Jeff Teale

Although the record books show that Jeff Teale was the AAAs shot put champion in 1968 and 1969, he was actually the British champion four times. As the highest placed UK thrower in 1967 and 1970, when he finished second to Dawid Booysen (South Africa) and Les Mills (New Zealand) respectively, Teale was the champion. In third place in 1970 was Geoff Capes and that was the only time Capes was beaten by a fellow Briton between then and his retirement in 1980. Teale finished second to Capes in the 1972 AAAs and was third on two other occasions. Teale was, however, the AAA indoor champion in 1968 and 1970.

Teale’s first major honour was in winning the Northern shot title in 1964, and he went on to win it six years in succession, and again in 1971 and 1972. He also won the Northern discus title in 1971. A Yorkshire coalminer at the Ledston Luck colliery near Castleford, Teale went to the Mexico Olympics and qualified for the shot final, finishing tenth. Two years later at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games at Edinburgh, however, he won the silver medal behind Canada’s Dave Steen.

Because he was finding it a financial struggle being an amateur athlete, Teale planned to turn professional at the end of the 1970 season and compete on the Scottish Highland Games circuit, but changed his mind. Teale’s career ended abruptly in January 1974 as a result of an interview with a national British newspaper the previous November, when he admitted taking anabolic steroids shortly after the 1967 AAAs and having been a regular user for five years. Teale was banned for life by the BAAB.

Personal Best: SP – 19.18 (1968).