Frank Sando

Frank Sando

Sando winning the International Cross Country Championship in Belgium, 1957
Medal record Men's athletics Representing  England &  United Kingdom International Cross Country Championships 1955 San Sebastian Men's race 1957 Waregem Men's race 1953 Paris Men's race 1956 Belfast Men's race 1959 Lisbon Men's race 1958 Cardiff Men's race European Athletics Championships 1954 Bern 10,000 m British Empire and Commonwealth Games 1954 Vancouver 6 miles 1954 Vancouver 3 miles

Frank Dennis Sando (14 March 1931 – 13 October 2012) was a British long-distance runner. A two-time winner at the International Cross Country Championships (1955, 1957), Sando represented Great Britain in two consecutive Summer Olympic Games.

Sando was born on 31 March 1931 in Maidstone, to Ernest and Maria Sando. Attending Maidstone Grammar School, Sando first began his involvement in athletics at sixteen, breaking the school mile record. Simultaneously, he began an amateur career at Maidstone Harriers, winning the Kent County Junior Cross-Country Championship in 1948 and the Kent Youth Cross-Country Championship in 1949. He finished fourth in the English Youth Cross-Country Championship in 1948 and 1949.

Having left school, Sando undertook National Service in October 1949, joining the army. In 1951, he broke the Army three-mile record which had stood for 23 years, having previously that year won the Inter-Services Cross-Country Championship.

Leaving the army in 1951, he began working for the Reed Paper Group in Aylesford, Kent, where he met his future wife Sybil Page. After resigning from Maidstone Harriers, Sando joined the Paper Group's athletics club, juggling work, professional examinations, family commitments and his athletic career. It was at this time that he gained the nickname: the "Maidstone Mudlark".

The following year, 1952, he finished fifth in the National Cross-Country Championships and ninth in the International Cross-Country Championships. Over the next eight years Sando maintained a record of finishing in the top eight positions in the International Championships, as well as an extended period of captaincy of the British team over seven years. In 1952 he was called up to represent Great Britain at the Helsinki Olympic Games, in the 10,000 m. It was in this event that he famously lost a shoe early in the race but, continuing on with one bare foot, he still managed to finish in fifth position.

In 1954 Sando ran in the British Empire and Commonwealth Games, where he finished second in the six miles to Peter Driver and third in the three miles to Chris Chataway. Later in that year he finished third in the 10,000 m in the European Athletics Championships in Berne, Switzerland – which was won by Emil Zátopek. He married Sybil Page in September of the same year.