Through the years over 50 athletes from Southampton Athletic Clubs have represented their country in a number of disciplines. Household names such as Todd Bennett, Christine Benning, Donna Hartley, Kris Akabusi and Roger Black have competed in the Olympics, World and European Championships and the Commonwealth games.
Current SAC international athletes include Oliver Bromby, Mahamed and Zakariya Mahamed and Alexander Teuten. In addition, David Henson MBE and Bethany Woodward have competed for GB in World and European Paralympics Championships. A short biography is shown below in alphabetical order. If you would like to understand more about the following athletes you will find information on Wikipedia.
James Startling
He had best times of 1.51 for 800m; 3.44 for 1550m ;8.06 for 3000m; 23.40 for 5 miles and 30.11 for 1000m.
1985 GB Junior International in Belgium at 3000m.
1986 GB Junior 300m v European nations.
1994 GB Cross Country in Belgium and the world Ekiden Relays in Japan.
1995 England at Plymouth
1996 England at Bristol
GB Eurocross International.
1997 GB Belgium
Janet Dickson
Ran for England at cross country
Jill Jones
Represented England at a meeting in Ireland in 1993, and was selected to run for GB in Glasgow against the USA. She had best times of 2.04 for the 800m and 4.16 for the 1500m
Jimmy Ball
Represented Great Britain as a junior over 5K in England and as a senior over 20K in Spain, Denmark, Luxembourg, France and England. Jim won over 50 Hampshire track and road Championship titles over 3k, 10k, and 10 miles and approx. half of these titles when he was a member of Southampton and Eastleigh race walking club from 1975 to 1990.
June Bridgland
Represented England at the International Cross Country in Birmingham in 1954, Belfast in 56 and Belgium in 57 winning a silver and two bronze medals.
Won the national Cross Country title in 1957.
June was the world record holder for 3,000m on the 25/9/1956 with a time of 10:16.2 which she held for 2 years.
Karen Rushton
Represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland in IAU Trail Championships at Ireland in 2013, France in April 2013 and Wales in July 2013. She is now competing as a Masters Athlete.
Katy Odell
Katy is currently a sprint coach with Southampton AC.
1996 Belfast, Northern Ireland BLE Presidents Select 1998 Ljubljana, Slovenia .
1999 Loughborough International
Wrexham, Wales in the Welsh Games.
2000 Cardiff, Wales (Lansing Linde Severnside Trophy) 60H;
Loughborough International.
2001 Loughborough in the Aqua Pura International
Tula, Russia Znamensky Brothers Memorial Int’l
Santry, Ireland Dublin International. 2002 Loughborough International.
Kris Akabusi
Represented GB in the 400m, and 400M hurdles at the Olympics, World and European Championships and the Commonwealth Games
Medals
Laura Brenton
Represented England at the Home Counties International Cross Country at Wollaton Park, England on the 22nd March, 2014.
Represented England at a meeting in Armagh in February 2020.
Louise Webb (now Jackson)
Finished 5th in the 2000m steeplechase for GB in the World Youth Championships in Ostrava Czechoslovakia in 2007.Then in 2009 in the European Juniors she won a bronze medal in the 3000m steeplechase in Novi-Sad in Serbia.
Mahamed Mahamed
Has represented GB on several occasions. In 2017 at the Edinburgh XC International he ran against senior runners of Europe and the USA. In 2018 he ran in an International meeting at Edinburgh and in 2019 he ran in the European XC in Lisbon.
He also has many junior men vests for GB and England. In 2019 he gained a GB U23 vest on the track. He also gained an individual bronze medal at the Europeans XC in Chia, Sardina in 2016, and has many team medals.
He also won the Junior men’s XC in 2018 and the Senior men’s XC in 2019, The first time this has been achieved.
Mark Gregory
Represented England at Cross Country. He had times of 29.27 for 10K and 63.08 for half marathon.
Melanie Purkiss
Represented England and reached the semi-finals of the 400 metres at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
Mike Winch
A GB shot putter who won a silver medal in the 1974 Commonwealth Games in New Zealand. Competed in the discus and shot in the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton Canada. Won a silver at the Commonwealth Games in Queensland, Australia in 1982.
Neil Coupland
Represented GB at Cross Country in 1976 at Lyon, France; Spain; in 1977 at Mezidon, France and in 1978 at San Sebastian, Spain. On the track he represented GB at Stockholm and Edinburgh in 1977 and on the road at Turin, Italy also in 1977.
In 1978 representing England at the World Cross Country Championships in Glasgow he won a bronze medal in the team event.
In 1973 he represented GB in the Junior World Cross Country at Belgium.
He was one of Southampton’s finest runners with times of 13.31 for 5K and 28.18 for 10K.
For three consecutive years from 1972 to 1974 he won the National Inter counties and Southern Cross Country championships.
Oliver Bromby
Competing primarily in the 100 metres.
He won a gold medal at the European Team Championships in August 2019 in the 4 x 100m relay at Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Won a silver medal at the 2019 European U23 Championships in Sweden. Also represented GB and England at the World Youth and Commonwealth Championships in 2015.
He competed at the World U20 Championships in 2016 and the European U20 Championships in 2017 in Italy where he won a bronze medal.
Paul Harmsworth
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A British sprinter who represented GB at the 1988 Olympic Games in the 4 × 400m relay, finishing fifth. Was a medallist at the 1987 European Athletics Indoor Championships, coming third in the 400 metres, and finished in fifth place at the 1987 IAAF World Indoor Championships, where he was number one European. |
Medals
Paul Rees
A thrower who represented Wales at the Commonwealth Games in New Zealand.
Paul Sanders
Represented GB in the IAAF World Championships at Tokyo in 1991 competing in the 400m.
Richard Large
Represented England in the steeplechase, with a time of 8.47.
Rod Finch
A middle-distance runner who mainly competed in the 1500 metres and the 3000 metres.
Won a bronze medal for Great Britain over 3000 m at
the 1994 European Athletics Indoor Championships, Paris, France.
He also represented England in 1993 indoors at Vienna and Cardiff and GB in 1994 at Glasgow indoors in the 3K; in 1996 at Birmingham in the 3K and in 1996 at the European Championship in Budapest.
In 1997 and 2001 he represented GB in the Ekiden road relay in Japan.
Medals
Roger Black
Represented GB in the 400m at the Olympics, World and European Championships and the Commonwealth Games. He won the following medals.
1986 – Gold 400m
Gold 4 x 400m relay Stuttgart, European Champs. 1986 – Gold 400m
Gold 4 x 400m relay Edinburgh,Commonwealths. 1987 – Silver 4 x 400m Rome, World Champs.
1990- Gold 400m
Gold 4 x 400m relay Split, European Champs. 1991 – Silver 400m
Gold 4 x 400m relay Tokyo, World Champs
1992 – Bronze 4 x 400m relay Barcelona, Olympic Games. 1994 – Silver 400m
Gold 4 x 400m Helsinki, European Champs. 1996 – Silver 400M
Silver 4 X 400M relay Atlanta, Olympic Games. 1997 – Gold 4 x 400m relay Athens, World Champs.
Simon Plummer
Simon Plummer represented Scotland on Track Road & country he ran 3.49 for 1 500 / 14.09 5k/ 30.08 10k / 2.32 marathon.
Simon Rodhouse
A GB shot Putter who represented England in the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Queensland, Australia.
