Died: October 26, 2020.
DAVID Gracie, who has died aged 93, was a world-class Scottish amateur athlete in the early 1950s, whose relatively brief career resulted in his not being accorded the extent of recognition he perhaps deserved.
His specialist event was the 440 yards/400 metres hurdles in which he reached the Helsinki 1952 Olympics semi-final and was unfortunate not to advance. Achieving this after only one year’s experience of the demanding event, with extremely basic training facilities and negligible coaching, was remarkable and highly praiseworthy.
As the Glasgow Herald noted, Gracie “went out in much the hotter semi-final of the 400 metres hurdles, but he did himself especial credit. He beat [Roland] Blackman, the third American, and [Rune] Larsson, a former Olympic finalist, and was in the race right to the last few yards. His time of 52.4 seconds was the best-ever of a British athlete, and about four yards faster than [Harry] Whittle’s English native record”.