David Bedford (athlete)
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David Bedford (born December 30, 1949 in London) was an English long distance runner, whose career spanned the early 1970s. He is currently the Race Director of the London Marathon, and a Representative for UK Athletics.
Bedford was a world record holder at 10,000m, improving the record by 7.6 seconds when running 27 minutes 30.80 seconds in 1973, and a British record holder for 3,000m steeplechase and 5,000m. A colourful character in athletics, he was usually seen running in distinctive red socks.
Whilst Bedford is recognised as one of the great distance runners of the 70s his major achievements were always against the clock rather than in the major Championships, where despite usually being regarded as one of the favourites going into the competitions his lack of a fast finish over the final lap generally left him trailing the winner at the tape.
In the 1971 European 10000m Final Bedford finished only 6th to the Flying Finn Juha Vaatainen who won in a last lap sprint against the East German Jurgen Haase with which many commentators regard as one of the great races of all time. Bedford had led for lap after lap but was unable to burn off the pack or accelerate at the bell when they swept past him.
He competed in the 1972 Munich Olympics, finishing 12th in the 5,000m and 6th in the 10,000m.
In subsequent years his career was greatly hampered by injuries believed to have been caused by his high training mileage. This meant he was never able to run the great Marathon that many of his fans believed an injury-free Bedford was capable of.
In 2003, Bedford was involved in a legal dispute over the alleged portrayal of his image by the directory enquiries company The Number for their 118 118 Service. In their advert the company had used twin athletes wearing red socks and Bedford's distinctive moustache/hair combination. He was quoted as saying "The bastards - you can use that word and say I said it - used my image then said they had never heard of me. When they were told they couldn't use it any more they said 'oh no it was all a big misunderstanding'. To get to that stage took £60,000 in legal fees"[1].
[edit] External links
| Records | ||
|---|---|---|
Preceded by Lasse Virén |
Men's 10.000m World Record Holder July 13, 1973 – June 30, 1977 |
Succeeded by Samson Kimobwa |
| Sporting positions | ||
Preceded by Ian Stewart |
Men's 5.000m Best Year Performance 1971 |
Succeeded by.svg/22px-Flag_of_Belgium_(civil).svg.png){kind=small} Emiel Puttemans |
[edit] References
- ^ 'Recognise David Bedford? If so, it could be because of those 'cheapskates from 118', 'The London Paper, 20 April 2007, p. 36.
