Former York tough of the athletics track Walter Wilkinson hails the medal-winning achievement of Richard Buck

MEMORIES came flooding back across five decades this week for celebrated middle-distance runner Walter Wilkinson.

As he watched City of York Athletics Club’s Richard Buck win a silver medal at the European Indoor Championships in Turin, Wilkinson reflected on his own day in the spotlight.

The 64-year-old was York’s last winner of a major track medal when he returned from the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade in 1969 clutching a 1,500 metres bronze.

“It was unfortunate in Belgrade because the heats and the final were on the same day,” said Wilkinson, who now lives at Nunburnholme, near Pocklington.

“I was in the fastest heat, so I had to run fast to get into the final and I took quite a bit out of myself.

“I was a bit tired for the final and felt I could have done better, but they are all good memories.”

Wilkinson ran on punishing wooden indoor tracks, which were much less forgiving than the rubberised “tartan” surface used in Turin at the weekend.

However, as the former Rowntree Athletics Club star recalls, indoor tracks such as the now defunct circuit at RAF Cosford in the Midlands created a unique atmosphere.

He said: “They have it pretty good these days. When we were running indoors we were running on wooden boards rather than these modern ‘tartan’ tracks.

“In this country we ran at Cosford, which was designed by a railway engineer. The banking was quite steep – much steeper than it is now.

“That would have suited trains, but there wasn’t enough thought given to whether that suited runners.

“It did make for a good atmosphere though. It was quite noisy, so you could hear people coming up behind you, whereas they can sneak up on you now.

“I really enjoyed running indoors and some of my most consistent form was indoors.”

Indoors or outdoors, Wilkinson is widely recognised as one of the UK’s leading middle-distance runners of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

He was the first Yorkshireman to run a sub-four-minute mile – and the first British athlete to achieve the feat before the age of 21.

Wilkinson also believes he still holds the inter-counties record over a mile, having clocked three minutes 56 seconds at Leicester in his prime.

Having started his career with the Rowntree club in York, Wilkinson was head-hunted by top miler Derek Ibbotson and joined Longwood Harriers in Huddersfield.

“When I got older and didn’t take it quite so seriously, I came back and finished my career in York,” he said.

“I did some Masters running and competed in the 800 metres in Rome when I was 48. The 1,500 used to hurt, but I could run the 800 flat out.

“I was injured the whole time I was out in Rome. Despite that, I thought I had won it, but somebody passed me and I was second.

“When I stopped running on the track, I started running on the roads and I didn’t mind getting beaten as much. I wasn’t too keen on getting beaten on the track.”

Wilkinson is delighted to see Buck taking up the baton and making an impact on the international stage.

He said: “Without a doubt, Richard is the best prospect we have had around these parts for a long time.

“We’ve had a few lean decades, but he has great potential and it’s great to see him coming through.

“In York, we had Roy Thorpe, who won a Commonwealth medal for road walking in the 1970s, but before me I think you have to go back to Wally Beavers.

“He was a member of the old York Harriers club before the Second World War. He was a 5,000 metre runner and quite a character by all accounts.”

Tactics play a major role at the sharp end of major competition, and Wilkinson believes Buck and his 4x400m relay team-mates got theirs spot on.

“All four of them ran well in the relay,” he said.

“Richard got them off to the right start.

“It always used to be that you put your best athlete last, but Richard went off first and ran well, and that can inspire the rest of the team.”

As he pounds out the miles every day running with his dogs around the Wolds near his home, Wilkinson admits to thinking about the lot of a modern athlete.

“It would be great to be running in this era,” he said.

“Of course, I wish it could be my time again, because it was totally different back then.

“I didn’t make any money. I was working on the railways and they gave me time off for training. They are more or less full-time now, which makes a big difference.

“But what you never have, you never miss. I enjoy being fit and that is the legacy I have left myself; I can enjoy running with my dogs and being out in the country.”

Athletics medal roll of honour

* York-born Wally Beavers, who died in 1965 aged 62, won gold in the three mile event at the 1934 Empire Games in London.

* Selby-born John Sherwood claimed bronze in the 400 metres hurdles at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico. He also won silver in the 1969 European Championships and gold in the 1970 Commonwealth Games. His wife, Sheila, won silver in the long jump in Mexico in 1968.

* York’s Walter Wilkinson won a bronze medal in the 1,500 metres at the 1969 European Indoor Championships in Belgrade.

* Roy Thorpe, now 75, returned with a silver in the 20-mile road walk from the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch.

* City of York’s Richard Buck won silver in the 4x400 metre relay at the European Indoor Championships in Turin in 2009.