David Bedford (athlete)

Bedford was born in London. In the mid-60, at Whitefield school, in Barnet, he used to train during his lunch hours, running up to Golders Hill park and back. It was at Whitefield he was entered in the Inter-counties Orienteering competition. He came in second. He was a leading distance runner during the 1970s. Indeed, he still remains, after more than 50 years, the last English man to have won the International Cross Country Championships (later the World Cross Country Championships) in 1971. However, his greatest achievements were largely against the clock. Despite setting a European record of 27:47.0 on 10 July 1971 at Portsmouth, by a margin of 17 seconds over Jurgen Hasse's record, he suffered in championships due to his lack of a fast final lap. He led for lap after lap in the 1971 European 10,000 m final but still the pack swept past him. He finished sixth to the Flying Finn Juha Väätäinen, who won in a last lap sprint against East Germany's Jürgen Haase. He came twelfth in the 5000 m and sixth in the 10,000 m at the 1972 Munich Olympics.[2]

His later career was hampered by injuries, principally achilles tendonitis, believed to have been caused by his high training mileage. He never ran the great marathon of which many fans thought him capable. He did run the first London Marathon in 1981 but only as the result of a bet.[1] He had been in a nightclub the previous night where David Coleman had remarked on how unwell he looked.[1] Having consumed a curry on the way home from the nightclub, Bedford completed the impromptu marathon but was pictured vomiting at the roadside part way through.[1] However, later in the same year he did manage to win the London Cross Country title at the age of 31.

In 2003, Bedford was involved in a legal dispute over the alleged portrayal of his image by the directory enquiries company The Number for its 118 118 service. The company had used a pair of athletes wearing red socks and Bedford's distinctive moustache and hair cut. He was quoted as saying, "The bastards! You can use that word and say I said it. [They] used my image then said they had never heard of me. When they were told they couldn't use it any more they said 'Oh no it was all a big misunderstanding'. To get to that stage took £60,000 in legal fees."[3]

In January 2004, Ofcom's Content Board ruled that The Number had breached rule 6.5 of the Advertising Standards Code, by caricaturing him without permission. However, it declined to issue an order banning advertisements in question on the grounds that a ban would be disproportionately damaging to The Number compared with any harm to the feelings or reputation of David Bedford suffered as a result of the advertisements.[4]

In 2004, Bedford crashed the launch of a new 118 118 TV ad campaign.[5] Photos of Bedford being removed made the covers of The Times and Financial Times.

Bedford was president of the Road Runners Club from 2003 to 2006.

Bedford now hosts the Radlett Rotary Fun Run every year.

In 2011 Bedford received an honorary doctorate from Middlesex University.[6][7]

Runner's World described Bedford as "a key architect" of the 2012 Olympic Marathon Course.[8]

Bedford was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to athletics and charitable fundraising.[9]

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