John Charles Foster (23 May 1932 – 5 June 2004) was a long-distance runner born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

, England. At first a cyclist, who didn't start running until he was 32, he represented New Zealand in the men's marathon at two Summer Olympics at Munich, West Germany (1972) and

Montreal, Canada Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...

(1976). He made the team for the 1975

International Cross Country Championships The International Cross Country Championships was an annual international competition in cross country running. It was created in 1903 by the International Cross Country Union (ICCU) and it marked the first time that an annual international champ ...

, where his country took the title. A resident of Rotorua, he won the silver medal in the marathon at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

with a master's world record time of 2:11:18.6 at the age of 41. Two years earlier, he had set a world record for 20 miles at 1:39:14. Foster is featured in the New Zealand short film "On the Run" about

Arthur Lydiard Arthur Leslie Lydiard (6 July 1917 – 11 December 2004) was a New Zealand runner and athletics coach. He has been lauded as one of the outstanding athletics coaches of all time and is credited with popularising the sport of running and making ...

influenced athletes. In the final scene, Foster shows the highlight of his training is a 3,000 foot run down a 45 degree

scree Scree is a collection of broken rock fragments at the base of a cliff or other steep rocky mass that has accumulated through periodic rockfall. Landforms associated with these materials are often called talus deposits. Talus deposits typically ...

hill. He was killed while riding his bicycle in Rotorua.

Achievements

Personal bests

References

External links

New Zealand Olympic Committee
1932 births 2004 deaths New Zealand male long-distance runners Athletes (track and field) at the 1972 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of New Zealand World record setters in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games silver medallists for New Zealand Sportspeople from Rotorua Road incident deaths in New Zealand Sportspeople from Liverpool New Zealand masters athletes Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics English emigrants to New Zealand Cycling road incident deaths {{NewZealand-athletics-bio-stub