Alan Peter Pascoe (born 11 October 1947) is a British former athlete who gained success in

hurdles Hurdling is the act of jumping over an obstacle at a high speed or in a sprint. In the early 19th century, hurdlers ran at and jumped over each hurdle (sometimes known as 'burgles'), landing on both feet and checking their forward motion. Today, ...

. After his athletics career, he has been successful in events

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to empha ...

and consulting.

Early life and education

Pascoe was born in

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city status in the United Kingdom, city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is admi ...

, and lived in the

Paulsgrove Paulsgrove is an area of northern Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. Initially a small independent hamlet for many centuries, it was admitted to the city limits in 1920 and grew rapidly after the end of the Second World War. History Paulsgrove exi ...

area of the city. He was educated at Portsmouth Southern Grammar School for Boys. He undertook higher education at

Borough Road College Borough Road is in Southwark, London SE1. It runs east–west between St George's Circus and Borough High Street. History and location The route was created as part of the planning and road improvements associated with the completion of ...

Isleworth Isleworth ( ) is a town located within the London Borough of Hounslow in West London, England. It lies immediately east of the town of Hounslow and west of the River Thames and its tributary the River Crane. Isleworth's original area of settl ...

, where he received a

Certificate in Education The Certificate in Education (Cert Ed) is a professional qualification for teachers in the United Kingdom. There have been two incarnations of the Cert Ed over the years. New Cert Ed The current Cert Ed is a non-compulsory qualification offering ...

, and the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degre ...

, where he received an

Honours degree Honours degree has various meanings in the context of different degrees and education systems. Most commonly it refers to a variant of the undergraduate bachelor's degree containing a larger volume of material or a higher standard of study, or ...

in Education. He married sprinter Della James in 1970. They have one son and one daughter.

Achievements as a competitor

Medals

Pascoe won medals in the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a multi ...

, the

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

, and the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 British Empire Game ...

., also the European Indoor Games. After the 1974 Commonwealth Games victory Pascoe achieved a major distinction, in celebration he performed one of the great televised sporting bloopers. While doing his victory lap in reverse, Pascoe attempted to leap the last hurdle still remaining from the race and badly missed the hurdle, falling onto his back and denting the hurdle. Trying to regain his dignity, he circled around to attempt the jump the hurdle in another lane and fell identically. Laughing it off, he got up again and started turning over the other hurdles. . In winning the race he also achieved the minor distinction of running the seventh fastest 400-metre hurdle time, third fastest time by a British athlete, to that date (behind Jim Seymour, Ralph Mann,

David Hemery David Peter Hemery, (born 18 July 1944) is a British former track and field athlete, best known as the winner of the 400 metres hurdles at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Early life Hemery was born in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, but ...

and the then world record holder John Akii-Bua) at 48.8, despite running in the outside lane. Olympics: * Silver, 4 × 400 m Relay, 1972 European Athletics Championships: * Bronze, 110 m Hurdles, 1969 * Silver, 110 m Hurdles, 1971 * Gold, 400 m Hurdles, 1974 * Gold, 4 × 400 m Relay, 1974 Commonwealth Games: * Gold, 400 m Hurdles, 1974 * Silver, 4 × 400 m Relay, 1974 * Bronze, 400 m Hurdles, 1978 European Indoor Games: * Gold, 50 m Hurdles, 1969

Personal bests

Pascoe's personal best times are: * 200 m, 15 July 1972, London, 20.92 * 110 m Hurdles, 17 June 1972, Edinburgh, 13.79 * 400 m Hurdles, 30 June 1975, Stockholm, 48.59

Career outside competitive athletics

Pascoe competed in athletics at a time when it was supposed to be an amateur activity. He thus needed paid employment during his athletics career. He was a teacher at

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2–19 independent, day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a public school, it began as the College of God's Gift, founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn, with the original purpose o ...

(1971–1974), and a lecturer in

physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explora ...

at Borough Road College, Isleworth (1974–1980). Pascoe was also able to get financial support during the 1970s from membership of several

QUANGO A quango or QUANGO (less often QuANGO or QANGO) is an organisation to which a government has devolved power, but which is still partly controlled and/or financed by government bodies. The term was originally a shortening of "quasi-NGO", where N ...

s; the

Sports Council Sport England is a non-departmental public body under the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Its role is to build the foundations of a community sport system by working with national governing bodies of sport, and other funded pa ...

(1974–1980), the Minister for Sports' Working Party on Centres of Sporting Excellence (1975–1979), and the BBC Advisory Council (1975–1979). After competitive athletics, Pascoe became involved in events marketing and consulting. He set up Alan Pascoe Associates Ltd. (later named API), of which he was Director (1976–1983), managing director (1983), Chairman (1985–1988) and CEO (1994–1998). Pascoe sold API in 1998, then started another company, Fast Track Events Ltd., of which he is the chairman. Pascoe was a summarizer with main commentator Adrian Metcalfe of ITV coverage of athletics during the mid/late 1970s and early 1980s. Other business appointments were as a Director of the Aegis Group (later named WCRS) (1986–1992) and Chairman of Carat Sponsorship (1987–1992). Pascoe criticised the British government for withdrawing from hosting the

World Athletics Championships The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations). Alongside the ...

in 2001. He claimed that the Prime Minister,

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of the ...

, had broken a written undertaking to host the games. Pascoe believed that the decision amounted to the sport being cold-bloodedly "stabbed in the back". He believed that Blair had damaged Britain, by making the nation look foolish, and by causing the loss of both GBP 15–20 million in revenue, and a stadium suitable for top-class athletics. Such a stadium, he believed, was essential for developing home talent into world-class athletes. In September 2003, Pascoe was appointed vice-chairman of the London bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics, which was ultimately successful.

Honours

Pascoe was appointed a

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(MBE) in the

1975 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1975 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to Orders and decorations of the Commonwealth realms, various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countrie ...

for services to athletics, and received an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad ho ...

from

Brunel University Brunel University London is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It was founded in 1966 and named after the Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. In June 1 ...

in 1997.

References

External links

Photograph of Alan Pascoe
from the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

website *
Fast Track Events Ltd.
, website of Pascoe's sports events marketing company * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pascoe, Alan 1947 births Living people English male hurdlers Olympic athletes of Great Britain Olympic silver medallists for Great Britain Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics Athletes (track and field) at the 1968 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1972 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England Athletes (track and field) at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1978 Commonwealth Games European Athletics Championships medalists English businesspeople Sportspeople from Portsmouth Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics Members of the Order of the British Empire People associated with Brunel University London Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) People from Paulsgrove