderson was awarded the MBE in 2000 after a long campaign by the late Chris Brasher and the former Sports Minister Kate Hoey.
* A more definitive tribute to Sydney Wooderson’s life will appear in the Jan 4 issue of Athletics Weekly.
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