Ron Grove

Dominic Musgrove of the Melton Times interviews Melton veteran who held a world record for five years

ATHLETE Ron Grove was a fairly late starter to the sport at the age of 17, but he quickly made up for his lost years. The 64-year-old represented his country in the marathon at several races in Europe, and was once a world record holder for five years. It all began when Ron, his twin Peter and a group of friends went on a camping holiday to Llandudno and played a variety of sports football, golf, swimming and roller-skating to name but a few. One of the friends on the trip said that an athletics club was starting in Melton and recommended Ron and Pete to go along, which they did. "The main man at Melton Mowbray Amateur Boxing and Athletic Club was called Bill Goddard, a former Midlands champion at both the mile and the half, and he was really our mainstay," said Ron. "He guided us with our training and we were soon competing in races. "Ron lived in Nottinghamshire at the time and he was soon winning several races, including the county´s cross country race. "We trained every Tuesday evening and it was great," added Ron. "We had a successful club and Bill used to support us with our cross country running, which was the main form of racing in those days."

He worked at Masterfoods doing shift work for 31 years, and moved from Nottinghamshire to Leicestershire and from the defunct club to Leicester Coritanians. More county titles, including several senior honours and a lot of North Midlands cross country races soon followed, and his record of 18 North Midlands League race victories still stands today, and is unlikely to ever be broken. His stunning record led to numerous national call-ups for the World Cross Country Championships in Belgium and France, and two team gold medals. "Winning the team gold was obviously nice," he said. "But personally I didn´t perform in the race up to my potential, and it would have been nice to have been one of the front runners." His best time in a marathon was an incredible two hours and 17 minutes, which he set in Belgium when the legendary Australian Derek Clayton broke the world record, and he made the shortlist for the Great Britain team for the 1968 Olympics in Mexico, but was narrowly pipped to a place. "I´m glad I didn´t go in the end," he said. "The high altitude over there wouldn´t have done me any good and I knew that the Kenyans and the Ethiopians would sweep the board, which they did."

Ron may have missed out on the Olympics, but he made his way into the record books that year when he finished second to Ron Hill at Saffron Lane in Leicester in the world record attempt for the longest distance ran in an hour, a staggering 12 miles and 1084 yards. "Without a doubt breaking the world record has to have been my main achievement in the sport," he added. "Even though I only finished second." Ron also won a five-mile race in Peterborough in an incredible time of 23 minutes and 12 seconds that year.

But it has not always been a brilliant career for him, and he has suffered his fair share of injuries the worst of which saw him out of action for almost two years with a knee ligament injury. From the Coritanians Ron then became one of the first members of the Stilton Striders back in 1982, and is now the club´s captain. At the height of his career Ron used to run around 80 miles each week, and he still manages to run around 40 today and compete in the veterans classes. "I don´t enjoy it as much as I used to," he said. "I don´t like going backwards as I get older and I am going further down the field, but I just have to accept it because it happens to all veteran runners." He added: "You cannot describe to somebody what it feels like to be super fast at running. Your feet don´t touch the ground and it is something that you have to experience to know what it actually feels like to run effortlessly."