Christopher Edward Goudge (4 March 1935 Prestwich, Greater Manchester, England– 7 November 2010 Devon, United Kingdom) was a British

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-devel ...

who competed in the 400m hurdles at the

1960 Summer Olympic Games The 1960 Summer Olympics ( it, Giochi Olimpici estivi del 1960), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad ( it, Giochi della XVII Olimpiade) and commonly known as Rome 1960 ( it, Roma 1960), were an international multi-sport event held ...

in Rome.

Early life

Goudge was born in

Prestwich Prestwich ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England, north of Manchester city centre, north of Salford and south of Bury. Historically part of Lancashire, Prestwich was the seat of the ancient parish o ...

, Greater Manchester, England where his father was an inspector for

Lloyds Bank Lloyds Bank plc is a British retail banking, retail and commercial bank with branches across England and Wales. It has traditionally been considered one of the "Big Four (banking), Big Four" clearing house (finance), clearing banks. Lloyds B ...

. The family settled in

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...

where he attended

Bolton School Bolton School is an independent day school in Bolton, Greater Manchester. It comprises a co-educational nursery, co-educational infant school (ages 3–7), single sex junior schools (ages 7–11) and single sex senior schools including sixth fo ...

. While doing

national service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The l ...

with the

Royal Tank Regiment The Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) is the oldest tank unit in the world, being formed by the British Army in 1916 during the First World War. Today, it is the armoured regiment of the British Army's 12th Armoured Infantry Brigade. Formerly known as th ...

he also represented them as a runner. He studied physics at

UMIST The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) was a university based in the centre of the city of Manchester in England. It specialised in technical and scientific subjects and was a major centre for research. On 1 Oct ...

, also playing clarinet and representing the University in athletics.

Sporting career

He joined Bolton Harriers running club and achieved early success in the

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

, winning the senior Lancashire event while still a junior. He also became successful as a runner and

hurdler Hurdling is the act of jumping over an obstacle at a high speed or in a sprint. In the early 19th century, hurdlers ran at and jumped over each hurdle (sometimes known as 'burgles'), landing on both feet and checking their forward motion. Today, ...

; in 1957 he was a member of the silver medal-winning British team in the 4x400m relay at the

World Student Games In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

and the following year he represented

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 Cardiff

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

in the 440m hurdles. He held the English record for this title between 1958 and 1964, also being selected to compete in the 400m hurdles at the 1960 Rome Olympics. He ran 52.6 in the third heat, finishing fourth, which turned out to be insufficient to qualify him for the semi-finals. He was unfortunate in that it was the first three to qualify in the heat and he had the two USA athletes Glenn Davis who went on to win the gold medal and Clifton Cushman who went on to win the silver in his heat. Glenn Davis is believed to be the greatest 400m runner of all time winning the 400m hurdles gold in 1956 and 1960 and was a member of the gold medal winning 4x400m relay team also in 1960. For good measure he was at one time world record holder in the 400m flat event.

Post-Olympics and legacy

Goudge and his wife Elizabeth had two children, Caroline and Jonathan. The rest of his life was spent teaching physics until his retirement in 1995, when he moved to Devon. He is commemorated in

as part of the "Spirit of Sport" statue on De Havilland Way.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goudge, Chris 1935 births 2010 deaths People educated at Bolton School British male hurdlers Olympic athletes for Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 1960 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games competitors for England Athletes (track and field) at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Alumni of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology