Geoff Elliott
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationality | British (English) | |||||||||||||||||
| Born | 7 April 1931 Ilford, England | |||||||||||||||||
| Died | 12 October 2014 (aged 83)[1] Calgary, Canada | |||||||||||||||||
| Height | 179 cm (5 ft 10 in) | |||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 80 kg (176 lb) | |||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | |||||||||||||||||
| Event | decathlon/pole vault/shot put | |||||||||||||||||
| Club | Woodford Green AC | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Geoffrey Michael Elliott (7 April 1931 – 12 October 2014) was a pole vaulter, shot putter and decathlete from England who competed at the 1952 Summer Olympics.
Biography
[edit]Elliott born in Ilford, finished second behind Harry Whittle in the decathlon event at the 1950 AAA Championships.[2]
Elliott represented the Great Britain team at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki in both the pole vault and decathlon events.[3]
Elliott became the British pole vault champion after winning the British AAA Championships title at the 1952 AAA Championships.[4] He would go on to win it again at the 1953 AAA Championships and the 1955 AAA Championships.[5]
He set his personal best in the pole vault (4.30 metres) on 28 August 1954 in Bern.
He represented England and won a gold medal in the pole vault at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, Canada.[6] Four years later, in Cardiff he repeated the success at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games.[7][8] Just before those games, he was one of many signatories in a letter to The Times on 17 July 1958 opposing 'the policy of apartheid' in international sport and defending 'the principle of racial equality which is embodied in the Declaration of the Olympic Games'.[9]
Achievements
[edit]| Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1954 | European Championships | Bern, Switzerland | 3rd | Pole vault |
| British Empire and Commonwealth Games | Vancouver, Canada | 1st | Pole vault | |
| 8th | Shot put | |||
| 1958 | British Empire and Commonwealth Games | Cardiff, Wales | 1st | Pole vault |
References
[edit]- ^ Geoff Elliott's obituary
- ^ "AAA, WAAA and National Championships Medallists". National Union of Track Statisticians. Retrieved 16 April 2025.
- ^ "Biographical Information". Olympedia. Retrieved 16 April 2025.
- ^ "Harry Whittle would be ideal Olympic team captain". Daily Herald. 23 June 1952. Retrieved 21 April 2025 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "AAA Championships (men)". GBR Athletics. Retrieved 16 April 2025.
- ^ "1954 Athletes". Team England.
- ^ "Athletes and results". Commonwealth Games Federation. Archived from the original on 14 April 2019. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
- ^ "1958 Athletes". Team England.
- ^ Brown and Hogsbjerg, Apartheid is not a game, 16
- Brown, Geoff and Hogsbjerg, Christian. Apartheid is not a Game: Remembering the Stop the Seventy Tour campaign. London: Redwords, 2020. ISBN 9781912926589.
- British Olympic Committee Archived 24 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Geoff Elliott". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 26 October 2012.
Commonwealth Games champions in men's pole vault | |
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- 1931 births
- 2014 deaths
- British male pole vaulters
- English male pole vaulters
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1952 Summer Olympics
- Olympic athletes for Great Britain
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
- Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England
- European Athletics Championships medalists
- English male shot putters
- British male shot putters
- English male decathletes
- People from Ilford
- Sportspeople from the London Borough of Redbridge
- Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics
- Medallists at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
- Medallists at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
- 20th-century English sportsmen