Brian Shenton (15 March 1927 – 9 May 1987) was a
track and field
Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...
sprinter. He represented Great Britain in the men's
200 metres
The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400-metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slight ...
and men's
4 × 100 metres relay
The 4 × 100 metres relay or sprint relay is an athletics track event run in lanes over one lap of the track with four runners completing 100 metres each. The first runners must begin in the same stagger as for the indiv ...
at two consecutive
Summer Olympics
The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, then part of the King ...
(1952 and 1956).
Biography
Born in Doncaster from a working-class background, he was a member of the Doncaster Plant Works Athletic Club, later having a successful career in the City and reaching the position of Chairman of Noble Lowndes. He died in a car crash soon after retirement.
Shenton came to public attention in 1950 with a series of good performances, culminating in a place at the European Championships as a replacement. Described as the "boy from nowhere", he set a new personal best in the semi-finals of 21.6s, in the finals beating off the challenge of
1950 European Athletics Championships
The 4th European Athletics Championships were held from 23 August to 27 August 1950 in the Heysel Stadium of the Belgium, Belgian capital Brussels. Contemporaneous reports on the event were given in the Glasgow Herald.
Men's results
Complet ...
in
Brussels, Belgium
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
in the men's 200 metres in a time of 21.5s as part of the British team that first topped the medal table with a medal count that would not be matched for a further 40 years.
Representing the England athletics team he won the silver medal at the
1950 British Empire Games
The 1950 British Empire Games were the fourth staging of what is now called the Commonwealth Games. It was held in Auckland, New Zealand, between 4 and 11 February 1950, after a 12-year gap from the third edition of the games. A documentary fil ...
in
Auckland
Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...
, New Zealand, in the 4 × 110 yard relay and won an individual silver medal in the 220 yard dash at the
1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
The 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games were held in Vancouver, British Columbia, from 30 July to 7 August 1954. This was the fifth edition of the event that would eventually become known as the Commonwealth Games, the second post-war G ...
in
Vancouver
Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
, British Columbia, Canada.
He won the silver medal at the
1954 European Athletics Championships
The 5th European Athletics Championships were held at Stadion Neufeld from 25–29 August 1954 in the Swiss capital Bern. Contemporaneous reports on the event were given in the Glasgow Herald.
Medal summary
Complete results were publis ...
in
Berne, Switzerland
Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...
AAA Championships
The AAA Championships was an annual track and field competition organised by the Amateur Athletic Association of England. It was the foremost domestic athletics event in the United Kingdom during its lifetime, despite the existence of the offi ...
1956 AAA Championships
The 1956 AAA Championships was the 1956 edition of the annual outdoor track and field competition organised by the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA). It was held from 13 to 14 July 1956 at White City Stadium in London, England.
Summary
The ...
.
In 1957 Brian Shenton was timed as having set the English 100 yards native record in a time of 9.7 seconds. However, this was disallowed following a ruling that he had had a "flier". Shenton appealed and received a personal hearing at the AAA.
Memorabilia from Brian Shenton's athletic career was included in an exhibition of Doncaster's local Olympians in celebration of the London 2012 Olympics.Olympic exhibition at Cusworth Hall Museum /ref>