Alistair Fergus Murray, b. Dundee, 11 September 1942. Outstanding distance runner who competed at 2 Commonwealth Games and the Olympics. (Photo: DC Thomson)

An outstanding distance runner over track, road and cross country, Fergus Murray achieved Olympic Games 10,000 metres selection at the early age of 22, and represented Scotland in both the Commonwealth Games in Jamaica in 1966 and Edinburgh in 1970.

A student at Edinburgh University, Murray won the Scottish junior cross country title in 1963, taking the senior title in each of the following three years. He displayed his unorthodox style when winning the 1966 title in bare feet on the muddy surface of Hamilton racecourse ahead of Lachie Stewart and also gained five international vests for Scotland in the international cross country championships between 1964 and 1971. He was a member of the Edinburgh University squad who carried out punishing training schedules of over 100 miles per week that developed talent to its fullest potential. He won six national track titles, three at 3 miles and two at 6 miles, recording the testing 3/6 mile double title win in 1964. He also became the first to win the national title over the new 10,000 metres distance in 1969 in 29 minutes 34.2 seconds.

The first glimpse of his enormous talent emerged in 1963 when, as a twenty-year-old, he recorded 13:32.6 for 3 miles, a time he improved the following year to 13:29.2 in the AAA Championships. The Olympic year of 1964 saw him win, just eleven days after his AAA run, an international 5,000 race in 13:49.0, the fourth fastest time ever recorded by a British athlete. This time was second best by a Briton, eighth in the European and fourteenth in world rankings that year. His distance-running versatility was confirmed when he ran 10,000 in 29:10.4 on his 22nd birthday in Poland and he was selected for the British team for the Tokyo Olympic Games 10,000. Unfortunately, a heavy cold prevented him from realising his best and he finished a disappointing 22nd in 30:22.4. An outstanding season in 1965 saw Murray set Scottish national, native and all-comers’ records of 13:25.4 for 3 miles in the early season East District Championships at Edinburgh, subsequently improving to 13:21.2 and 13:19.0 (3rd in the British and 19th in the World rankings) in races in England. He won the 5,000 bronze medal in 13:52.6 at the World Universities’ Championships at Budapest that year.

He recorded similar ability over the longer track distances, setting a best at 6 miles of 27:42.96 when sixth in the 1967 AAA Championships. His great strength and stamina, which were to prove so important in his marathon races, were confirmed over track 10 mile races. In 1964 he set a Scottish record of 49:41.0 when finishing second behind Mel Batty’s world record 47:26.8. He further improved his record to 47:45.2 in 1967. It should be remembered that all these world-class times were recorded on soggy, unhelpful cinder tracks and not on the fast tartan tracks in use in the modern era.

With this successful record of long distance track running behind him, he stepped up to the marathon distance at the early age of just 22. Much was expected from him when he entered Shettleston Harriers’ multi-lap marathon event in the east end of Glasgow in April 1965. He won the race in 2 hours 18 minutes 30 seconds to achieve the first sub-2:20 time ever recorded in Scotland and became the first Scotsman to run under 2:20 inside Scotland, beating 2 times Scottish champion Alastair Wood by 33 seconds. Two years later he won the prestigious Polytechnic marathon in 2:19:06 in a year when Scottish marathoners dominated the British rankings, occupying the top five places.

In Commonwealth Games year of 1970 the Scottish marathon championship were held over the Games course, starting and finishing at Meadowbank Stadium. In a top-class race no fewer than six athletes, five of them Scots, bettered 2:20 in the greatest in-depth event ever seen in Scotland. Jim Alder won in the championship record time of 2:17:11, just 3 seconds ahead of Donald Macgregor. Murray was third in 2:18:25, just 21 seconds outside his best of 2:18:04 recorded in mid-winter in Kyoto, Japan, having competed with just 4 days’ notice of his selection, travelling halfway round the world to compete against a strong international field.

The Games marathon itself followed just nine weeks after the selection trial race. It was a wonderful race, won by Ron Hill in the British record time of 2:09:28 from Jim Alder who set a Scottish record 2:12:04, gaining the silver medal four years after his title winning run in Jamaica in 1966. Murray ran with his Edinburgh Southern club mate Donald Macgregor, lying back from the fierce early pace in the hope that those in front would eventually drop back in the second half of the race. The two Scots passed 10 miles (49:30), 15 miles (75:02) and 20 miles (1:42:02) before Murray, parting company from Macgregor, set off in pursuit of the leaders to eventually finish seventh in a lifetime best 2:15:32, having gained 1 minute 21 seconds from Macgregor, who finished eighth in 2:16:53.

He had ended his competitive career by the time the 1972 Olympics came round. It is worth noting that he was only 27 at the time of the Edinburgh Games and that his close friend and clubmate, Donald Macgregor, was 28 when he started running marathons. “If only ...” are the most used and abused words in athletics, but if only we had seen a few more years of action and achievement in his mature years from Fergus Murray, marathon man, who knows what might have resulted.