July 7 Birthdays

1933
Murray Halberg, New Zealand, middle-distance runner. Halberg represented his native New Zealand in the mile at the 1954 (Vancouver) Commonwealth Games and in the 1,500m at the 1956 (Melbourne) Olympic Games. In 1958 he became the first New Zealand athlete to break 4:00 in the mile, and won the gold medal in the (Cardiff) Commonwealth Games three mile. Halberg was the gold medalist in the 1960 (Rome) Olympic Games 5,000m and also finished fifth in the 10,000m at the Games. He successfully defended his Commonwealth Games three-mile title in 1962 (Perth), and ended his athletic career with a seventh-place finish in the 1964 (Tokyo) Olympic Games 10,000m. Halberg's years in athletics are chronicled in his biography, A Clean Pair of Heels.

April 4 Birthdays

1933

Brian Stanford Hewson, Great Britain, middle-distance runner. Brian Hewson won the silver medal for the 880-yard run at the 1954 (Vancouver) Commonwealth Games. The following year he began training under Franz Stampfl (who had coached Roger Bannister) and became the fifth athlete in history to break 4:00 in the one-mile run, running 3:59.8 in a race where he finished third behind Laszlo Tabori and Chris Chataway. Hewson went on to win a gold medal at the 1958 (Stockholm) European Athletics Championships in the 1,500m (3:41.9) and a silver medal at the 1958 (Cardiff) Commonwealth Games in the 880-yard run (1:49.5). He represented Great Britain in the 800m at the 1956 (Melbourne) and 1960 (Rome) Olympic Games. Hewson details his running career in his entertaining memoir, Flying Feet.

December 25 Birthdays

1933
Benjamin Basil Heatley, Great Britain, long-distance runner. After finishing runner-up in the 1957 International Cross-Country Championships, Basil Heatley won the title in 1961, the same year he set a world-best of 47:47 for ten miles. In 1964 he set a world best of 2:13:55 in the marathon, making him one of the favorites in the (Tokyo) Olympic Games marathon that year. The great Abebe Bikila won the gold medal in that race, but Heatley outkicked Kokichi Subaraya of Japan to win the silver, running 2:16:19.2.

1953
Kaarlo Hannes Maaninka, Finland, distance runner. Maaninka won the silver medal in the 1980 (Moscow) Olympic Games 10,000m (27:44.28) and bronze medal at the same Games in the 5,000m (13:22.00).