Two-time Olympian and long-time tv commentator at occasions just like the Summer season and Winter Olympics, Superstars and World’s Strongest Man was 74
As an athlete, Paul Dickenson competed within the 1976 and 1980 Olympics with a hammer better of 73.20m. As a coach, he suggested amongst others the present UK No.1 Jake Norris. As a tv commentator he labored on the Olympics from 1992 to 2014.
“Dicko”, as he was identified to many, was maybe finest identified for his tv work and will probably be sorely missed after dying on Tuesday just some days earlier than his seventy fifth birthday.
He specialised in area occasions protection for BBC however was versatile sufficient to commentate on different disciplines along with competitions similar to World’s Strongest Man, Superstars and the Winter Olympics. Educated and with a robust and authoritative voice, he was a well-liked and acquainted commentator in observe and area particularly for a few years.
As a younger athlete, Dickenson featured in Athletics Weekly in 1965 when he was featured within the ‘Highlight on Youth’ column and was described as “essentially the most thrilling youth hammer thrower Britain has ever had”.
Paul Dickenson (Mark Shearman)
He was launched to the hammer by his PE trainer at Tynemouth Grammar Faculty, Carl Johnson, who later turned his long-time coach.
After successful 5 consecutive English Colleges titles within the mid-Nineteen Sixties, he went on to interrupt the UK file in 1976 with a efficiency that also locations him twenty first on the UK all-time rankings almost half a century later.
Paul Dickenson (Mark Shearman)
He went on to compete within the 1976 and 1980 Olympics and the Commonwealth Video games of 1978 and 1982, ending simply exterior the medals within the latter.
A lifelong athlete, he was nonetheless throwing competitively nicely into his 60s and hammer throwers he has coached embrace the 2018 world under-20 champion Norris, plus brothers Taylor and Bayley Campbell.
Paul Dickenson with Rob Walker on the England Athletics awards (Mark Shearman)
In broadcasting, his first job was a trackside interview with Carl Lewis on the 1987 World Championships and in 1990 he was promoted to the commentary field on the Commonwealth Video games.
He was as soon as requested for the key of fine commentating and stated: “You’ve acquired to sound educated and also you’ve acquired to make it sound simple. I may be commentating to an auntie or an uncle who won’t know something about athletics, so that you’ve acquired to make it sound quite simple. That requires an enormous quantity of background studying and preparation.”
Jake Norris (Mark Shearman)
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