Tributes for Lindsay Dunn

BRENDAN FOSTER, CHARLIE SPEDDING AND OTHERS SAY FAREWELL TO ONE OF BRITAIN’S MOST PROLIFIC AND ADMIRED ENDURANCE COACHES

- JASON HENDERSON

BRENDAN FOSTER says the sport has “lost part of its conscience” and “one of its guiding lights” in the shape of Lindsay Dunn, who died last Thursday aged 77.

The north-east-based coach guided Foster to European and Commonwealth titles in the 1970s in addition to mentoring hundreds of other international and leading domestic distance runners in subsequent years.

Dunn was born in Richmond but moved to Leeds, where he shared a flat with Foster during his early years in the sport. The duo trained together and were part of the all-conquering Gateshead Harriers team of the 1970s and Dunn began coaching Foster followed by many others as his experience increased.

Foster told AW: “The sport of athletics has lost part of its conscience. The numerous athletes he coached and advised over 50 years have lost their guiding light. I’ve personally lost the most influential person of my athletics life but most significantly I’ve lost a truly great mate.

“Lindsay stimulated my drive and ambition to become an international athlete and then, over the years, helped and advised me to reach that level. We lived together, we trained together, we studied running together, we planned races together, we argued about runners together, but most memorably we laughed together. He was a lifelong friend and I, like many, owe him a lot. ‘Big L’, I will miss you terribly.” Dunn was a good runner himself – winning the North East mile title and being a member of the Gateshead teams that won national cross-country and road-relay titles – but he proved an even better coach as he helped Foster become a world record-holder.