Ian William Richards (born April 12, 1948 in
Stockport,
Cheshire) is a
racewalker
Racewalking, or race walking, is a long-distance discipline within the sport of athletics. Although a foot race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times. Race judges carefully asse ...
from
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 ...
, who represented
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...
at the
1980 Summer Olympics in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
,
USSR
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 nationa ...
.
There he ended up in 11th place in the men's 50 km race, clocking 4:22.57.
Two years after the Olympics Richards retired from competition,
before returning to competition at the age of 60.
At the
2013 World Masters Athletics Championships in
Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre (, , Brazilian ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of 1,488,252 inhabitants (2020) makes it the twelfth most populous city in the country and the center of Brazil's fif ...
, Brazil, Richards set a world record in the M65 5,000 meter racewalk (the event for men aged 65–69 years), with a time of 24:13.10, and was second in the M65 10,000 meter racewalk.
Richards won the 5,000 meter racewalk at the
2015 World Masters Athletics Championships
2015 World Masters Athletics Championships is the 21st in a series of World Masters Athletics Championships#Outdoor Championships, World Masters Athletics Outdoor Championships
that took place in Lyon, France from 4 to 16 August 2015.
This w ...
.
He competed at European and World Masters Championships in 2017 (at
Aarhus and
Daegue) and 2018 (at Alicante and
Malaga).
In 2019, Richards broke the M70 world record (the record for men aged 70–74 years) in the 3,000 meter racewalk at the
World Masters Indoor Championships in
Toruń
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, Poland.
Later that year, he was named Sports Personality of the Year at the Sussex Sports Awards, for his successes in the preceding year and for being an inspiration to other athletes in Sussex.
References
1948 births
Living people
British male racewalkers
Olympic athletes of Great Britain
Athletes (track and field) at the 1980 Summer Olympics
Sportspeople from Stockport
English male racewalkers
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