At a ceremony held at the MOWA World Indoor Athletics Exhibition in the St. Enoch Centre, Glasgow, on 2 March, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe announced that a World Athletics Heritage Plaque would be awarded in the posthumous category of 'Legend' to 'The Flying Scotsman' Eric Liddell.
Thursday (11) marks the centenary of Liddell’s 400m victory in the Paris 1924 Olympic Games. The anniversary is being marked this year by the charity The Eric Liddell Community, which aims to bring his achievements to life and to inspire new generations to make a positive impact on their community, their society and their world through ‘The Eric Liddell 100’.
As the six competitors prepared to take their marks for the Olympic men’s 400m final at Stade Colombes on the afternoon of 11 July 1924, the hush was temporarily broken by the Cameron Highlanders marching band striking up a swift rendition of ‘Scotland the Brave’.
There could not have been a more fitting note on which to herald one of the classic moments in track and field history, immortalised in the Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire with its memorable Vangelis theme-track.
Throughout his cruelly shortened life, Liddell was the bravest of Scots.
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