I went Chataway

I met Christopher Chataway (Obituary, 20 January) when I ran for Atalanta (Scottish Universities) against Achilles (Oxford & Cambridge) in an athletics match at Iffley Road in 1962. It was a time when the two associations provided the power-house of the Scottish and English track-and-field teams and the old warhorse was there to report for the BBC.

He was a man of indisputable charm and I can still see him with cigar and pint, holding court in the Lamb and Flag with the likes of Menzies Campbell and Adrian Metcalf.

It was, of course, another age but the 5,000 metre race at White City in 1954, when he beat Vladimir Kuts in a new world record, was one of the great moments in British sport.

He was a one-nation Tory of the old school and meeting him in the springtime of life was the catalyst in changing my political views away from those of my socialist father.

(Dr) John Cameron

Howard Place

St Andrews