Frank Southall
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Medal record | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Competitor for  Great Britain |
|||
| Road bicycle racing | |||
| Olympic Games | |||
| Silver | 1928 Amsterdam | Individual road race | |
| Silver | 1928 Amsterdam | Team road race | |
| Track cycling | |||
| Olympic Games | |||
| Bronze | 1932 Los Angeles | Team pursuit | |
Frank Southall (2 July 1904-1 March 1964) was an English racing cyclist who won silver medals for Great Britain in the individual road race (run as an individual time trial) at the 1928 Summer Olympics and a track cycling medal at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He also represented Britain in world championships from 1926 to 1933.
Southall, who rode for the south London Norwood Paragon cycling club, broke numerous time trial and Road Records Association place-to-place records in domestic competitions, winning the first four British Best All-Rounder (BBAR) competitions from 1930 to 1933.
Contents |
[edit] Records
He broke his first record on Easter Monday 1925, when he won the Etna 50-mile time trial on the Bath Road course in 2h 8m 31s, beating the record by five minutes. He followed this by breaking the one-hour record at Herne Hill Velodrome on 26 May by almost 1400 yards to record 25 miles 1520 yards.[1]
He then improved the 50-mile record in the same event the following year and broke the world amateur hour record with 26 miles and 838 yards at Herne Hill in June 1926. Southall was selected by the National Cyclists' Union to represent Britain at the 1926 world road race championship, where he finished eighth.[2]
In 1927, Southall again broke the 50-mile record in the Etna event, recording 2h 5m 7s. On 24 July, he broke the RRA London-Brighton and back record by 13 minutes, with 4h 53m 20s.[3]
On 5 August 1928 in Amsterdam, with Harry Wyld, Percy Wyld and Leonard Wyld, he broke the team pursuit Olympic record in 5:01.6, beating the previous record by 9.2 seconds. They were only the third team to hold the record since it began on 10 August 1920. It was broken by 10.2 seconds next day before standing for nearly eight years.[4]
In 1930, Southall finished seventh in the world road race championship (an individual time trial in Denmark) and broke the national 100-mile time trial record with 4h 32m 46s.[5]
In 1932, Southall narrowly missed a medal in the Olympic road race (the last run as an individual time trial). He finished sixth, and with Charles Holland 15th and Stan Butler 16th, the Great Britain team finished fourth overall. In the team pursuit, Britain, with Southall, beat Canada to take bronze.
In 1933, Southall and Stan Butler rode the Oak Tandem 100, winning in 4h 1m 3s, beating the record by two minutes. Southall now held six single and tandem competition records (25, 50 and 100 miles single and 30, 50 and 100 miles tandem).[6]
[edit] Amateur achievements
After winning his first BBAR he was invited to sign the Golden Book of Cycling. His entry says:
Southall holds the world's unpaced standing start track records at one, five, ten and twenty miles. He also holds 28 national track records. On the road he has won every classic open event, including hill-climbs, making competition records at 25, 50 and 100 miles.[7]
[edit] Professional
He turned professional in 1934 to attack place-to-place records, there being no professional road racing in Britain. He broke nine records in two years.
Later he managed the professional careers of Ken Joy and Eileen Sheridan and became manager of the Hercules professional team. He was elected president of Norwood Paragon in 1953.[8]
[edit] References
- ^ History of Norwood Paragon CC - 1925
- ^ History of Norwood Paragon CC - 1926
- ^ History of Norwood Paragon CC - 1927
- ^ Olympic.org Records, Cycling - Track
- ^ History of Norwood Paragon CC - 1930
- ^ History of Norwood Paragon CC - 1933
- ^ Woodland, L. (2005), This Island Race, Mousehold Press, ISBN 1-874739-36-6, p.39
- ^ History of Norwood Paragon CC - 1953
