- Brian Hewson
Brian Stanford Hewson (born
April 4 ,1933 inCroydon, Surrey ) is a retiredtrack and field athlete, who representedGreat Britain at two consecutiveSummer Olympics (1956 and 1960) in the men's 800 metres. He won the gold medal in the men's 1.500 metres at the 1958 European Championships inStockholm, Sweden .Hewson first came to prominence at the age of only 20, when he won the national AAA 880yd championship in 1min 54.2sec. He successfully defended this title the following year and was selected to compete for England in the 1954 Commonwealth Games in Vancouver. At the Games, England made a clean sweep of the medals in the 880yd, with Hewson finishing second behind
Derek Johnson andIan Boyd placing third.Later that year in the European Championships in
Berne , Hewson won his heat of the 800 m in 1:50.2, but missed the final as he received a bump in his semi-final and finished only sixth. In 1955 Hewson began to train underFranz Stampfl and soon after started running world-class times for the mile. BeforeMay 28 ,1955 only two men (Roger Bannister andJohn Landy ) had run a mile in less than four minutes.On that date however, at the British Games meeting in
London , three more men added their names to this list whenLaszlo Tabori (Hungary) won in 3:59.0 fromChris Chataway (Great Britain) and Hewson (3:59.8) third. Hewson had led through the 1500 m mark in 3:43.2, only 1.0 sec slower than Bannister's UK record for that distance. Later that year in July, Hewson won his first AAA 1 mile title in 4:05.4 running the last lap in 53.5.In the men's 1500 metres final at the
1956 Summer Olympics inMelbourne Hewson made a sprint for the finish with 300 m remaining and quickly opened up a gap on the field. He held this lead into the straight but was then quickly passed by the eventual winnerRon Delaney of Ireland, and he faded to finish fifth.References
* [http://www.olympics.org.uk/athleterecord.aspx?at=1614 British Olympic Committee]
* [http://www.sporting-heroes.net/athletics-heroes/displayhero.asp?HeroID=294 Sporting Heroes Profile]
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