Basil Heatley

Benjamin Basil Heatley (25 December 1933 – 3 August 2019) was a British competitive long-distance runner, who was an Olympic marathon silver medallist and former world marathon record-holder. Although he favoured cross country running, he was also a skilled marathon runner and, despite running shoe technology being in its infancy, he was able to adapt easily to the change of conditions underfoot.

Heatley was a three-time winner of the English National Cross Country title (1960, 1961, 1963). He competed in the International Cross Country Championships seven times between 1957 and 1964, winning the world title in 1961. In the early 1960s, he set a British record and a world record for the 10-mile run, then on 13 June 1964 he broke the record for the world's fastest marathon. Four months later, he won a silver medal for Great Britain at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics when he finished second in the Olympic marathon (defending champion Abebe Bikila broke Heatley's world record on winning his second gold medal). The 1964 Olympics marked the end of Heatley's international career.

Biography Early life Heatley grew up on a farm near Coventry, Warwickshire (now West Midlands), England. He developed an interest in running in his early teens. He started reading athletics magazines and bought a copy of "Athletics and Training", a book written by British Olympic athlete Guy Butler. As a 14-year-old boy, he read about the 1948 Summer Olympics that were taking place in London, and was inspired by Czechoslovak long-distance runner Emil Zátopek whose performance made a lasting impression on him.

He attended grammar school, where he discovered his natural ability for cross country running and soon started to take the sport seriously. He trained on the driveway of the family farm and got extra conditioning from his early years of farm work and cycling eight miles to school and back every day. and finished third in the English National Youth Cross Country Championship. He successfully defended his title at the 1957 Midlands Championships, improving on his previous time with 2:23:01.

Heatley was one of the top scorers for the England Cross Country team between 1957 and 1964, competing every year at the English National Cross Country Championships. After finishing 5th in his first attempt at the Seniors level in 1957 at Peterborough, he eventually won the national title for the first time in 1960 at West Bromwich. He finished 9th in 1958, and took 4th place in both 1959 and 1960. Heatley finally became cross country world champion at the 1961 International Cross in Nantes, France, winning with an impressive margin of 23 seconds.

On 15 April 1961, at the 1961 AAA Championships at Hurlingham Park in London, he broke his hero Zátopek's world record for the 10-mile run, with a time of 47 minutes and 47 seconds. Tsuburaya finished third in 2:16:22.8, followed by Heatley's teammate Brian Kilby in fourth place.

In 2015, at the age of 82, Heatley was inducted into the England Athletics Hall of Fame at the Hilton Metropole in Birmingham. He was presented with his award by former long-distance world record holder David Moorcroft.

Personal bests

Heatley achieved the following personal bests during his running career:

3 miles: 13:22.8 5,000 metres: 13:57.2 6 miles: 27:57.0 10,000 metres: 28:55.8 10 miles: 47:47.0 (WR) Marathon (26.22 miles): 2:13:55 (WR)