Personal information | |
---|---|
Full name | Eric William Hall |
Nationality | British |
Born | Oxshott, Surrey, England | 15 September 1932
Died | 20 March 2022 | (aged 89)
Sport | |
Sport | Athletics |
Event | Racewalking |
Eric William Hall (15 September 1932 – 20 March 2022) [1] was a British racewalker. [2] He competed at the 1956 Summer Olympics and the 1960 Summer Olympics, [3] and was a member of the Belgrave Harriers. [4]
Hall was born in Oxshott, Surrey, in 1932. [5] He went to the Tiffin Grammar School in Kingston upon Thames, [4] where he took up cross country running and cricket. [1] He became a racewalker after doing weekend walks from the house his grandmother lived in. [2] In November 1948, at the age of sixteen, he joined the Belgrave Harriers. [1] After leaving school, Hall joined the Customs and Excise Office. [6]
Hall won nine Surrey County Road Walking titles over multiple distances. [1] Stan Vickers also joined the Belgrave Harriers, and he and Hall began to race against each other. [1] In 1955, Hall finished third in the National Road Walking Championships, and a year later, he finished in second place in the National 50km event. [2] That performance was good enough to earn Hall selection on the British Olympic team. [1]
Hall competed at two Olympic Games. [7] At the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Hall competed in the men's 50 kilometres walk, where he finished in ninth place. [8] Four years later, at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, he competed in the men's 20 kilometres walk, finishing in tenth place. [9] He also entered the trials for the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, but was not selected after finishing in fifth place. [1]
He became the president of the Belgrave Harriers in 1999, [2] and later became the treasurer of the British Olympians Society. [1] Hall died in March 2022, at the age of 89. [10] At the time of his death, Hall was the oldest member of the Belgrave Harriers. [11]