Byline: Tom McCook
Forty years ago tomorrow, one of the Midlands' finest athletes produced his best-ever performance. Sparkhill Harrier Maurice Herriott - who won ten AAA's 3,000metres steeplechase titles - came within metres of claiming gold at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
The son of a miner, Herriott was born in Great Wyrley in Staffordshire five weeks after the start of the Second World War and his family moved to Birmingham when Maurice was two years old.
Just before he left Moseley Secondary Modern at 15 to begin a career with BSA, he was asked by Tom Heeley to join Sparkhill Harriers.
'I played football for Birmingham Boys but I gave it up for athletics, which was one of the best decisions of my life,' he explained.
'Tom suggested that I took up steeplechasing and taught me to hurdle. I owe a great deal to him. I ran in the Birmingham Cross Country League before progressing to the Warwickshire team which had runners of the calibre of Basil Heatley and Brian Kilby. I was on my feet all day on the assembly line but I used to train every lunch hour.' He became the first 18-yearold steeplechaser in the world to break nine minutes for the distance and represented Great Britain for the first time in Russia. He broke the British record six times, including twice at the Olympic Games, and was, for half-an-hour, the Olympic record holder.
Appearing in 12 consecutive internationals, Herriott won ten times and was chosen as Great Britain team captain. Tomorrow will be the 40th anniversary of his greatest race - at the Tokyo Olympics when Gaston Roelants, the world-record holder, proved that front-running in an Olympic steeplechase final could produce a winning performance. By ensuring a fast pace in the middle kilometre, the Belgian had run away from the ten-man field except the Frenchman, Guy Texereau.
Roelants led by about half the length of the finishing straight at the bell. Four runners, three from Europe and the American George Young, looked set to contest the minor places.
Entering the back straight for the last time, Herriott broke clear and began to close down the leader. The smooth-hurdling Midlander clawed back 40 yards on the last lap to get within ten metres of the gold medal, which went to Roelants in a new Olympic record time of 8:30:08. Herriott set another UK record of 8:32:04 and won silver.
Herriott now lives on the Isle of Man but met many of his fellow Olympians at the AAA Championships in Birmingham last July. 'I had a most enjoyable career and enjoy meeting up with old friends to reminisce. I still get a tingle from watching athletics but today for the top performers, it is not a sport - it is a living,' he said.
CAPTION(S):
Maurice Herriott (left) in action over the steeplechase course and (right) showing some young fans his Olympic silver medal from the Tokyo Games
