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Roy Fowler (runner)

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Roy Fowler
Medal record
Men's athletics
Representing  Great Britain
European Athletics Championships
Bronze medal – third place 1962 Belgrade 10,000 m
Representing  England
International Cross Country Championships
Gold medal – first place 1963 San Sebastián Senior race
Bronze medal – third place 1968 Tunis Senior race
Gold medal – first place 1966 Rabat Senior team
Gold medal – first place 1968 Tunis Senior team
Silver medal – second place 1961 Nantes Senior team
Bronze medal – third place 1963 San Sebastián Senior team

Henry Roy Fowler (26 March 1934 – 27 June 2009) was an English long-distance runner who competed mainly in track and cross country running competition. His greatest achievement was a gold medal at the International Cross Country Championships in 1963. He won five other medals at that competition, including an individual bronze in 1968 and team gold medals with England in 1966 and 1968.

Fowler's sole high level track medal was a bronze in the 10,000 metres at the 1962 European Athletics Championships. He had won that event at the AAA Championships that year in a Commonwealth record time of 27:49.8 minutes. He also represented England at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games and was a four-time champion at the World Masters Athletics Championships in the over-40s category.

Career

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Early life and career

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Fowler was born in Longsdon near Leek, Staffordshire.[1] He took up running in his youth after suffering from pneumonia, to improve his health. He performed well in running at school, winning his first race aged 14. He was also a keen footballer and had a trial for Manchester United, though this was unsuccessful.[2] He joined the local athletics club and as he grew older he joined the national level club Stone and District AC (now North Staffs and Stone Harriers).[1] He gained the nickname the "Red Fox" due to his speed at cross country and his red hair. He worked as a painter and decorator in his teens and early twenties, as well as a stint with the army due to national service in the late 1950s.[2]

He began to make his impact on the regional scene in his mid-twenties. He won the 3-mile track title at the Midland Counties Championships in 1960 then was victorious at the 1961 Midland Counties Cross Country Championships. He won go on to win the Midland cross country title once more, in 1968, and took two more counties track titles: the 3 miles in 1963 and the six miles in 1968.[3][4] A win at the 1961 Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships, achieved in heavy snow while he had been off work due to an illness, brought him to greater attention as he beat British record holder Bruce Tulloh among others.[2]

International and national career

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His international career began in 1961 and would eventually take in 38 national selections for England.[2] He won his first medal at the 1961 International Cross Country Championships, placing eighth to bring the English men to the silver medals alongside medallists Basil Heatley and Martin Hyman.[5] He focused on the track in 1962 and came away with his first individual medal at the 1962 European Athletics Championships, securing the bronze medal in the 10,000 metres behind Soviet runner Pyotr Bolotnikov, in spite of a groin injury.[2] Fowler was only the second British man to win a European medal at that distance, after Frank Sando.[6] He made an appearance over the same distance at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games, but was far off the podium in eighth place.[7] Amongst other local outings, he won the Rivington Pike fell race.[8]

His most successful season came in 1963. At the 1963 International Cross Country Championships in San Sebastián, Spain, he surprised by topping the field, beating the much more established Gaston Roelants by over ten seconds. Roelants (the defending champion and later European and Olympic champion) challenged Fowler to a re-match for £3000 (a very large sum for the period), but he refused as he wished to preserve his amateur status for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. This ultimately was not to occur, however, as persistent pain in his shins was diagnosed as hairline fractures and he was absent from the sport for a year and a half.[2]

After returning from his injury he made three further top level international appearances and these were successful ones. After winning the Cross Internacional Juan Muguerza meet,[8] he was fourth at the 1966 International Cross Country Championships in Rabat, leading the English men to the team gold with the help of Ron Hill, Tim Johnston and Mike Freary.[9][10] At the European Champion Clubs Cup Cross Country in 1967 he was runner-up to old rival Roelants,[1] but this was enough bring North Staffs & Stone Harriers to its first (and thus far only) ever team title at the competition.[11]

Nationally, his greatest achievement was a win in the six miles at the AAA Championships in 1962.[12] He won this title in a time of 27:49.8 minutes, which was a British and Commonwealth record at the time.[2] Despite his international success in cross country, he never won at the English Cross Country Championships, having only had two top three finishes with second to Basil Heatley in 1963 and third behind Ron Hill and Mike Freary in 1968.[13] In his last senior cross country appearance, aged 33, he won a bronze medal at the 1968 International Cross Country Championships. Tunisia's Mohamed Gammoudi topped the rankings but the Englishmen, led by Hill in second and Fowler in third, again topped the team rankings.[14]

Later career and life

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He continued to compete into his later years and was a leading athlete during the development of masters athletics. At the 1975 World Association of Veteran Athletes Championships – the first edition of that competition – he took a long-distance triple in the men's over 40 category, winning 5000 m, 10,000 m and cross country events. He returned for the 1977 edition and defended his 10,000 m title but was beaten into second place by Gaston Roelants (another former world cross country champion) in the other two disciplines.[8][15]

Fowler retired due to injury in his mid-forties but continued to work in sport, including fitness work at Stoke City F.C. for England goalkeeper Gordon Banks among others, and athletics coaching, including Mark Roberts (multiple winner of the Potteries Marathon). John Bale and Malcolm Henson wrote a biography of Fowler, published in 2006, called A Fighter Second To None.[1][2] He was also the subject of a short documentary film, Red Fox: The Life of Roy Fowler, released in 2007.[16] Fowler died of cancer in 2009, leaving his second wife, Elizabeth, two sons, a daughter and a stepdaughter.[1]

International competitions

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Year Competition Venue Position Event Notes
1961 International Cross Country Championships Nantes, France 8th Senior race 46:27
2nd Senior team 71 pts
1962 European Championships Belgrade, Yugoslavia 3rd 10,000 m 29:02.0
British Empire and Commonwealth Games Perth, Western Australia 8th 10,000 m 29:44.0
1963 International Cross Country Championships San Sebastián, Spain 1st Senior race 37:19.7
3rd Senior team 113 pts
1966 International Cross Country Championships Rabat, Morocco 4th Senior race 36:41
1st Senior team 59 pts
1968 International Cross Country Championships Tunis, Tunisia 3rd Senior race 35:31.8
1st Senior team 58 pts
1975 World Veteran Championships Toronto, Canada 1st 5000 m M40 14:52.0
1st 10,000 m M40 31:19.6
1st Cross country M40 32:51
1977 World Veteran Championships Gothenburg, Sweden 2nd 5000 m M40 14:29.4
1st 10,000 m M40 31:45.7
2nd Cross country M40 29:16

National titles

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Roy Fowler: athlete. The Times (2009-08-08). Retrieved on 2016-05-04.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Baggaley, Michael (2009-06-30). Athletics: Roy Fowler obituary. Stoke Sentinel. Retrieved on 2016-05-04.
  3. ^ Midland Counties Cross Country Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-05-05.
  4. ^ Midland Counties Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-05-05.
  5. ^ Magnusson, Tomas (2007-03-24). INTERNATIONAL CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS - 14.3km CC Men - Nantes Date: Sunday, March 26, 1961. Athchamps (archived). Retrieved on 2016-05-05.
  6. ^ European Championships (Men). GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-05-05.
  7. ^ Roy Fowler. Track and Field Brinkster. Retrieved on 2016-05-05.
  8. ^ a b c Roy Fowler. Association of Road Racing Statisticians. Retrieved on 2016-05-04.
  9. ^ Magnusson, Tomas (2007-03-24). INTERNATIONAL CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS - 12.1km CC Men - Rabat Souissi Racecourse Date: Sunday, March 20, 1966. Athchamps (archived). Retrieved on 2016-05-05.
  10. ^ Athletes File International Cross Country Championships Roy Fowler (1934.03.26). AthChamps (archived). Retrieved on 2016-05-05.
  11. ^ European Champion Clubs Cup Cross Country. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-05-05.
  12. ^ a b AAA Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-05-04.
  13. ^ English Cross Country Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-05-04.
  14. ^ International Cross Country Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-05-05.
  15. ^ World Association of Veteran Athletes Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-05-04.
  16. ^ Red Fox: The Life of Roy Fowler. IMDb. Retrieved on 2016-05-05.
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