... broke the world record for the men's marathon four times in the 1950s. In the Polytechnic Marathon of 1953 he became the first runner to complete a marathon in under 2 hours 20 minutes – an achievement that (according to Wikipedia) was equated to the first sub–four–minute mile.
He is probably best remembered however for the disaster that he suffered in the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. Entering the stadium ten minutes ahead of his own world record time (as well as seventeen minutes ahead of the next competitor – Scotland's Joe McGhee), he collapsed from exhaustion and dehydration. After taking an agonising eleven minutes to cover the first 200 yards of the final lap of the track, he collapsed yet again on what he believed to be the finishing line. At this point he was caught by the team's masseur and laid on a stretcher. He was unconscious for three hours, and was detained in hospital for several days. He never competed again.
Forty years later, aged 75, he told The Guardian, "I was lucky not to have died that day." He added that the Duke of Edinburgh had sent him a special Commonwealth medal, inscribed "J. Peters – a most gallant marathon runner".
You can read more about it, and watch some of the agonising newsreel footage, here.
© Haydn Thompson 2021