Edward James Allsopp (born 15 August 1926 in Edenhope, Victoria

Edenhope, Victoria

Edenhope is a town in Victoria, Australia. It is located on the Wimmera Highway, 30 kilometres from the South Australian border, in the Shire of West Wimmera local government area...

) was Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

's leading male race walker

Race walking

Racewalking, or race walking, is a long-distance athletic event. Although it is a foot race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times...

 in the 1950s

1950s

The 1950s or The Fifties was the decade that began on January 1, 1950 and ended on December 31, 1959. The decade was the sixth decade of the 20th century...

. He set his personal best (4:20.00) in the men's 50 km in 1966.

Allsopp took up race walking in 1945 at the age of 18 years and was immediately successful with third places in the 1946 and 1947 Australian 10 km championships and a break through win in the 1948 Australian 10 km title in 49:09. This was the start of the longest top level career of any Australian walker, before or since. Over the next 26 years he won 23 national (11 gold) and 66 Victorian (32 gold) road medals.

Achievements

Year	Tournament	Venue	Result	Event
1956	Olympic Games Athletics at the 1956 Summer Olympics At the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, 33 athletics events were contested, 24 for men and 9 for women. There were a total number of 720 participating athletes from 61 countries.-Men's events:-Women's events:-Medal table:-References:**...	Melbourne, Australia	10th	20 km
			DSQ	50 km
1964	Olympic Games Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics At the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, the athletics competition included 36 events, 24 for men and 12 for women. The women's 400 metres and women's pentathlon events were newly introduced at these Games. There were a total number of 1016 participating athletes from 82 countries.-Men's...	Tokyo, Japan	17th	50 km Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics - Men's 50 kilometre walk The men's 50 kilometres walk was the longer of the two men's race walking events on the Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics program in Tokyo, as well as the longest event on the program. It was held on 18 October 1964...