Frank Sando
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Frank Dennis Sando(14 March 1931 – 13 October 2012) was a Britishlong-distance runner.A two-time winner at theInternational Cross Country Championships(1955, 1957), Sando represented Great Britain in two consecutiveSummer Olympic Games.[1]
Early life
[edit]Sando was born on 31 March 1931 inMaidstone,to Ernest and Maria Sando. AttendingMaidstone Grammar School,Sando first began his involvement in athletics at sixteen, breaking the school mile record. Simultaneously, he began an amateur career at Maidstone Harriers, winning the Kent County Junior Cross-Country Championship in 1948 and the Kent Youth Cross-Country Championship in 1949. He finished fourth in the English Youth Cross-Country Championship in 1948 and 1949.
Having left school, Sando undertook National Service in October 1949, joining the army. In 1951, he broke the Army three-mile record which had stood for 23 years, having previously that year won the Inter-Services Cross-Country Championship.
Senior career
[edit]Leaving the army in 1951, he began working for the Reed Paper Group in Aylesford, Kent, where he met his future wife Sybil Page. After resigning from Maidstone Harriers, Sando joined the Paper Group's athletics club, juggling work, professional examinations, family commitments and his athletic career. It was at this time that he gained the nickname: the "Maidstone Mudlark".
The following year, 1952, he finished fifth in the National Cross-Country Championships and ninth in theInternational Cross-Country Championships.Over the next eight years Sando maintained a record of finishing in the top eight positions in the International Championships, as well as an extended period of captaincy of the British team over seven years. In 1952 he was called up to represent Great Britain at the Helsinki Olympic Games, in the 10,000 m. It was in this event that he famously lost a shoe early in the race but, continuing on with one bare foot, he still managed to finish in fifth position.
In 1954 Sando ran in theBritish Empire and Commonwealth Games,where he finished second in the six miles toPeter Driverand third in the three miles toChris Chataway.Later in that year he finished third in the 10,000 m in theEuropean Athletics Championshipsin Berne, Switzerland – which was won byEmil Zátopek.He married Sybil Page in September of the same year.
Sando went on to win theInternational Cross-Country Championshipsin San Sebastien, Spain in 1955. In 1956, after returning from injury, he finished second in theInternational Cross-Country Championships.Running well in the domestic track season of 1956, Sando was selected to represent Great Britain in the 10,000 m in theOlympicsof that year, where he finished in tenth position. He later described this as the greatest disappointment of his athletic career, and it was the final time he represented his country on the track. In 1957 Sando won the National Cross-Country Championship at Parliament Hill Fields and the International Championships.
The International Championships of 1958 resulted in a 3rd-place finish for Sando and, in the two consecutive years, he finished 2nd and 8th in the same competition. However, in 1961 he failed to qualify for the national cross-country team. He subsequently decided to retire from serious athletics to concentrate on family commitments and further study, bringing to an end a long sporting career at the top of world athletics.
He was one of many signatories in a letter toThe Timeson 17 July 1958 opposing 'the policy of apartheid' in international sport and defending 'the principle of racial equality which is embodied in the Declaration of the Olympic Games'.[2]
Later life
[edit]After retiring from athletics, Sando studied atBirkbeck Collegeand graduated with a degree in Statistics in 1964. The following year he resigned from the Reeds Paper Group and joined the Civil Service. He retired from the Civil Service in 1991 as Chief Statistician.
Sando continued his involvement with athletics in an organisational capacity into his later years, having been President of Kent County Athletics Association in 1980 and 2003, as well as various other administrative roles within the county organisation. Subsequent to his presidency of KCAA, he continued to be involved in organising grass roots cross-country events. From 2007–2008, Sando served as President of the Old Maidstonian Society.
Family and personal life
[edit]Sando was married to Sybil and the couple have two children – Lorraine and Andrew – and two grandchildren, Benjamin and Toby Abbott (who both attendedMaidstone Grammar Schoollike their grandfather). Until his death in October 2012, Frank continued to live in Aylesford, Kent with his wife – within sight of the Aylesford Paper Mill training ground where his athletic career first began.
References
[edit]- ^"Frank Sando".Racingpast.ca.Retrieved19 October2012.
- ^Brown and Hogsbjerg,Apartheid is not a game,16
- Brown, Geoff and Hogsbjerg, Christian.Apartheid is not a Game: Remembering the Stop the Seventy Tour campaign.London: Redwords, 2020.ISBN9781912926589.
External links
[edit]- Frank SandoatOlympics at Sports-Reference(archived)
- Empire Games - Chataway's 3 Mile Triumph 1954at theWayback Machine(archived 16 September 2012)
- Starting out in the 1940sat theWayback Machine(archived 16 March 2012)
- Britain's 1-2-3 1957at theWayback Machine(archived 16 September 2012)
- British Olympic Committeeat theWayback Machine(archived 28 August 2007)
- Frank Sando's obituaryat theWayback Machine(archived 16 December 2013)
- 1931 births
- 2012 deaths
- Military personnel from Kent
- 20th-century British Army personnel
- British Army soldiers
- Sportspeople from Maidstone
- English male long-distance runners
- British male long-distance runners
- Olympic athletes for Great Britain
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1952 Summer Olympics
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1956 Summer Olympics
- Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics
- Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England
- Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
- European Athletics Championships medalists
- International Cross Country Championships winners
- People educated at Maidstone Grammar School
- Alumni of Birkbeck, University of London
- Medallists at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games