Donald Osborne Finlay, a sporting name familiar to households in
the 1930s, was Britain’s greatest athlete of the time; a hurdler
whose triumphant exploits graced the sports pages and newsreels
week after week. From a humble family background, he became a
double Olympic medallist, European Champion, and Empire
(Commonwealth) Champion; he also won the AAA 120 yards hurdles an
unprecedented seven times in succession. Reporters ran out of
superlatives to describe him. At the three Olympic Games in which
he ran, he captained the British team twice, including the Berlin
Games of 1936 in front of Adolf Hitler. An all-round sportsman,
both track and field events came naturally to him as did football.
He played for the country’s top amateur sides and turned out for
Tottenham Hotspur in wartime matches. All the more remarkable is
that Finlay competed at the very highest levels of international
athletics at the same time as pursuing his demanding career as a
Royal Air Force fighter pilot. Joining up as a boy apprentice in
the mid-1920s, he qualified as a pilot before the start of the
Second World War and found himself in the cockpit of a Supermarine
Spitfire, commanding a squadron, during the Battle of Britain. Shot
down and wounded in the Battle, he was soon back in the air and
rose through the ranks to command a fighter wing in Burma, ending
the war with several ‘kills’ to his name, as well as a
Distinguished Flying Cross and an Air Force Cross to add to the
medals won under less lethal circumstances on the running track. As
a commander, his insistence on strict discipline often led to
conflict with his subordinates, but there is no doubt that his
methods got results. After the war, still serving in the RAF, Don
returned to competitive athletics and was as fast and successful,
if not more so, than ever. By then he was in his 40s, but age was
no barrier and several of his greatest hurdling victories came when
others would have been long retired from the track, against
athletes often twenty years his junior. Don Finlay’s life was to
end prematurely, and under tragic circumstances, but his legacy
lives on as one of the finest athletes ever to wear the vest of
Great Britain, as well as one of ‘The Few’.
General
| Imprint: |
Fighting High Ltd
|
| Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
| Release date: |
June 2022 |
| Authors: |
Andrew White
|
| Dimensions: |
234 x 156 x 24mm (L x W x T) |
| Format: |
Hardcover
|
| Pages: |
224 |
| ISBN-13: |
978-1-83806-872-1 |
| Categories: |
Books
|
| LSN: |
1-83806-872-4 |
| Barcode: |
9781838068721 |
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