The Ghost Runner: The Tragedy of the Man They Couldn't Stop

In his first book, Jones, a longtime documentary filmmaker for Granada TV, tells the story of the 1960s British runner John Tarrant (1932–75). That story illustrates how so-called "old fat men" ruled British amateur sports and strictly adhered to Victorian standards of amateurism, thus closing participation in international and Olympic sports to working-class Britons, who lacked independent means to train and compete without stipends or funding. Jones relates how Tarrant was declared a professional and thus barred from international competition for accepting about $250 in expense money once as a teenage boxer before he switched to running. Tarrant won many road races and set several world records between 1960 and 1970, often as a "ghost runner," i.e., an unofficial and unregistered participant. For a decade and a half, Tarrant unsuccessfully and bitterly fought against the amateur establishment for the right to race officially and represent Britain internationally. Jones vividly captures the world of the 1960s British working class and club athletes, who worked days, trained evenings, and competed weekends.