Eight-time AAA champion and the primary ever British Athletics Writers‘ Affiliation athlete of the yr has died.
Maurice Herriott, who received Olympic silver within the 3000m steeplechase on the 1964 Tokyo Video games and stays probably the most adorned British steeplechasers of all time, died on Monday (Aug 24) on the age of 86 following a brief sickness and surrounded by his household.
Herriott’s Olympic medal, in a lifetime better of 8:32.4, got here on the peak of a profession constructed round eight AAA titles between 1959 and 1967 – a haul that stands unmatched to this present day – achieved whereas he labored a 45-hour week as a bike fitter on the Birmingham Small Arms manufacturing facility, becoming three coaching classes a day round his shifts.
He was launched to the steeplechase as a 17-year-old by his coach, Tom Heeley, a former marathon runner, within the yr after Chris Brasher’s sudden Olympic steeplechase title in 1956. Herriott received the AAA junior mile steeplechase title in 1957 and set an unofficial world junior document for 3000m steeplechase the next yr. He turned senior AAA champion for the primary time in 1959, aged 19, and earned his first Nice Britain call-up quickly after.
A primary Olympics eluded him in 1960, however by 1961 he was ranked second on the UK all-time record behind Brasher after clocking 8:42.0. Harm compelled him to withdraw from the 1962 European Championships closing, although he made amends that November with silver on the Commonwealth Video games in Perth.
The breakthrough got here in 1963: he broke the British document 4 instances, completed the yr ranked fifth on the earth and was named the primary ever British Athletics Writers‘ Affiliation Athlete of the 12 months, alongside sprinter Dorothy Hyman – an honour he would win once more in 1965.
By 1964 he arrived in Tokyo a real medal prospect. Within the Olympic closing, Herriott recovered from a big deficit on Belgium’s Gaston Roelants – the world’s dominant steeplechaser of the period – over the closing levels, ultimately ending simply 10 metres behind Roelants‘ successful time of 8:30.8. His silver was one in every of eight additional medals received by Britain in Tokyo, a Video games that additionally delivered Olympic titles for Lynn Davies, Ken Matthews, Mary Rand and Ann Packer.
He continued competing on the highest degree for the remainder of the last decade, coming near his personal UK document once more in each 1966 and 1967, earlier than retiring after the 1968 Mexico Olympics. He settled on the Isle of Man, the place he spent 14 years crewing a deep-sea trawler earlier than managing a recycling plant.
Herriott was inducted into the England Athletics Corridor of Fame in 2017. Regardless of his longevity and consistency at worldwide degree over greater than a decade, some who adopted his profession carefully, together with common AW correspondents, lengthy felt his achievements by no means acquired the broader recognition they deserved.
Eric Shirley, an Olympic steeplechaser in 1956 and 1960, mentioned: „I enterprise to recommend that Maurice in representing his nation has run extra races in ‚on the time‘ world-class instances than than another GB steeplechaser in historical past.“
Tributes have begun to flow into among the many British athletics neighborhood. Writing on Fb, pal and former coaching companion Chris Quine described Herriott as „arguably one in every of Britain’s best ever steeplechasers“ and „a sort and modest household man.“
