On the week of his 60th birthday, we look back at the brilliant career of the 1990 Commonwealth 1500m champion

This month Olympic and world silver medallist Peter Elliott celebrated his 60th birthday.

While his achievements are now overshadowed by his older contemporaries and global champions and world record setters Steve Ovett, Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram, he produced some startling runs of his own and but for injury would have achieved a great deal more and, judging by his 1990 form, even set some world outdoor records of his own.

While renowned as a gutsy front runner, if you want to see him at his best go on YouTube and catch his Seville 800m PB and Commonwealth Games 1500m gold.

His junior career showed his huge potential. He won the English Schools junior boys 800m title in 1977 (2:02.1), having previously won the English Schools cross-country title.

He then set a UK 800m age-15 best of 1:52.1 in 1978 and in 1979 he won the English Schools intermediate title and AAA youth title and also set a UK 16-year-old record of 1:50.7.

Here we look at some of his most notable later races.

1980 English National Cross-Country, Leicester, 1st youth 20:39
A few months before Coe, Cram and Ovett ran in the Olympics, his victory came between wins for Dave Lewis and Jon Richards. He won by 10 seconds and a close third was Andrew Leach, who is the reigning British M55 cross-country champion. Others who would go on to make their mark as seniors included championship medallists Gary Staines (7th), Jon Solly (27th) and John Gladwin (34th) while World Half-marathon medallist Carl Thackery was 69th and World Cup Marathon winner Richard Nerurkar 105th in a record 628 finishers.

1981 European Junior 800m, Utrecht, 4th 1:47.35 (PB)
He missed out on a medal despite his fast PB (moving him to fourth all-time among British juniors) as team-mate Chris McGeorge (1:47.03) finished third and the impressive Hungarian winner Jozsef Bereczki clocked 1:46.17 but never went quicker.

1982 AAA 800m, Crystal Palace, 1st 1:45.61 (PB)
While now technically a senior, he broke Ovett’s UK teenage record with a brave front run. Despite his incredible effort from the front, he was overlooked for England’s Commonwealth Games team though eventually Coe and Ovett failed to take their team spots.

1982 world 4x800m record, Crystal Palace, 1st 7:03.89 (1:49.14)
Disappointed with the selectors and nursing an injury, he had gone on holiday. But on returning home he was surprised to find he had been selected for this world record attempt and he struggled and came in behind Britain’s B team with his worst ever international run although Garry Cook (1:46.20), Cram (1:44.54) and Coe (1:44.01) made up the lost time and they smashed the record.

1983 European Indoor Championships 800m, Budapest, 2nd 1:47.58
He ended his 1982 season early and missed the European and Commonwealths but won his first major medal with a silver well behind Spain’s Colomán Trabado (1:46.91).

1983 World Championships, Helsinki, 4th 1:44.87 (PB)
Having won the UK title and improved to 1:44.98 in Oslo, he went to the inaugural World Championships as British 800m No.1 when Coe withdrew from illness. Elliott did not disappoint either as he ran a superb race as he led through 400m in 50.58, just ahead of Joaquim Cruz, and fighting to the line to finish a fine fourth at the age of 20 in a race surprisingly won by Willi Wülbeck in a German record 1:43.65 with future Olympic winner Cruz third in 1:44.27.

1983 Oslo Games 800m, 2nd 1:43.98 (PB)
Elliott went back to Oslo in August where he had set his PB in June and chasing World 1500m champion Cram home (a world lead 1:43.61), he took a second off his PB to go third all-time in the UK and become the youngest ever athlete worldwide to break 1:44.

1984 AAA 1500m, Crystal Palace, 1st 3:39.66
In the last few strides, fast finishing Elliott worked his way past a tiring Coe who had an illness ravaged 1982 and 1983 to become the first Briton to beat him at 1500m for eight years. Elliott thought he had earned Olympic 1500m selection after his victory. However, the Rotherham athlete was controversially overlooked for the LA Games at this event as Britain could uniquely field the world record-holder in Ovett, the world champion in Cram and the Olympic champion in Coe. Los Angeles went badly, though, as after a 1:45.49 quarter-final, he had to scratch from the semi due to a stress fracture while Coe won Olympic silver at 800m and gold at 1500m.

1986 Commonwealth Games 800m, Edinburgh, 3rd 1:45.42
A further stress fracture and a torn calf muscle meant his 1985 season was a write-off but he returned the following season to set 1500m (3:35.62) and mile (3:54.22) PBs but in Edinburgh he was well beaten by Cram (1:43.22) and Tom McKean (1:44.80) and failed to make the European team where Britain swept the medals. He did, however, run a near PB 1:44.06 late season in Rieti.

1987 World Championships 800m, Rome, 2nd 1:43.41 (PB)
He made up for his medal disappointment four years earlier with a well judged run and strong finish as he chased home Billy Konchellah (1:43.06). Later he improved his 1500m to 3:33.23 behind world record-holder Said Aouita (3:32.86) in Rieti. Showing his great speed endurance at the time, he finished a close second in Lausanne in a 2000m in 4:52.82 to world 1500m medallist Jim Spivey (4:52.44) and was only two seconds outside Aouita’s world record. Impressively, 35 years later it still ranks in the world all-time top 20.

1988 Olympics 800m, Seoul, 4th 800m 1:44.12
In great shape all year – he set British indoor records at 1500m (3:37.9) and mile (3:53.70) and then improved his outdoor PBs to 3:32.94 and 3:49.20 – both times in races behind Cram. Controversially after Coe was chosen for the 800m in Seoul, the selection was overturned and Elliott was chosen to replace him and then subject to much abuse from the media and public, many outraged by Coe’s absence. He was second into the straight but just missed out on a medal in a race surprisingly won by Paul Ereng (1:43.45) with Aouita (1:44.06) narrowly denying the Briton a medal.

1988 Olympic 1500m, Seoul, 2nd 3:36.15
Needing daily pain-killing cortisone injections in his groin, he moved on to the longer event and was always well placed but was involved in a three-way battle for silver with Jens-Peter Herold and Cram and he finished a few metres down on Peter Rono (3:35.96), who shockingly won the only major race of his life with a brilliant front run.

1990 Commonwealth Games 1500m, Christchurch, 1st 3:33.09
After a relatively low key 1989, he began 1990 in the shape of his life with a 1000m PB in New Zealand (2:16.20) and, in windy conditions, he blasted a 53.04 final circuit to win his first major title as Wilfred Kirochi finished second (3:34.41).

1990 Seville Indoor 1500m, 1st 3:34.13 (world indoor record)
A few days after his gold medal run, he set UK indoor records of 3:36.13 and 3:52.02 in the USA and then later in the month, he smashed the world indoor record to improve Marcus O’Sullivan’s 3:35.6.

1990 Seville 800m, 1st 1:42.97 (PB)
A few days after a 3:51.80 mile win at Battersea, in terms of the clock and the strength of his finish this was probably his greatest ever race as he took almost half a second off his PB, easily kicking past Johnny Gray (1:43.72) and though it was May it stood up as the world lead until the end of the season as he became just the sixth man to break 1:43.

1990 European 1500m, Split, 4th 3:39.07
Later in the summer he had a calf and knee injury and a chest infection but he ran a 3:49.76 PB in the Dream Mile although was surprisingly beaten by Joe Falcon (3:49.31). However he went into Split as favourite. Once there he was pushed and fell in his heat and failed to finish but was controversially reinstated for the final but suffered abuse from fellow runners and the crowd and he felt sore and ill at ease. He was second into the straight behind two-time winner Cram but although he edged past his team-mate (3:39.08), three others led by Herold (3:38.25) took the medals.

1990 McVitie’s Games 1500m, Sheffield 1st 3:32.69 (UK all-comers’ record)
Regaining fitness after Split he finished third in the Grand Prix mile final at Athens (3:53.85) behind  Noureddine Morceli (3:53.28) and Herold (3:53.77) and then enjoyed a cracking domestic battle to just miss Morceli’s world lead of 3:32.60 but he did run the fastest time ever seen in Britain and Cram (3:33.03) chased him hard.

1990 New York 5th Avenue Road Mile, 1st 3:47.83
A week after Sheffield, he carried on his great form to gain his third mile title in New York with the second fastest ever time on the slightly downhill course and win a $34,000 Mercedes. Cram (3:48.39) was again second with future Olympic 800m champion William Tanui third.

1991 Dream Mile, Oslo 1st 3:49.46
He began the year with a UK 3000m title (8:07.51) and then showed unprecedented finishing speed with a 51.12 last lap to narrowly defeat European champion Herold (3:43.39 to 3:43.47) in the European Cup before here running his second fastest ever time and set a then world lead in holding off Kirochi (3:49.77). However a month later his Achilles problem was too bad to compete in the World Championships and he made a late withdrawal.

READ MORE: Peter Elliott on his greatest race

1991 Brussels 1500m, 2nd 3:32.94
Though not back to his best after missed training, he showed to a certain extent what might have been as he was a lot closer to Morceli (3:32.38) than anyone was 12 days earlier at the World Championships in Tokyo and he defeated world runner-up Kirochi who was fifth here. Two days later he ran the Emsley Carr Mile in Sheffield in 3:52.10 ahead of Cram (3:52.97). He did race in 1992 including a 3:54.62 mile but injury kept him from the Olympics and effectively sadly ended his career while still in his 20s.