Nick Whitehead

Nick Whitehead became one of the best athletes produced by North Wales. In addition, he was a great administrator and a champion for disabled sportspeople. Whitehead finished third behind the Peter Radford and David Jones in the 1960 AAA 100 yards and was subsequently selected as anchor for the sprint relay team at the Roma Olympics. Along with Radford, Jones and David Segal, the quartet won the bronze medal after the USA were disqualified. A similar fate fell their way in the semi-final when they also finished fourth but qualified for the final after Nigeria´s disqualification.

The son of a coalminer, Nick Whitehead was born in the Wrexham village of Brymbo. He attended a local grammar school but was excused from PE classes because he suffered from asthma. Upon joining the Army for his National Service, however, Whitehead was made to play rugby and soon discovered he was a useful runner. He went on to become an Army sprint champion while serving in Egypt and in 1954 was the Inter-services 440 yards champion. After the Army, Whitehead went to Loughborough College and was soon regarded as one of Britain´s top sprinters after winning the British Universities title.

Whitehead won six Welsh 100/220 titles and enjoyed four additional silver medal finishes during a time when he, along with Ron and Berwyn Jones, dominated Welsh sprinting. The three men, along with Dave England, won the sprint relay bronze medal for Wales at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth, Australia. Whitehead, who had also competed in the 1958 Games in Cardiff, was the Welsh team captain in 1962.

Whitehead trained as an architect and surveyor but changed direction and became a schoolteacher, and later a physical education lecturer. After retiring from competitive athletics, he shared his experience of physical training with several rugby and football teams including the highly successful Leeds United team of the late1960/early-70s. Between 1977-84 Whitehead was manager of the British athletics team and led them to the 1980 and 1984 Olympics. Two of his assistants were Olympians Lynn Davies and Mary Peters. In 1983 Whitehead was appointed the first director of the National Coaching Foundation. After less than two years in the job, he returned to Wales to become deputy director at the Sports Council for Wales. He was awarded the OBE in the 1984 New Year´s Honours list for his services to sport.

Involved with disabled sport, Whitehead was the original chairman, and later president, of the Federation of the Sports Associations for the Disabled, and also the British Paraplegic Athletics Association. Additionally, he was a member of the Sports Council UK anti-doping committee and was responsible for introducing drugs testing into Welsh sport. Whitehead also wrote, or co-wrote, 14 books and became a Fellow of both the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, and the University of North Wales. Whitehead´s daughter Rachel was at one time a member of the British Rhythmic Gymnastics team.

Personal Best: 100 – 10.5 (1960).