Sydney Wooderson
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| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 30 August 1914 Camberwell, Greater London, Great Britain |
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| Died | 21 December 2006 (aged 92) Wareham, Dorset, England |
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| Height | 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 56 kg (123 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sport | Athletics | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | 400–5000 m | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Blackheath Harriers | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal best(s) | 440 yd – 49.3 (1938) 800 m – 1:48.4 (1938) 1500 m – 3:48.4 (1945) Mile – 4:04.2 (1945) 5000 m – 14:08.6 (1946) |
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Medal record
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Sydney Charles Wooderson MBE (30 August 1914 – 21 December 2006), dubbed "The Mighty Atom", was an English athlete whose peak career was in the 1930s and 1940s. He was one of Britain’s greatest middle-distance runners and had an amazing sprint finish. His slightly built and bespectacled appearance disguised immense reserves of strength and an overwhelming turn of speed.
He set the world mile record of 4:06.4 at London’s Motspur Park on 28 August 1937. This record stood for nearly five years.
Born in Camberwell, London, he was 5 ft 6 in and weighed less than 9 stone (126 lbs). He attended Sutton Valence School, Kent. At 18 he became the first British schoolboy to break 4min 30sec for the mile. He won the British mile title for the five years up to the outbreak of the war in 1939. In 1934 he won the silver medal in the one mile event at the British Empire Games.
At the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, he suffered an ankle injury and failed to qualify for the 1500 metres final. However, in 1937, after surgery, his performance increased and culminated in his world mile record of 4:06.4 in 1937. In 1938 he set world records in the 800 m and 880 yards with times of 1:48.4 and 1:49.2, respectively.
Off the track Wooderson was a City of London solicitor and missed the 1938 Empire Games in Sydney because he was taking his law finals.
His poor eyesight ruled him out of active service during the Second World War. He joined the Royal Pioneer Corps and was a firefighter during the Blitz and then later, in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers as a radar operator. In 1944, he spent several months in hospital suffering from rheumatic fever and was warned by doctors he might never run again.
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