Adrian Peter Metcalfe (2 March 1942 – 2 July 2021) was a British athlete and broadcaster. He set a UK record for the 400m in 1961 and won silver relay medals at the

1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games The 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games were held in Perth, Australia, from 22 November to 1 December 1962. Athletic events were held at Perry Lakes Stadium in the suburb of Floreat and swimming events at Beatty Park in North Perth. The ...

, the 1962 European Athletics Championships and the

1964 Summer Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this ho ...

. He moved into broadcasting, first as a commentator, then as head of sport at

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

and then at

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through Warner Bros. Discovery Sports#Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe properties, its international sports unit, it operates two ...

. He held roles at the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

and

International Association of Athletics Federations World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

and was appointed an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(OBE) for services to sport in

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

Early life

Adrian Peter Metcalfe was born on 2 March 1942 in

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

to Hylton and Cora Metcalfe and brought up in Leeds, along with his sister Lynne. His father was a manager at Yorkshire Bank and his mother a teacher. He attended The Brunts School after his father became manager of the

Midland Bank Midland Bank Plc was one of the Big Four banking groups in the United Kingdom for most of the 20th century. It is now part of HSBC. The bank was founded as the Birmingham and Midland Bank in Union Street, Birmingham, England in August 1836. It ...

Mansfield Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area (followed by Sutton-in-Ashfield). It gained the Royal Charter of a market tow ...

, and went on to study English at

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...

, where he was also president of the athletics club.

Athletics career

Metcalfe won an English Schools athletics title as a schoolboy. In 1961, he won the 100, 220 and 440 yards in record times in the Varsity match and broke

Robbie Brightwell Robert Ian Brightwell MBE (27 October 1939 – 6 March 2022) was a British track and field athlete and silver medallist.

's UK 400m record with a time of 45.7 seconds. He was a relay silver medallist with

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

at the

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, and with Great Britain at the 1962 European Championships in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

. Metcalfe competed for Great Britain in the

held in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

in the 4 × 400 m relay where he won the silver medal with his teammates Tim Graham, John Cooper and

Robbie Brightwell Robert Ian Brightwell MBE (27 October 1939 – 6 March 2022) was a British track and field athlete and silver medallist.

.Olympics.org
accessed 6 September 2008

Business career

Metcalfe began working in television, commentating on athletics for

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

, before joining

where he was head of sport, introducing lesser-known foreign sports such as

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

and

Sumo is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a ''rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring (''dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by thr ...

to British viewers. He joined the pan-European sports channel

in 1989 and then Tyne Tees TV before becoming an executive producer with the

Olympic Broadcasting Services. In 1998, Metcalfe invested in a web-based project, worldsport.com, working with a large number of international sports federations but the project failed. He also held roles with the

, serving on marketing and television commissions until 2011.

Personal life

Metcalfe was married twice with two children and three step-children. He lived in France with his second wife, before moving to the Sunrise of Winchester

retirement home A retirement home – sometimes called an old people's home or old age home, although ''old people's home'' can also refer to a nursing home – is a multi-residence housing facility intended for the elderly. Typically, each person or couple i ...

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

in 2011. He died on 2 July 2021, aged 79. A painting depicting Metcalfe's life and sporting achievements painted by his sister Lynne, who discovered

art therapy Art therapy (not to be confused with ''arts therapy'', which includes other creative therapies such as drama therapy and music therapy) is a distinct discipline that incorporates creative methods of expression through visual art media. Art thera ...

after After may refer to: Literature * ''After'' (Elgar), an 1895 poem by Philip Bourke Marston set to music by Edward Elgar * ''After'' (Prose novel), a 2003 novel by Francine Prose * ''After'' (book), a 2005 book by Canadian writer Francis Chalifour ...

having a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

, was donated to the Sunrise of Winchester retirement home and is now displayed there as a memorial to Metcalfe.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Metcalfe, Adrian 1942 births 2021 deaths Sportspeople from Bradford British male sprinters English male sprinters Olympic athletes of Great Britain Olympic silver medallists for Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 1964 Summer Olympics European Athletics Championships medalists Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England Athletes (track and field) at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Medalists at the 1964 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) Officers of the Order of the British Empire Universiade gold medalists for Great Britain Medalists at the 1963 Summer Universiade Medallists at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games