Alan Pascoe
Encyclopedia
Alan Peter Pascoe, MBE
(born 11 October 1947) was a British
athlete who gained success in hurdles
. After his athletics career, he has been successful in events marketing
and consulting.
, England. He was educated at Portsmouth Southern Grammar School. He undertook higher education at Borough Road College, Isleworth
, where he received a Certificate in Education
, and the University of London
, where he received an Honours degree
in Education. He married Della Patricia James in 1970. They have one son and one daughter.
, the European Championships
, and the Commonwealth Games
., also the European Indoor Games.
The 1974 Commonwealth Games victory achieved two distinctions, first as achieving the second fastest 400 metre hurdle race to that date (only behind the then world record by David Hemery
at 48.8. Then in celebration performed one of the great televised bloopers. While doing his victory lap in reverse, Pascoe attempted to leap the last hurdle still remaining from the race and badly missed the hurdle, falling onto his back and denting the hurdle. Trying to regain his dignity, he circled around to attempt the jump the hurdle in another lane and fell identically. Laughing it off, he got up again and started turning over the other hurdles. See the video.
Olympics:
European Championships:
Commonwealth Games:
European Indoor Games:
(1971–1974), and a lecturer in physical education
at Borough Road College, Isleworth (1974–1980).
Pascoe was also able to get financial support during the 1970s from membership of several QUANGO
s; the Sports Council
(1974–1980), the Minister for Sports' Working Party on Centres of Sporting Excellence (1975–1979), and the BBC Advisory Council (1975–1979).
After competitive athletics, Pascoe became involved in events marketing and consulting. He set up Alan Pascoe Associates Ltd. (later named API), of which he was Director (1976–1983), Managing Director (1983), Chairman (1985–1988) and CEO (1994–1998). Pascoe sold API in 1998, then started another company, Fast Track Events Ltd., of which he is the Chairman.
Other business appointments were as a Director of the Aegis Group (later named WCRS) (1986–1992) and Chairman of Carat Sponsorship (1987–1992).
Pascoe criticised the British government for withdrawing from hosting the World Athletics Championships
in 2001. He claimed that the Prime Minister, Tony Blair
, had broken a written undertaking to host the games. Pascoe believed that the decision amounted to the sport being cold-bloodedly "stabbed in the back". He believed that Blair had damaged Britain, by making the nation look foolish, and by causing the loss of both GBP
15-20 million in revenue, and a stadium suitable for top-class athletics. Such a stadium, he believed, was essential for developing home talent into world-class athletes.
In September 2003, Pascoe was appointed vice-chairman of the London bid
for the 2012 Summer Olympics
, which was ultimately successful.
in 1975 and an honorary doctorate
from Brunel University
in 1997.
MBE
MBE can stand for:* Mail Boxes Etc.* Management by exception* Master of Bioethics* Master of Bioscience Enterprise* Master of Business Engineering* Master of Business Economics* Mean Biased Error...
(born 11 October 1947) was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
athlete who gained success in hurdles
Hurdling
Hurdling is a type of track and field race.- Distances :There are sprint hurdle races and long hurdle races. The standard sprint hurdle race is 110 meters for men and 100 meters for women. The standard long hurdle race is 400 meters for both men and women...
. After his athletics career, he has been successful in events marketing
Promotion (marketing)
Promotion is one of the four elements of marketing mix . It is the communication link between sellers and buyers for the purpose of influencing, informing, or persuading a potential buyer's purchasing decision....
and consulting.
Early life and education
Pascoe was born in PortsmouthPortsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
, England. He was educated at Portsmouth Southern Grammar School. He undertook higher education at Borough Road College, Isleworth
Isleworth
Isleworth is a small town of Saxon origin sited within the London Borough of Hounslow in west London, England. It lies immediately east of the town of Hounslow and west of the River Thames and its tributary the River Crane. Isleworth's original area of settlement, alongside the Thames, is known as...
, where he received a Certificate in Education
Certificate in Education
The Certificate in Education is a professional qualification for teachers in the United Kingdom. There have been two incarnations of the Cert Ed over the years.-New Cert Ed:...
, and the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
, where he received an Honours degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in Education. He married Della Patricia James in 1970. They have one son and one daughter.
Medals
Pascoe won medals in the Olympic GamesOlympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
, the European Championships
European Championships in Athletics
The European Athletics Championships is an event organized by the European Athletic Association. It is organised every four years, the same year as the Commonwealth Games and between the Summer Olympic Games cycle. After the 2010 Championships in Barcelona, the European Championships will take...
, and the Commonwealth Games
Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games is an international, multi-sport event involving athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 and takes place every four years....
., also the European Indoor Games.
The 1974 Commonwealth Games victory achieved two distinctions, first as achieving the second fastest 400 metre hurdle race to that date (only behind the then world record by David Hemery
David Hemery
David Peter Hemery, CBE, is a British former athlete, winner of the 400m hurdles at the 1968 Summer Olympics.He was born in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, but his father's work took the family to the United States, where he attended school and graduated from Boston University.Hemery's first...
at 48.8. Then in celebration performed one of the great televised bloopers. While doing his victory lap in reverse, Pascoe attempted to leap the last hurdle still remaining from the race and badly missed the hurdle, falling onto his back and denting the hurdle. Trying to regain his dignity, he circled around to attempt the jump the hurdle in another lane and fell identically. Laughing it off, he got up again and started turning over the other hurdles. See the video.
Olympics:
- Silver, 4 x 400 m Relay, 1972
European Championships:
- Bronze, 110 m Hurdles, 1969
- Silver, 110 m Hurdles, 1971
- Gold, 400 m Hurdles, 1974
- Gold, 4 x 400 m Relay, 1974
Commonwealth Games:
- Gold, 400 m Hurdles, 1974
- Silver, 4 x 400 m Relay, 1974
- Bronze, 400 m Hurdles, 1978
European Indoor Games:
- Gold, 50 m Hurdles, 1969
Personal bests
Pascoe's personal best times are:- 200 m, 15 July 1972, London, 20.92
- 110 m Hurdles, 17 June 1972, Edinburgh, 13.79
- 400 m Hurdles, 30 June 1975, Stockholm, 48.59
Career outside competitive athletics
Pascoe competed in athletics at a time when it was supposed to be an amateur activity. He thus needed paid employment during his athletics career. He was a teacher at Dulwich CollegeDulwich College
Dulwich College is an independent school for boys in Dulwich, southeast London, England. The college was founded in 1619 by Edward Alleyn, a successful Elizabethan actor, with the original purpose of educating 12 poor scholars as the foundation of "God's Gift". It currently has about 1,600 boys,...
(1971–1974), and a lecturer in physical education
Physical education
Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....
at Borough Road College, Isleworth (1974–1980).
Pascoe was also able to get financial support during the 1970s from membership of several QUANGO
Quango
Quango or qango is an acronym used notably in the United Kingdom, Ireland and elsewhere to label an organisation to which government has devolved power...
s; the Sports Council
Sport England
Sport England is the brand name for the English Sports Council and is a non-departmental public body under the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
(1974–1980), the Minister for Sports' Working Party on Centres of Sporting Excellence (1975–1979), and the BBC Advisory Council (1975–1979).
After competitive athletics, Pascoe became involved in events marketing and consulting. He set up Alan Pascoe Associates Ltd. (later named API), of which he was Director (1976–1983), Managing Director (1983), Chairman (1985–1988) and CEO (1994–1998). Pascoe sold API in 1998, then started another company, Fast Track Events Ltd., of which he is the Chairman.
Other business appointments were as a Director of the Aegis Group (later named WCRS) (1986–1992) and Chairman of Carat Sponsorship (1987–1992).
Pascoe criticised the British government for withdrawing from hosting the World Athletics Championships
IAAF World Championships in Athletics
The World Championships in Athletics is an event organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations . Originally, it was organised every four years, but this changed in 1991, and it has since been organised biennially.-History:...
in 2001. He claimed that the Prime Minister, Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
, had broken a written undertaking to host the games. Pascoe believed that the decision amounted to the sport being cold-bloodedly "stabbed in the back". He believed that Blair had damaged Britain, by making the nation look foolish, and by causing the loss of both GBP
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
15-20 million in revenue, and a stadium suitable for top-class athletics. Such a stadium, he believed, was essential for developing home talent into world-class athletes.
In September 2003, Pascoe was appointed vice-chairman of the London bid
London 2012 Olympic bid
London 2012 was the successful bid for the 2012 Summer Games, to be held in London with most events taking place in Stratford, Newham. The British Olympic Association had been working on the bid since 1997...
for the 2012 Summer Olympics
2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the "London 2012 Olympic Games", are scheduled to take place in London, England, United Kingdom from 27 July to 12 August 2012...
, which was ultimately successful.
Honours
Pascoe received an MBEOrder of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1975 and an honorary doctorate
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
from Brunel University
Brunel University
Brunel University is a public research university located in Uxbridge, London, United Kingdom. The university is named after the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel....
in 1997.
See also
- Olympic medalists in athletics (men)Olympic medalists in athletics (men)This is the complete list of men's Olympic medalists in athletics from 1896 to 2008.- 100 metres :- 200 metres :- 400 metres :- 800 metres :- 1500 metres :- 5000 metres :- 10,000 metres :- Marathon :...
- Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the 1972 Summer OlympicsGreat Britain and Northern Ireland at the 1972 Summer OlympicsThe United Kingdom competed as Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany. 284 competitors, 210 men and 74 women, took part in 159 events in 18 sports...
- Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the 1976 Summer OlympicsGreat Britain and Northern Ireland at the 1976 Summer OlympicsThe United Kingdom competed as Great Britain at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada. 242 competitors, 176 men and 66 women, took part in 148 events in 17 sports...
- 1969 European Championships in Athletics1969 European Championships in AthleticsThe 9th European Athletics Championships were held from 16 September to 21 September 1969 in the Karaiskaki Stadium of Athens, the capital of Greece. New at these championships were the women's 1,500 metres and the women's 4x400 metres relay event....
- 1971 European Championships in Athletics1971 European Championships in AthleticsThe 10th European Athletics Championships were held from 10 August to 15 August 1971 in the Olympic Stadium of Helsinki, the capital of Finland.-Track:1966 |1969 |1971 |1974 |1978-Field:1966 |1969 |1971 |1974 |1978-Track:...
- 1974 European Championships in Athletics1974 European Championships in AthleticsThe 11th European Athletics Championships was held from 2 September to 8 September 1974 in the Stadio Olimpico of Rome, the capital of Italy.-Track:1969 |1971 |1974 |1978 |1982-Field:1969 |1971 |1974 |1978 |1982-Track:1969 |1971 |1974 |1978 |1982...
- 1974 British Commonwealth Games1974 British Commonwealth GamesThe 1974 British Commonwealth Games were held in Christchurch, New Zealand from 24 January to 2 February 1974. The bid vote was held in Edinburgh at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games....
- 1978 Commonwealth Games1978 Commonwealth GamesThe 1978 Commonwealth Games were held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, from 3 to 12 August 1978, two years after the 1976 Summer Olympics were held in Montreal, Quebec...
Further reading
- Photograph of Alan Pascoe, from the BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
website - Fast Track Events Ltd., website of Pascoe's sports events marketing company
