Bill Cotterell

Bill Cotterell had a memorable year in 1924. He won the National Cross-county Championship, the International Cross-country Championship (both individual and team), the AAA 4-mile title, and was selected for the Olympics. His luck ran out the day after winning his AAA title, however, when the motorcycle he was riding was in collision with a London bus and he fractured a collar bone. This was just three weeks before the Paris Olympics and he was forced to miss the Games.

Cotterell served as a signalman in the Royal Corps of Signals and won many Command and national Army titles at both cross-country and distance running. He was runner-up in the International Cross-country Championship at Glasgow in 1922 and that year finished third in the AAA 4-miles, in a race won by the legendary Paavo Nurmi. Cotterell won the first of many Southern Counties cross-country titles in 1923 and, the following year, won the first of two national cross-country titles. He represented England in international matches against continental opposition on the track and at cross-county, and in 1929 Cotterell won the International Cross-country Championship for a second team. He was also a member of the winning England team twice, in 1924 and 1925.