Brendan Foster At 70

THE FORMER EUROPEAN AND COMMONWEALTH CHAMPION CELEBRATES A BIRTHDAY MILESTONE THIS WEEK

- Euan Crumley

BRENDAN FOSTER grew up with the dream of one day playing centre forward for his beloved Newcastle United. However, the sport of athletics has benefited hugely from the fact that things didn’t work out that way.

The man who has been a world-class athlete, event pioneer, marketer and television commentator turns 70 this week and has a wealth of achievement upon which he can reflect, both on and off the track.

He might have hung up his BBC microphone for the final time last summer at the conclusion of the remarkable IAAF World Championships in London but he is still consumed by a passion for the sport which first began to enter his consciousness during the 1960 Rome Olympics.

Foster vividly remembers, as an 11-yearold boy, running home from school to be captivated by the TV footage of athletes such as Ethiopia’s Abebe Bikila and New Zealander Peter Snell. The pictures were to prove inspirational.

“At weekends, I used to play football in the morning and then run for my club Gateshead Harriers in the afternoon in all the local road races – and I used to finish third or fourth,” he recalls. “One day the football match was cancelled because the ground was frozen, so I went home, had something to eat and went to the race in the afternoon. I won it and I thought ‘I like that!’ I packed in playing football when I was around 16 and started running seriously.”

It proved to be a wise choice as Foster began to realise the athletic potential he possessed.