Basil Heatley

Who is Basil Heatley?

Benjamin Basil Heatley is a British former athlete, who mainly competed in the marathon.

On 13 July 1964 Heatley broke the world record for the marathon at the Polytechnic Marathon in England, running a 2:13:56 to surpass Leonard Edelen's world best from the previous year's race by 32 seconds. Three months later, on 21 October 1964, Heatley competed in the men's marathon in the 1964 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan. Defending Olympic marathon champion Abebe Bikila won another Olympic gold medal in another world record time. Heatley managed to stay close to Japan's Kokichi Tsuburaya and passed Tsuburaya shortly before the finish line to win the silver medal.