Ainsley Bennett (born July 22, 1954, in St Catherine,
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
) is a British former Olympic and World Championship sprinter from
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
,
UK.
Early life
Brought up in Birmingham, West Midlands, in the UK, Bennett attended Naseby Secondary Modern School (The school changed its name to Park View in the 1980s, and remains so to this date), in the area known as
Alum Rock, Birmingham
Alum Rock is an inner-city suburb of Birmingham, England, located roughly 2 miles east of Birmingham city centre. The area is officially a division of Saltley. Alum Rock Road is located here and has many Pakistani clothing shops and restaurants ...
. This school coincidentally also produced a Republic of Ireland International cross-country runner, Paul O'Callaghan, who competed in six World Cross Country Running Championships, qualified for the Olympics (although injury prevented him from taking part) and wore the green of Éire from 1982 to 2003 in road, track and cross country races.
Athletics
career
The career is an individual's metaphorical "journey" through learning, work and other aspects of life. There are a number of ways to define career and the term is used in a variety of ways.
Definitions
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defin ...
Ainsley competed for
Birchfield Harriers
Birchfield Harriers is an athletics club, founded in 1877. Its home is at Birmingham's Alexander Stadium, England.
As well as welcoming recreational runners they cater for all levels of experience up to and including Olympic athletes whether ab ...
Athletics Club, based in
Perry Barr
Perry Barr is a suburban area in north Birmingham, England. It is also the name of a council constituency, managed by its own district committee. Birmingham Perry Barr is also a parliamentary constituency; its Member of Parliament is Khalid Ma ...
in North Birmingham, and represented Great Britain at the
1976 Olympic Games held in Montreal, Canada, where he reached the semi-finals of the men's 200m sprint race, as well as being one of the men's 4 × 400 m relay team which unfortunately failed to progress further than the first heats.
However, Bennett fared better in the 4 x 400 metres relay at the
1983 World Championships in Athletics
The 1st 1983 World Championships in Athletics were run under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations and were held at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, Finland between 7 and 14 August 1983.
Summary
The overall med ...
in
Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...
, where he and teammates
Garry Cook
Garry Peter Cook (born 10 January 1958) is a former British track and field athlete, who competed mainly in the 800 metres with a best time of 1:44.55 minutes.
Athletics career
He competed for Great Britain in the 1984 Summer Olympics held in L ...
,
Todd Bennett
Todd Anthony Bennett (6 July 1962 – 16 July 2013) was a British athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metres.
Athletics career
Bennett competed for Great Britain in the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles, United States in the 4 x 4 ...
and
Philip Brown took the bronze medal in a time of 3:03.53, finishing behind the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
and
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
.
Career personal bests
*100m - 10.21 (1979)
*200m - 20.42 (1979)
*400m - 46.15 (1975)
Current activity
After finishing his athletics career Ainsley founded a successful events management and corporate hospitality business
Ainsley Bennett Associates using his contacts to specialise in tickets to hard-to-find and VIP events and although he no longer runs competitively, Ainsley is a Trustee for
Birchfield Harriers
Birchfield Harriers is an athletics club, founded in 1877. Its home is at Birmingham's Alexander Stadium, England.
As well as welcoming recreational runners they cater for all levels of experience up to and including Olympic athletes whether ab ...
.
He and his partner, Mary Sharp, now live in
Hampton-in-Arden
Hampton in Arden is a village and civil parish located in the Forest of Arden in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, in the West Midlands of England. Hampton in Arden was part of Warwickshire until the 1974 boundary changes. It lies within th ...
with their two children: Callum and Ruaidhri Bennett.
References
http://www.olympics.org.uk/athleterecord.aspx?at=457https://web.archive.org/web/20100531034235/http://www.flotrack.org/articles/view/351-paul-ocallaghan-aspire-running*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Ainsley
1954 births
Living people
Jamaican emigrants to the United Kingdom
British male sprinters
Olympic athletes of Great Britain
Birchfield Harriers
World Athletics Championships athletes for Great Britain
World Athletics Championships medalists
Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics
Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field)
Universiade bronze medalists for Great Britain
Medalists at the 1979 Summer Universiade