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Examples of Sports - John Tarrant the Ghost Runner

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John Tarrant's background

What makes John Tarrant such a great example?

John Tarrant's background

John Tarrant was an English long-distance runner banned for life from amateur athletics in 1952 after admitting he had once been paid a small sum, 17 pounds in total, for a brief teenage career as a boxer. Undeterred, he took to gatecrashing races without a number, earning the nickname 'the Ghost Runner' from the press, and was eventually allowed to compete nationally again from 1958, though he remained ineligible for England selection and so never ran at the Olympics. He later turned to ultra-marathons, setting world records over 40 and 100 miles.

What makes John Tarrant such a great example?

Birth of John Tarrant

John Tarrant makes a good example of a chart built around defiance of an unjust ruling rather than around any single race or medal: the whole shape of his career, running uninvited, unnumbered and unpaid, was a direct response to a lifetime ban imposed for something most people would consider trivial.

The chart shown is the birth of John Tarrant, set at midday, with the time his career ended as transits, set at 6:31am.