Herb Elliott

Australian middle-distance runner who never lost a mile or 1500m race as a senior, winning Olympic gold in the 1500m at the 1960 Rome Games in world record time.

Born on 25 February 1938 and raised in Perth, Herb Elliott showed prodigious junior talent before coming under the tutelage of the eccentric coach Percy Cerutty, who trained him with punishing runs through sand dunes at Portsea and introduced him to raw oats and the works of the great philosophers. The partnership produced arguably the greatest middle-distance career in athletics history. In August 1958, Elliott smashed the world mile record by 2.7 seconds at Dublin's Santry Stadium, clocking 3:54.5 and dragging five runners under four minutes in the process. Later that month he broke the 1500m world record in Gothenburg with 3:36.0. He also won the mile and 880 yards double at the 1958 Commonwealth Games in Cardiff. Elliott's crowning achievement came at the 1960 Rome Olympics, where he won the 1500m gold medal in a new world record of 3:35.6, finishing 2.6 seconds ahead of runner-up Michel Jazy of France — a margin so decisive that his time would have won seven of the nine Olympic 1500m finals held in the following decades. Across his short but unbeaten career from 1957 to 1961, Elliott ran 36 wins over the mile, 17 of them under four minutes, and never lost a race at 1500m or the mile as a senior athlete — a feat unmatched by any international runner before or since. He retired from competition still undefeated and later became chairman of a major mining company.

Devastating closing kick built on brutal sand-dune training

Widely regarded as the greatest middle-distance runner of his era