Garry Peter Cook (born 10 January 1958) is a former British

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 ...

athlete, who competed mainly in the

800 metres The 800 metres, or 800 meters (American and British English spelling differences#-re.2C -er, US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of a ...

with a best time of 1:44.55 minutes. He competed at the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...

Biography

Cook represented

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in the 800 metres event, at the

1978 Commonwealth Games The 1978 Commonwealth Games were held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, from 3 to 12 August, two years after the 1976 Summer Olympics was held in Montreal, Quebec. They were boycotted by Nigeria, in protest at New Zealand's sporting contacts with a ...

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

, Canada. Cook finished third behind Steve Scott and John Walker in the 800 metres event at the 1979 AAA Championships but by virtue of being the highest placed British athlete was considered the British 800 metres champion The same happened at the 1981 AAA Championships over 400 metres when Cook was third behind Americans Tony Darden and Walter McCoy. The following year he represented

and won a gold medal in the 4 x 400 metres relay, at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

, Australia; he also competed in the 800 metres event. Cook was a world record holder in the rarely run 4×800 m relay as a part of a quartet that also contained Peter Elliott, Steve Cram and

Sebastian Coe Sebastian Newbold Coe, Baron Coe, (born 29 September 1956), often referred to as Seb Coe, is a British sports administrator, former politician and retired track and field athlete. As a middle-distance runner, Coe won four Olympic medals, incl ...

. They ran a time of 7 minutes 3.89 seconds on 30 August 1982 at Crystal Palace. He competed for Great Britain in the 1984 Olympics held in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, in the 4 x 400 metre relay, where he won the silver medal with his teammates Kriss Akabusi, Todd Bennett and Philip Brown. After a successful athletics career, Cook qualified and practiced as a teacher specialising in Physical Education and Geography at Bluecoat school Walsall. He is married to former fellow Olympian Kathy Cook; they have three children, Sarah (1988), Matthew (1989) and George (1992) and reside in Walsall, England.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cook, Garry 1958 births Living people English male sprinters British male sprinters English male middle-distance runners British male middle-distance runners Olympic athletes for Great Britain Olympic silver medallists for Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 1978 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1982 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships athletes for Great Britain World Athletics Championships medalists European Athletics Championships medalists Medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) FISU World University Games silver medalists for Great Britain Medalists at the 1979 Summer Universiade Medallists at the 1982 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games gold medallists in athletics