Medal record
Competitor for  United Kingdom
Men's Athletics
Olympic Games
Silver	Tokyo 1964	Marathon

Benjamin Basil Heatley (born 25 December, 1933 in Kenilworth, Warwickshire) was a British athlete who mainly competed in the marathon.

He entered the men's marathon in the 1964 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan. Being the holder of the world's best time, he was beaten into second place by Abebe Bikila, who bettered Heatley's time and won by nearly a mile.

Heatley produced a number of world-class performances during his career, competing in events ranging from one mile to the marathon. He won the 10 miles event at the national AAA championships in both 1960 and 1961. In the latter race, he smashed Emil Zatopek's World Record by 25 seconds recording a time of 47min 47.0sec. It was as a marathoner though, that Heatley achieved his greatest achievements. In June 1964, he won the Windsor to Chiswick marathon in a time of 2hr 13min 55.0 sec. This was the fastest marathon ever run (there is no official World Record for the marathon due to the disparity in course conditions), beating the previous best recorded by countryman Brian Kilby in 1963 by 48 seconds.

On this performance, Heatley was considered a good chance to win the marathon at the Tokyo Olympic Games held later that year. However, he found himself up against Ethiopian legend and defending Olympic champion, Abebe Bikila. As it turned out, Abebe won comfortably by over four minutes, clocking 2hr 12min 11.2sec, and smashing Heatley's world best time in the process. Just 8th at the 30km mark, Heatley had improved to third by 40km, but was still 1min 15sec behind Kokichi Tsuburaya (Japan). Heatley entered the stadium still 10m behind Tsuburaya, but sprinted past him around the final curve to claim the silver medal.

Heatley didn't just restrict his successes to the track. He won the English Cross-Country Championships on three occasions, and in 1961, at Nantes, France, he was the winner of the International Cross-Country Championships.

References

• Profile

Records
Preceded by Leonard Edelen	Men's Marathon World Record Holder July 13, 1964 – October 21, 1964	Succeeded by Abebe Bikila

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