Charlie Spedding
Personal information
Full nameCharles Spedding
NationalityEnglish
Born (1952-05-19) 19 May 1952
Bishop Auckland, County Durham
Sport
SportAthletics

Charles Spedding (born 19 May 1952 in Bishop Auckland, County Durham) is an English former long-distance runner.

Athletics career

Spedding was fourth in the 10,000 metres representing England, at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.[1] and was England's Amateur Athletic Association (AAA) 10,000 m champion in 1983 in a time of 28:08.12. His first marathon was the Houston Marathon in 1984, which he won by "the thickness of a vest".

Spedding followed this by winning the London Marathon in 1984 and the bronze medal for Great Britain in the marathon at the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles, United States, finishing just 2 seconds behind silver medallist John Treacy.[2] Although it was the first British Olympic marathon medal for 20 years, and the last won by Britain (male or female), the performance was one of 16 British medals in athletics that year, and it possibly did not get the recognition it deserved.

In 1985 he set a PB and English Marathon record of 2:08.33 (which stood until 2014) when he finished second behind Steve Jones in the London Marathon. He is the fourth fastest British marathon runner after Jones, Mo Farah and Callum Hawkins. He represented England in the marathon event, at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland.[3][4]

In 1987, he finished 8th in the London Marathon in 2:10.32. He also competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, finishing 6th.

Post athletics

Spedding is a pharmacist by trade and worked in Ferryhill, County Durham. He is a real ale enthusiast and in 1976 co-founded the Durham branch of CAMRA. In September 2009, he published an autobiography of his running career called From Last to First.

He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the University of Sunderland in 2012.[5]

In November 2019 he published a book Stop Feeding Us Lies: How Health and Happiness Come to Those Who Seek the Truth which examines dietary recommendations and lifestyle approaches which he analyses as being causes of high levels of obesity, type 2 diabetes and other illnesses.

Achievements

YearCompetitionVenuePositionEventNotes
Representing  Great Britain
1984 Houston Marathon Houston, United States 1st Marathon 2:11:54
London Marathon London, United Kingdom 1st Marathon 2:09:57
Olympic Games Los Angeles, United States 3rd Marathon 2:09:58
1985 London Marathon London, United Kingdom 2nd Marathon 2:08:33
1986 Chicago Marathon Chicago, United States 3rd Marathon 2:10:13
1987 London Marathon London, United Kingdom 8th Marathon 2:10:32
1988 London Marathon London, United Kingdom 10th Marathon 2:12:28
Olympic Games Seoul, South Korea 6th Marathon 2:12:19

References

  1. ↑ "1982 Athletes". Team England.
  2. ↑ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Charlie Spedding". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 4 December 2016.
  3. ↑ "1986 Athletes". Team England.
  4. ↑ "Athletes and results". Commonwealth Games Federation.
  5. ↑ Nicola Weatherall, "Sunderland University to honour Eddie Izzard, Charlie Spedding and Alastair Stewart", The Journal, 5 July 2012


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