Brian Whittle
| Member of the Scottish Parliament for South Scotland region |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Assumed office 6 May 2016 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
26 April 1964 Troon |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Scottish Conservative Party | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sports career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | 400m | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club |
Ayr Seaforth Enfield & Haringey |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Medal record
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brian Ian Whittle (born 26 April 1964) is a British politician and former athlete.
Whittle won the gold medal in the 4 x 400 metres relay at both the 1986 European Athletics Championships and 1994 European Athletics Championships. He also competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.
In 2016 was elected as a Scottish Conservative Party Member of the Scottish Parliament representing the South Scotland region.
Wittle was born in 1964 growing up in the Scottish town of Troon. His father was a sprinter and ran until his late teens but other than that his family background was not overly sporty. As a boy, Brian tried a wide range of sports, enjoying many of them. He has maintained that his talent lay in his ability to train.
He was educated at Marr College, Glasgow University and Kilmarnock College.
At club level, Whittle ran for both Ayr Seaforth and Enfield & Haringey. His best performance in the 400 m was 45.22 at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. He finished 1st in his heat, 3rd in the quarter-final, but did not progress past the semi-final. He ran 45.5 on the first leg of the 4 × 400 m relay (team - Whittle, Kriss Akabusi, Todd Bennett, Phil Brown), but for once the GB team performed below par and finished fifth in the Olympic final. Perhaps his greatest achievement, and what he is best remembered for, is the manner in which he helped Great Britain win the Gold medal in the 4 x 400 metres relay at the 1986 European Championships in Stuttgart. He ran the third leg of the race with one shoe, running a personal best leg time of 45.09. As he took the baton from Kriss Akabusi, Akabusi stood on his shoe and it ripped off, leaving him to run the race without it. The other members of the team were Roger Black and Derek Redmond, all of whom ran Personal Best times on the day.
...
Wikipedia