David Coleman

I was looking at today's paper earlier this evening and suddenly read that David Coleman had died on Saturday.

For me, he was an integral part of the "Golden age" of British athletics. His commentary on the Olympics, Commonwealth Games etc and many other races featuring Coe, Ovett, Cram, Foster, Bedford and many, many others were so vivid it made athletics seem the most exciting thing in the world and inspired me (and I'm sure many others) to just want to get out there and run.

And that was only part of it. "Sportsnight with Coleman" was essential viewing on a winter's Wednesday night and as a teenage sports fanatic, I will forever associate him with World cup finals (Brazil 1970 for one), FA cup finals etc. Those "crackly" old satellite broadcasts had an atmosphere all of their own.

No mean runner himself in his youth, he was a consummate broadcaster and like Ron Pickering, made athletics "come alive".