Track and field writer from North East England worked for the Great Run Company, Press Association and AW

Athletics legends such as Paula Radcliffe, Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele have paid their respects to Dave Martin, the popular athletics journalist, who has died aged 75.

Known affectionately as “the Captain” due to his military background, Martin’s coverage of the sport during the 1990s and turn of the millennium in particular were read by millions of people due to his roles as athletics correspondent of the Press Association, press officer at Nova International (the forerunner to the Great Run Company) and as chief contributing editor with Athletics Weekly.

Such was his reputation, the tributes have come flooding in from former colleagues and athletics greats who he worked with at press conferences and finish line interviews in events like the Great North Run.

Radcliffe, former world marathon champion and record-holder, said: “The Captain was truly a unique, special and much loved man. He was the life and soul of any event, a journalist with ethics as well as someone who brought athletics to the forefront. Through my early successes he was right there, if not at the finish then through those Sunday night congratulatory phone calls. They don’t make them like Dave Martin any more, he was a one off that many of us will miss dearly and always raise a glass in his memory.”

Gebrselassie, multiple world record-breaker and global gold medallist, said: “I am saddened by the death of Dave Martin. I want to send my condolences to the family for losing such great man, whose career has helped shape the athletics world, and thus myself. He was one of a kind. I remember him fondly, especially when we saw each other near his home town in South Shields, finish of the Great North Run. Dear Dave, rest in peace.”

Gebrselassie’s fellow Ethiopian running legend Bekele, added: “Always a smiling and friendly face whether Olympics, Gateshead or Ostrava. He christened me “Kenny” when I first broke through and it stuck. I know it was because he couldn’t say Kenenisa but he was always the first person I wanted to speak to after a race. His type will always be missed.”

Sir Brendan Foster, founder of the Great North Run and distance running legend, said: “He was an asset to the sport and gave his life and heart to athletics and the army. His was indeed a Captain of both.”

Jos Hermens, the athletics agent and former international distance runner, said: “A great man is gone. Dave Martin has lived many lives in good and bad times, but always full of life, full of stories, full of sports. He was the No.1 athletics geek in the world. He has helped the sport so much forward. We will always be grateful to him for that. He adored athletics – and we adored him.

John Caine, who worked with Martin at Nova, offered some nice anecdotes, saying: “Like all of us, I was deeply saddened by the news of the death of a dear friend, Dave Martin – “The Captain” to all of his athletics family.

“Some thought his florid complexion was responsible for his nickname, referencing Captain Scarlet, but indeed he was a Captain in the British Army. Being a career soldier, Dave joined the army as a teenager, eventually retiring in his 40s. He rose through the ranks from a humble squaddie to Captain and depending on his behaviour he went up and down the ranks on a couple of occasions.

“His ‘behaviour’ was legendary and working with him for over 20 years everyone at The Great Run Company was exposed to his savage sense of humour and on occasions his outrageous exhibitionism. Behind his hard drinking and hard living lifestyle he was passionate about athletics and a very good journalist who recognised the difference between – news, a good story and puerile gossip.

His journalistic career started as a 16-year-old steeplechaser and cross country runner who wrote reports on the exploits of his South Shields Harriers team for the local newspapers. Referencing a good performance of his own, he once modestly concluded one of his reports with the sentence: “And on this occasion your scribe finished a creditable 6th in the youths’ race.”

From these lowly beginnings he ended up writing for The Army News (following the army’s highest profile sportsman Kriss Akabusi all over the world) Athletics Weekly, the IAAF and eventually working for the PA. He finally ended up serving as Press Officer and writer for our company.

“After retirement from military life, he returned to his home town of South Shields where for almost a decade he sat as a JP on the bench of the town’s magistrates court bringing his wide range of life experience and idiosyncratic style of justice to the local reprobates.

“Dealing one Monday morning with the detritus of another alcohol fuelled weekend in South Shields, he was presented with a dire specimen – a sorry looking, hung over, unshaven and dishevelled football yob complete with beer stained black and white Newcastle United shirt. From the bench, a smiling Dave commented: ‘A Newcastle fan, are we?’

“Sensing he might receive a sympathetic hearing from a fellow Newcastle fan, the defendant raised a smile and said, ‘yes, sir’. Dave’s reply: “Not your lucky day, Sunshine, is it?  I’m a Sunderland fan!”

With thanks to Matthew Turnbull.