GEORGE LARNER - SUSSEX'S FIRST OLYMPIC CHAMPION
by Alan Buchanan
At the 1908 London Olympics, George Larner of Brighton and County Harriers, won the 3,500m Walk and the 10 miles Walk. Those distances were never raced again, so to this day Sussex has a club athlete who holds the two Olympic gold medals and the Olympic records.
I switched from running to race walking in 1966, encouraged by Arthur Jones, who two years later was selected for the 20km at the Mexico City Olympics, along with Brighton and Hove AC club mates Chris Carter (800m) and Andy Todd (4 x 400m relay). I worked for the Brighton and Hove Herald through the sixties and researched their archives at the time to write an article on George Larner for the Race Walking Record.
Although born in Berkshire in 1875, he took up walking with the club in 1903, aged 28 and soon showed an aptitude for the event, winning four AAA titles in the following couple of years, including nine world records. He was a Brighton Police Constable and soon found that his duties prevented him from serious walk training. The Chief Constable was made aware of this and in 1906 the County Borough of Brighton Watch Committee gave Larner special dispensation, to train for the London Olympic Games, which were to be held in 1908.
In his first race back in the AAA 7 miles championship, he was disqualified for lifting but writers at the time were complimentary of his long striding technique, and he put this aside to go on and win both golds with the added bonus of a 75.57.4 World record in the 10 miles. I spoke to those who had seen Larner walk at the time including former Argus correspondent Jack “Jackdaw” Davis. He had been present when Larner set the World 3 miles and 4 miles records, on the grass track within the cycle track at Brighton's Preston Park, in August 1905. Jack was not too complimentary of Larner's technique describing it, "like a shuffle," but others, including Ernest Neville, who was in that race and would go on to be a top class AAA timekeeper and founder of the Road Runners Club, were quite happy and admired him.
After the games Larner went back onto the Brighton beat and I recollect reading about his involvement in a Brighton house fire rescue, while reading the Herald Archives. He went back to running with the Brighton club and a few years later he moved to London, here he returned to walking with Highgate Harriers winning the 1911 AAA 7 miles title. George Larner died in Brighton in 1949 aged 73.
In 1967 I raced in a one mile track walk at Walton on Thames, in an attempt by Arthur Jones to beat Larner's British Record of 6:26 but he failed. It was Roger Mills who eventually took the record at Crystal Palace a few years later.
My good friend, Keith May, wrote the story of the great Alf Shrubb, who in the early 1900s set 10 World Records. In the same era, George Larner also set 10 world records. Thus between 1903 and 1908 Sussex had two outstanding multiple World Record holders.
For the record, Larner's achievements were:
- 3 miles in 20.25.8
- 4 miles - 27.14.0
- 5 miles - 36.00.2
- 6 miles - 43.26.2
- 7 miles in 50.50.8
- 8 miles - 58.18.4
- 9 miles in 1.07.37.8
- 10 miles in 1.15.57.4
- 13,275m in a one hour track race.
Race Walking was for many years well supported in Sussex and the rest of England but nowadays the top walkers have become so fit that, in my view, they are too fast for the rules. No longer able to compete on open roads, the event has faded out in Britain, with only a small number of participants in few races.
I was fortunate to have competed during the best years in the 1970s when the 'Larner Legacy' was still alive in British walking.
Few sportspersons can expect to have the honour of their name emblazoned on their local bus. When George Larner was born in 1875, there was no such thing as a motor car as we know it, let alone a double decker bus. He however, is celebrated on one of the Brighton & Hove buses, and is one of the only sportspersons and is the only athlete who rubs shoulders, metaphorically, with the great and good associated with the City.
ALAN BUCHANAN