Patrick 'Pat' Gerard Scammell (born 15 April 1961) is a retired Australian runner who specialized in the 1500 metres. Scammell competed at both the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games, reaching the semi-finals of the 1500 metres in 1988. He also competed at the 1987 and 1991 World Championships, as well as the 1982, 1986, 1990 and 1994 Commonwealth Games. After coming second on four previous occasions, Scammell was Australian 1500 metres champion in 1992, his first Australian title.
Born and raised in Albury (NSW), Scammell first trained under David Jones, before moving to Canberra. Throughout his 16-year career, he was coached by Pat Clohessy and Chris 'Rab' Wardlaw in Australia. During his time in the European 1986 - 1990 seasons, he was guided by John Anderson in London.
Scammell can claim to be the Australian who has clocked more sub 4 minute miles than any other in Australia, a total of 28 times. The first time was in 1982 and in 1991 he set what would be his lifetime best of 3:53.58.
A strong supporter of Australian athletics, Scammell is the only Australian in the top 10 All time 1500m rankings of Australian athletes to have set their lifetime the best time on Australian soil. His list of key personal bests are;
800m 1:45.74 Burnaby (CAN) 16.07.1984
1000m 2:17.98 London (GBR) 22.08.1987
1500m 3:34.61 Melbourne (AUS) 17.03.1988
Mile 3:53.58 Melbourne (AUS) 07.02.1991
2000m 5:03.62 Köln (GER) 19.08.1990
3000m 7:53.38 Canberra (AUS) 01.12.1990
Following his retirement, Scammell remains active in the sport he loves. He has been a board member of Athletics Victoria, worked at the Australian Masters Games, Australian Sports Commission, Athletics Tasmania and more recently as a Senior Advisor to the Victorian Sports Minister.
With links to the Border Track & Field Club and Glenhuntly Athletics Club, Scammell also coached many athletes, including Richard Welsh (2003 Australian 1500m finalist), Kevin Laws (Australian representative in Mt Running), Adam Byles (Victorian Country Champion), Matt Gibney (Australian U'20 800m, 1500m champion). Pat was fitness coach for North Albury AFL Football Club in the Ovens and Murray League in 2011 and 2012.
Sebastian Newbold Coe, Baron Coe, often referred to as Seb Coe, is a British politician and former track and field athlete. As a middle-distance runner, Coe won four Olympic medals, including 1500 metres gold medals at the Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984. He set nine outdoor and three indoor world records in middle-distance track events – including, in 1979, setting three world records in the space of 41 days – and the world record he set in the 800 metres in 1981 remained unbroken until 1997. Coe's rivalries with fellow Britons Steve Ovett and Steve Cram dominated middle-distance racing for much of the 1980s.
Stephen Michael James Ovett, is a retired British track athlete. A middle-distance runner, he was the gold medalist in the 800 metres at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. Ovett set five world records for 1500 metres and the mile run, and a world record at two miles. He won 45 consecutive 1500 and mile races from 1977 to 1980.
Abdi Bile is a former middle distance runner. He holds the highest number of national records in athletics in Somalia across various disciplines. He is currently Somalia's national record holder in nine athletic disciplines, and is thus far Somalia's most decorated athlete in history.
Peter Elliott is a former middle-distance runner from the United Kingdom. During his career, he won the gold medal in the 1500 metres at the 1990 Commonwealth Games, the silver medal in the 1500 metres at the 1988 Olympic Games, and the silver medal in the 800 metres at the 1987 World Championships.
Jemma Louise Simpson OLY is a British athlete who competes in the 800 metres and 1500 metres. She is a former British champion over 800m, winning both 2007, 2009 and 2010 British Championships. She was formerly coached by Olympic medallist Mark Rowland.
Kirsty Margaret Wade is a British former middle-distance runner. She is a three-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist representing Wales, winning the 800 metres in Brisbane 1982 and both the 800 metres and 1500 metres in Edinburgh 1986. She represented Great Britain at the 1988 Olympic Games and the 1992 Olympic Games.
Cornelia Bürki is a South African-born retired long-distance runner who represented Switzerland in three consecutive Olympic Games, starting in 1980, with her best result being fifth in the 1984 3000 metres final. She is a 47-time Swiss national outdoor champion, which includes a fifteen-year undefeated streak in cross country and fifteen consecutive titles over 1500 metres, from 1975 to 1989. She was voted the Swiss Sports Personality of the Year in 1978. That year, she finished fifth at the 1978 IAAF World Cross Country Championships. She was fourth in the 1500m and 3000m finals at the 1987 World Championships.
Christina Tracy Boxer-Cahill is a retired female middle distance athlete from England. She represented Great Britain at three Olympic Games, in Moscow 1980, Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988 and trained at Aldershot, Farnham & District AC. In Seoul, she finished fourth in the 1500 metres final. She also won a gold medal in the 1500 m at the 1982 Commonwealth Games. In 1979, she became the first British woman in history to run the 800 metres in under two-minutes.
Richard David Telford AM is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Collingwood and Fitzroy in the Victorian Football League (VFL) during the 1960s, although he mainly played reserves. He went on to become as a leading Australian sport scientist and distance running coach. He was the first sport scientist employed by the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS).
Sam Rickard is an Australian vision impaired Paralympic athlete. He competed in four successive Paralympic Games 1988 to 2000, winning a bronze medal at the 1992 Barcelona Games. His nickname was 'the Sparrow'.
Taoufik Makhloufi is an Algerian athlete who specialises in middle-distance running. He became the 1500 metres Olympic champion at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England. In 2016, Makhloufi took the silver medal in the 800m and 1500 m at the Summer Olympics in Rio, Brazil.
Jake Lappin is an Australian para-athlete competing as a wheelchair racer. He represented Australia at the London 2012 Summer Paralympics and at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Michael Roeger is an Australian T46 athletics competitor. He competed at the 2008, 2012, and 2016 and 2020 Summer Paralympics athletics in middle distance and marathon running events. He has won one gold and three bronze medals at the IPC Athletics World Championships and a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Paralympics. His gold in the Men's T46 marathon at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships was held as part of the London Marathon, set a new world record. Roeger competed at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics in the marathon.
Matthew Silcocks is an Australian athletics competitor. He was selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in athletics. He finished sixth in the 1500m, in a time of 3:59.79.
Kristy Pond is an Australian athletics competitor. She was selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in athletics in the 100 metre and 200 metre events. She did not medal at the 2012 Games.
Sam Harding is an Australian Paralympic athlete. His classification is T12 and competes in 400m and the 800m events. He represented Australia at the 2020 Summer Paralympics, his second Games.
Lisa Corrigan is an Australian middle-distance runner and the current Australian record holder over the one mile where she set a time of 4.22.6 in 2007. She set her personal best time of 4:05.25, by winning the women's 1500 metres at the Telstra Athletics Series in Sydney. She ran a personal best to beat Tamsyn Lewis over the 800m in 2007 in 2.01.5. She has represented Australia at the Oceania championships 1999, youth commonwealth games 2000, World youth championships 2001, Ekiden relays, Melbourne commonwealth Games 2006, world championships 2007 and Olympic Games 2008.
Jake Wightman is a British middle-distance runner who primarily competes in the 1500 metres. He won the gold medal at the 2022 World Championships, the first global gold in a middle distance event for a British male since Seb Coe's 1500 m title at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. At the European Athletics Championships, Wightman earned a bronze in 2018 and a silver for the 800 metres in 2022. He won bronze medals at the 2018 and 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Luke Mathews is an Australian middle-distance runner who competes in the 800 metres and 1500 metres. He represented his country in both events at the 2016 Summer Olympics. As well as in the 4 × 800 m at the 2017 IAAF World Relays, the 1500m at the 2017 IAAF World Championships and in both events at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. He also competed for Australia at 2019 World Athletics Championships in the 800 m.
Patrick Andrew "Pat" Clohessy AM is an Australian runner and distance running coach.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
