As a keen tennis player Norman Read predicted he would win Wimbledon. He was right about being number one, just wrong about the sport. The self-confident, Steyning schoolboy would later become an Olympic Champion in the 50 kilometers walk.
Born on 13th August 1931, in Portsmouth, the son of Marjorie and Richard Read, a Royal Navy stoker, the family moved to Steyning when Norman was very young. His friend John Miller recalls 14-year-old Read, winning the Steyning Easter Monday junior walks race in 1946, when they were both, “surviving on war time rations”. This is when he believes Read, “caught the racing bug”.
A curvature of the spine was not going to stop him. He wore a brace support, which he only removed when racing. Norman had found his event.
After leaving school, he completed a carpentry apprenticeship. The young chippie initially joined the Sussex Walking and Athletic Club, before transferring to Steyning AC, where he came under the wing of Johnny Henderson. Henderson was a legend in race walking, which was then far more competitive and of a much higher standard in Britain, than it is now.
In 1950 Norman won his first AAA Junior title over 1 mile in a time of 7 minutes and 48 seconds. He later broke the British Junior record clocking 7:09.6. The following year he became the first national champion with victory in the inaugural junior, 5-Mile Road Championships in a time of 38:32 minutes. In 1953 he won Steyning AC’s 10-Mile Championship title in 88:32. This was his last race on Sussex soil before emigrating to New Zealand.
It was on the other side of the world that Norman stepped up to the much longer distances, which would lead to his greatest achievements. In 1955 he unofficially race walked 50 kilometres in a world-class time of 4 hours 36 minutes and 41 seconds. The next year he won New Zealand titles over both 50 and 20 kilometers.
Despite this success neither New Zealand nor Great Britain initially selected Read for the 1956 Olympic Games, which were being held in Melbourne at the end of the year. He decided to let his feet do the talking by travelling to Australia, where he duly won the national 50km title in 4:30.17, which was just two minutes outside of the Olympic record. New Zealand swiftly added Norman to the team list.
The lead up to the Olympic 50km final could not have been more stressful. Read got lost in the maze of passages below the grandstand of the Melbourne cricket ground, and nearly missed the start of the race.
The conditions in Australia were exhausting, with temperatures rising above 30°C. Norman however, kept his cool and let others set the pace before challenging in the last 15 kilometres, where he caught and overtook the leaders. At the 45 kilometers mark he had an 82 second lead and he continued to increase his pace, winning the Olympic title in 4:30.43. Only five other competitors completed the course inside of five hours and six of the 21 starters did not finish at all. This victory earned Norman the New Zealand Sportsman of the Year accolade.
Four years later Read had lowered his 50km best twice in one week to 4:27.25 then 4:21.23. This influenced his decision to attempt both the 50km and the 20km distances at the Rome Olympics. In hindsight this was possibly a mistake. Norman was fifth in the 20km, which was first and and unfortunately failed to finish the 50km. His best 50km time would have won the race by over four minutes.
Despite setting his second and third best times for 50km of 4:24.46 and 4:27.18, in the run up to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Norman was not chosen, with his performances being described by selectors as, “only a oncer.”
In 1965 and 1966 Norman competed regularly in the UK, winning Sussex titles and collecting national medals. These were prestigious events. Race walking in the county alone always offered high class competition and '66 was a particularly good year for Read with a couple of national victories.
His second place in the London to Brighton walk in that year was another superb accomplishment. In this highly acclaimed annual race, the only ever Sussex winners were Norman's younger brother, Dennis and Brighton and Hove’s John Lees, of BBC Radio Sussex fame.
Norman's international career would end in Jamaica in 1966, at the Commonwealth Games in Kingston, where he won a bronze medal in the debut 20-mile walk. He continued competing for 18 years in New Zealand finally ending his race walking career aged 52.
As an athlete he was celebrated for his stylish and technically sound walking style. Remarkably, Read was never disqualified in a race, which is a phenomenal achievement.
Sussex AA President, Ron Penfold, knew him well. He said: “ Norman was sometimes a very difficult person to get on with, not really a team man as he was very focused on his own racing and training. I remember he always wore socks that went down over his shoes to stop stones getting in.”
Read was married to Megan and had three daughters and a son. He founded New Zealand’s first race walking club and was a judge at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Norman remained fit and was actively involved in sports until his death. He was 62 and the serving president of Athletics New Zealand when he suffered a fatal heart attack, whilst competing in a veterans’ cycling race.
Norman Read, the self-titled “Pommie-Kiwi” died on 22nd May 1994.
Melanie Anning with thanks to John Miller and Ron Penfold