Fifty years after he won his first national track title, we highlight 20 of Dave Moorcroft’s greatest or most memorable races

Former 5000m world record-holder Dave Moorcroft had a reputation of being one of the most affable and friendliest men in the sport and after his career ended he became chief executive of UK Athletics.

You wouldn’t have necessarily viewed the chances of Moorcroft being regarded as an all-time great when one of his first major races was a 206^th place in the 1970 English National cross-country youths race in Blackpool but a sixth place in the AAA Junior 1500m in 3:55.7 in the summer hinted a little more about his talent.

He made great progress in 1971 as he won his first national titles while his seventh place in the English National youths cross-country race showed his improving endurance.

It was quite a field, too, with the top four being Dave Black, Julian Goater, Jim Brown and John Davies. Three of those would go on to win Commonwealth medals and the odd one out, Brown, would become the first ever official world junior cross-country champion in 1973.

Moorcroft himself would finish between future IAAF Golden 5000 winner Barry Smith in sixth and Olympic steeplechase finalist Dennis Coates in ninth. Eighth was Nigel Gates, who would eventually set numerous masters records over the next half century.

To read about Moorcroft’s world 5000m record, CLICK HERE

To see a list of his races from 1970-1982, CLICK HERE

Here are his top 20 races

1 AAA 12 stage Relay, Sutton Park, May 1, 1971
14:27 3.1M (fastest leg)
While a month earlier he had won his first ever major title (a low-key AAA indoor under-20 1500m in 3:55.8), the first time he showed real national prominence was as a just turned 18-year-old when he moved Coventry Godiva from ninth to first on the second leg in British road running’s biggest event with the day’s fastest leg. While most of the big hitters ran the long leg that day, it was still a shock for him with a modest 3:55.7 PB to be seven seconds quicker than former International cross-country winner Mike Tagg. AW contributor Martin Duff was ninth fastest.

2 AAA Junior 1500m Championships, Wolverhampton, August 7, 1971
1st 3:51.9
Black (European junior record 8:00.8) had proved too strong in the AAA Junior 3000m at Crystal Palace where he was sixth in 8:22.8. But more at home at 1500m, he powered to victory. Goater led to the bell in 2:55.1 before David Lowes hotted up the pace. Then Moorcroft sped past 150m out to complete a 26-second last 200m and 56 final circuit as he narrowly held off the late rush of Scot Ron McDonald (3:52.0) who had won the previous year ahead of Moorcroft.

3 National 12 stage Relay, Derby, April 28, 1973
13:00 2.9M (fastest leg)
He had been second fastest in 1972 but regained the fastest leg award as he ran a fairly lonely stage 10 only moving Coventry from fifth to fourth. Junior 800m runner Tony Settle (13:02) was next fastest. He made progress in the 1973 track season as he ran 3:43.0 in the British Games 1500m which gained him his first senior international vest where he was third against East Germany in a race won by future European champion Klaus-Peter Justus and set a PB 4:01.9 in fifth the IAC/Coca-Cola mile ahead of a teenage Steve Ovett.

4 Philips National Indoor 1500m Champs, Cosford, January 24, 1976
1st 3:45.6
He made little progress in 1974 focussing more on studying at Loughborough. Any opportunity of bidding for a European team place was lost though when he was fourth in his AAA heat behind three foreign athletes and just missed out on making the final. He did move forward more in 1975 with his first sub-four with 3:59.9 at Gateshead and improving to 3:40.52 in winning his AAA heat but he finished last in the final. Here he won his first national senior title as his 71.2 last 500m left behind Barry Smith and Glen Grant (both 3:46.6) with all three inside the European Indoor qualifying mark. A teenage Sebastian Coe was fifth.

5 English National Cross-Country Championships, Leicester, March 13, 1976
2nd 43:39
A good long leg at the previous year’s 12-stage on the long leg was encouraging progress in his endurance abilities but this was a further huge leap forward. Only Bernie Ford (43:26) – destined to be eighth in the Olympic 10,000m – headed him as he beat all the other distance specialists led by Steve Kenyon (44:02) and Grenville Tuck (44:16).

6 Olympic 1500m final, Montreal, July 31 1976
7th 3:40.94 (3:39.88 semi)
He qualified for the British team in a PB 3:39.89 just behind Ovett (3:39.6) in the trials and then beat Ovett in the Olympic semi-final in a marginal PB 3:39.89 to make the final in Canada. In a slow tactical final (pictured above) he did lead the opening circuit in 61 seconds but was unable to respond to John Walker’s driving 52.7 last lap and he ended up 10 metres back but it was a solid major Games debut.

7 Emsley Carr Mile, Crystal Palace, August 30, 1976
1st3:57.06 (PB)
A few weeks earlier he had improved his 1500m PB to 3:38.91 in Zurich and also finished first Briton in second in the AAA 1500m but this was his greatest win to date as he out-kicked world record-holder Filbert Bayi (3:57.5), Britain’s only Olympic medallist Brendan Foster (3:57.7) and Olympic fifth-placer Frank Clement (3:57.8). Coe finished seventh in 3:58.4.

8 AAA 1500m Championships 1500m, Crystal Palace, June 24, 1978
1st 3:42.92
After his 1977 summer season was a write-off due to a back injury, he returned strongly and won his first senior outdoor title to guarantee his place in the Commonwealth Games as a 53.8 last lap gave him a clear win over Algerian Amar Brahmia’s 3:44.3.

9 Commonwealth Games 1500m, Edmonton, August 12, 1978
1st 3:35.48 (PB)
Having warmed up for the Games with a win in a 3:56.6 mile PB in the Gateshead Games, he was in his best ever shape and he followed Filbert Bayi through a 57.7, 1:55.2 and 2:53.9 pace which was far in excess of any previous pace he had ever attempted. In an exciting last 100m, as a 40,000 crowd roared, Moorcroft, on his way to a 55.5 last lap, edged past Bayi (3:35.59) and John Robson (3:35.60) with a late rush from Clement (3:35.66) making it four within a metre.

10  European Championships 1500m, Prague, September 3, 1978
3rd 3:36.70
His post-Commonwealth race was a huge 3000m PB of 7:43.5 ahead of Rod Dixon and he headed into his next championships in great confidence and form. After a tough heat he was unable to match the blazing 24.8 last 200m of Ovett (3:35.59) but was a clear second halfway down the straight but a late kick by Eamonn Coghlan (3:36.57) caught him just before the line. Moorcroft did, though, become the only runner to gain an individual medal at both the Commonwealths and Europeans.

11 Olympic 5000m, Moscow, July 30, 1980
9th semi final 13:58.23 (13:42.96 heat)
His 1979 season was marred by hamstring and calf problems though he did run 3:54.35 mile and 13:30.33 5000m PBs before finishing his season early. After a good winter in New Zealand (5000m PB 13:29.1), he won 1980 UK/Olympic Trial titles at 1500m (3:41.46) and 5000m (13:41.8) but decided to focus on the longer event in Russia. A two miles win in 8:18.57 as his last pre Olympic run showed he was in great form. However, he picked a up a very bad stomach bug in Moscow (which also affected room-mate Foster) and badly weakened, he barely got through his heat but was tailed off in his semi final while clearly capable of battling for a medal at his best.

12 European Cup 5000m, Zagreb, August 16, 1981
1st 13:43.18
His 1981 started well with races in America and New Zealand though after a poor Golden 5000m, where he was only 13th,  he set a PB at Lausanne (13:20.51) which controversially got him European Cup selection ahead of Golden 5000 winner Barry Smith, who had won the semi-final. The pressure was therefore on and against a quality field he blasted a 25.5 last 200m to out-sprint a field that included Valeriy Abramov (13:43.69), Hansjorg Kunze (13:43.72), Thomas Wessinghage (13:44.56) and Alberto Cova (13:45.48). He then had a calf operation at the end of the season.

13 National 12 stage Road Relay, Sutton Park, April 24, 1982
5.6M 24:27 (course record)
Confirmation that he was in unparalleled winter form when he moved from 12th 50 seconds off the front to a huge 45 second lead with a staggering 5.6 mile run on a hilly course that broke Foster’s celebrated record and was at a pace similar to Henry Rono’s world 10,000m record.

14 Bislett Games Mile, June 26, 1982
3rd 3:49.34 (PB) (3:34.3 1500m PB)
A five-second PB was not quite enough to defeat Steve Scott (3:48.53) and Sydney Maree (3:48.85) but he overtook 1976 Olympic champion Walker (3:49.50) in the straight after setting a 1500m PB during the race and his mile time moved him to fifth all-time.

15 Oslo Games 5000m, July 7, 1982
1st 13:00.41 (world record)
Hopeful of running a time fast enough to gain early European selection and maybe go close to Foster’s UK record, he stunned the world with one of the greatest distance runs in history.

With no one else willing to make the pace, he reluctantly took the lead with a 61.4 first lap and thought it was too fast so then slowed too much to a 65.8 second circuit before then picking up again to a vicious 61.3 which left him out all alone before then setting back to a 62-lap pace. His opening kilometres of 2:38.0, 2:34.6 and 2:37.6 took him through 3000m in a unparalleled 7:50.2 and though he had never front run on the track before in a major race he was now on course for Henry Rono’s 13:06.20 world record despite having had no pacemaking help.

He carried on pretty much at the same pace with a 2:38.5 fourth kilometre and as he went through the bell in 12:02, he knew the world record was his. Despite running 20 seconds faster than he had ever previously run, he still found a good kick on the last lap and his last 400m was a driving 58.04 as he ended a 2:31.7 last kilometre which gave him a six-second world record though frustratingly missed the 13:00 barrier by just 0.41 of a second.

Well over 100m back, Ralph King thought that Moorcroft was a pacemaker who had dropped out and that he had won the race in 13:20.85 from Nick Rose (13:21.29) and Rono (13:25.14)! The mark remained a British record for 29 years.

16 England v Kenya v Spain 3000m, Crystal Palace, July 17, 1982
1st 7:32.79 (European record)
Now all the meeting promoters in the world wanted Moorcroft in their events but he stuck with his original programme which had included this race (pictured above) which was part of a hugely promoted Ovett v Coe race series. Coe was out injured and Ovett had seriously injured himself in the winter with a collision with church railings but was getting back to fitness as he had run a 4:57.71 UK record at 2000m at the Oslo Games where Moorcroft set his own record.

A first 200m of 32 seconds destroyed any world record hopes before the pacemaker Mike Downes picked it up to pass halfway in 3:48.5. Moorcroft wanted a faster pace with his mile conquerors Scott and Maree in the field plus Ovett and Walker in the field. He then ran laps of 61.5 and 62.1 through to 2400m and then a 30.9 200m which dropped all but Maree to the bell (6:38.3).

He held the South African-born American off initially along the back straight before giving way and then tucking in behind before kicking back past in the last 100 metres as the capacity home crowd roared. His last 200m was 26.6 and final 400m in 54.3 and he just missed Rono’s 7:32.1 world mark but it was a clear European record and moved him to second all-time. Maree (7:33.37) went third all-time with Walker third in 7:37.49 to go seventh all-time.

17 European Championships 5000m, Athens, September 11, 1982
3rd 13:30.42 (13:30.28 heat)
His good form continued as he won the Hengelo 1500m in a PB 3:33.79, a two miles in London in 8:16.75 and improved his 800m PB to 1:46.64 but he felt the British Board had bullied him into doing some races he did not need to rubber stamp his selection and he was not at his best for the race he had previously seen as his most important of the year.

In wet conditions, he was leading at 800m to go but then lost concentration and got badly boxed just before the bell and dropped to seventh. He sprinted back into contention but never quite got on terms with Wessinghage who won with a 54.6 last lap in 13:28.90. Just as in 1978, Moorcroft was looking good for second but lost a place in the final strides as Werner Schildhauer (13:30.03) powered past a tiring Briton.

18 Commonwealth Games 5000m, Brisbane, October 7, 1982
1st 13:33.00
Not having raced since Athens, Moorcroft was more relaxed and fresher and he won his second Commonwealth gold easily (pictured above) in a largely forgettable race only enlivened with his 25.7 last 200m and 54.9 last 400m. He was followed in by team-mate Nick Rose (13:35.97) and Kenyan Peter Koech (13:36.95).

After the Games he went on a short Australian tour and as his world record was outside the qualifying mark of 13:26 and he was slower in the two championships, he ran a solo 13:23.6 Australian all-comers’ record to gain a Helsinki qualifier.

19 Olympic 5000m, Los Angeles, August 11, 1984
14th 14:14.61 (13:28.44 semi-final)
Hepatitis and a foot injury kept him out of the 1983 World Championships (which did allow him to make quite an impression as a broadcaster for the BBC in Helsinki) but he showed reasonable form at the end of 1983 on the road and country and then ran a 13:34.0 5000m in February but he showed he could still be an Olympic contender when he won the Dream Mile in Oslo in 3:50.95 and won a 3000m in Gateshead in 7:48.88.

In Los Angeles (pictured below) unfortunately there were three rounds of the 5000m and while the world record-holder got through his heat and semi final intact a third race was too much for his hip and groin injury and he trailed home a distant last and only just avoided being lapped by his eventual successor as world record-holder, Said Aouita, who ran 13:05.59 in LA.

20 Belfast Mile, June 19, 1993
10th 4:02.53 (World masters M40 record)
He never quite recaptured his best form thereafter although did set a 5:02.86 2000m PB in 1986 and won the inaugural UK 3000m title in 7:50.76 in 1989 and ran a 28:54 road 10km in 1990. But his final major race of note was at Belfast where, despite being near the back of the field in a race which saw Steve Cram second in 3:59.32, his time smashed the world masters M40 record.

Watch Dave Moorcroft answer your questions here as he reminisces on his career.