Peter Warden

Peter Warden was born in the Spen Valley district of West Yorkshire and attended Heckmondwike Grammar School and later Loughborough College. He was a top-class athlete with a flair for cross-country running before switching to track racing. While competing as a junior in 1960, Warden added the senior Yorkshire 440 and 440 hurdles titles to the junior 220 and 440 ones he already held.

Warden never won a AAA title but was second in the 440 yards hurdles to John Cooper in 1964, and two years later was second to John Sherwood. He had another podium finish in 1967 when he was third behind Sherwood and Andy Toff. Warden did, however, win six Northern Counties titles, at 440 in 1963-64 and 440 H in 1963 and 1965-67.

Warden went to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics but failed to qualify for the 400 hurdles final. He was also a reserve to the 4x400 relay squad that won silver. Two years later at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games at Kingston, Jamaica, Warden won silver in both the hurdles and 4x440 yards relay. Also in 1966 he won the British Games 440H in a championship record and added the 220 yards sprint title.

Warden became a lecturer at St. John´s College, York and a teacher at Hull University. In 1973 he married his second wife Chris Howell, a two-times Northern Counties 400 metres champion. Warden became an athletics coach in the late 1970s and was the senior coach for the north-west of England until 1997 when he was one of 21 coaches and officials made redundant by the British Athletic Federation in a cost-cutting exercise.

Personal Best: 400H – 50.68 (1966).