Peter Elliott (athlete)

"For the Canadian Anglican priest, see Peter Elliott. For the football coach, see Pete Elliott."

Peter Elliott (born October 9, 1962 in Rotherham, UK) is a former world class middle distance runner who won medals at the Commonwealth Games, the European Championships and World Championships and the Olympic Games between 1986 and 1990.

Elliott was brought up in Rawmarsh, Rotherham, South Yorkshire. He attended Rawmarsh Comprehensive School and later worked as a joiner at British Steel. Remarkably, Elliott managed to establish himself as a world class athlete while working full-time.He began his athletic career by running in the Young Athletes League for his local club, Rotherham Harriers and his 800 m time of 1 minute 53.3 seconds has been the Under 17 record since 1979. Elliot also held the under 17 UK record with a time of 1 minute 50.7 seconds which stood for nearly 10 years. He excelled as a schoolboy athlete, winning four English Schools titles, twice at 800 metres and twice over the country.

He won a bronze medal at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh behind Steve Cram and Tom McKean and a silver medal at the 1987 World Championships in Rome, both over 800 metres. The following year he won the silver medal in the 1500 metres Olympic final in Seoul. In January 1990 he became Commonwealth champion over 1500 m in Auckland.

Later in the year, Elliott ran an outstanding 1:42.97 in Seville (ranked No.1 in the world 1990 & third fastest Briton of all time) over 800 m, making him the favourite to win both middle distance gold medals at the European Championships in Split. However, due to injury problems he only entered for the 1500 m and was tripped in the semi final. After an appeal by the British team he was reinstated - against his own wishes and some other athletes and finished fourth. A year later, Elliott had his revenge when he defeated the European champion Jens-Peter Herold in the 1500 m race at the European Cup in Frankfurt. He also won the Fifth Avenue mile in 1987, 1989 and 1990, the latter in 3:47.83 min.

After retiring from competition running, Elliott became a coach and race organiser. He joined Newcastle-based sports marketing agency Nova International, where he was Director of Running. In 2004 he became the Athlete Services Manager for Yorkshire at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.

References and external links

* [http://www.eis2win.co.uk/gen/news_peterelliott070104.aspx EIS website]
* [http://www.ukathletics.net/press-centre/news-archive/april-2006/article-57/ UKA Young Athletes League]
* [http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?sectionid=179&articleid=1823007 Article in the Yorkshire Post, October 2006]
* [http://www.rotherhamharriers.org/rollofhonour.htm Peter Elliott: Rotherham Harriers & AC Roll of Honour]