Ray Middleton, the 1964 Olympian and 1966 Commonwealth silver medallist, has died aged 86 after a brief sickness.
Thought to be certainly one of Britain’s all-time greats in race strolling, the London-born athlete was thirteenth within the 50km on the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
With British race walkers among the many finest on this planet, these 1964 Video games noticed Ken Matthews strike gold within the 20km occasion, whereas Paul Nihill received silver behind Abdon Pamich of Italy within the 50km as one other British race walker, Don Thompson, the 1960 Olympic champion, completed three locations forward of Middleton in tenth.
Sadly, Matthews died in 2019, Nihill in 2020 and Thompson in 2006.
Middleton earned silver within the 20 miles race stroll on the 1966 Commonwealth Video games in Kingston behind England team-mate Ron Wallwork.
Ray Middleton and Don Thompson (Brian Keegan)
Throughout an extended profession he additionally set world walks bests at 50 miles with 7:31:06 and eight hours with 85.618m.
His PBs included 3000m 13:25.0, 10,000m 46:59.0, 20km 1:34:06 and 50km 4:15:51.4. Domestically he received Race Strolling Affiliation titles in 1963 and 1965.
Ray Middleton and Don Thompson (Brian Keegan)
Based on the Middleton household, the previous athlete loved a terrific Christmas however succumbed to sickness early within the new yr and after a short keep in hospital died on Sunday (Jan 8) from suspected lung failure following an an infection.
Tokyo Olympians: Callum Wilkinson and Ray Middleton
In a foul week for British race strolling, former worldwide Chris Smith additionally died aged simply 64. The Leicester athlete’s finest performances included 1:28:34 for 20km and 4:31:52 for 50km and following his aggressive interval he grew to become certainly one of AW’s contributors, supplying information and outcomes from the race strolling world for a number of years.
With because of Peter Matthews from Athletics Worldwide for statistics.
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