Mike Booth

At the age of 11, Mike Booth swam for Huddersfield schools but soon got bored with the sport and took up gymnastics, and at 16 won the 1963 British Junior Championship at Cheltenham. Booth was runner-up in the senior British championships in 1966 but was in the Yorkshire team that won that year’s Adams Trophy for the national team title. The following year Booth was again runner-up in the national championships and won the Adams Shield once more, but his time with Huddersfield Gymnastics Club. The following year Booth went to the World Student Games in Tokyo as the only British representative in the gymnastics events.

Booth went on to enjoy his finest moment in 1968 when, coached by his father Stan, he won the senior men’s British title at the London’s Albert Hall. Booth competed in 38 international matches for GB including the 1968 Olympics, and three World and three European Championships between 1966-74. He announced his retirement after the 1974 Worlds at the age of 28 to concentrate on the sportswear manufacturing business, Continental Sports Limited, that he started in 1964.