A love for athletics runs in the Morrell family.

Tony used to run for the GB athletic team and has represented his country in major finals. Now his two sons, Richard and Adam, have high hopes of emulating their father's success.



IT was a familiar sight on television.

Hartlepool's best Tony Morrell was battling it out on the athletics track with the likes of Seb Coe and Steve Cram.

Nowadays the father-of-four uses running as a way of keeping fit – and to check on the development of his two sons.

He said: "I still get out a few times a week to keep the calories off. I usually go running round by Wooler Road and near Ward Jackson Park and then up by Hart Village.

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"Every now and again I will go out running with the two lads but not very often because they are both busy and compete a lot.

"They both run for a club in Middlesbrough and are both very serious about it. They can't run in the town because there simply isn't the facilities for them and that is a big bane of contention for me."

The 45-year-old, from Bishop Cuthbert, Hartlepool, is now a sales director for a telecommunications firm and while he no longer runs competitively he takes a lot of pleasure from watching his two sons race.

Tony's sons from a previous marriage, Richard Morrell, 20, and Adam Morrell, 16, both run for Middlesbrough Mandale Athletic Club and have high hopes of following in their father's footsteps.

Richard, who is studying radiography at Teesside University, travels all over the country to compete.

He said: "I love to run and hopefully I will get somewhere near my dad's level. It wasn't until I went to college that I really started focusing on my training.

"I train seven days a week and it does take a lot of dedication. I would love to run for the GB team but I don't have any firm long-term ambitions because I prefer to keep my goals achievable and take small steps."

Adam is in his first year at Hartlepool Sixth Form College and has been with the same Middlesbrough-based club for four years.

He said: "Most people think that my dad made us go into running but to be fair I wasn't into it that much until I got to school. It wasn't until Year 11 that I joined the athletics group and started taking it really seriously.

"We get coached by Gordon Surtees who was the Olympic coach for the GB team and he also used to coach my dad. I know we are in safe hands."

"My brother is quite quick but he is four years older and when I'm that age I will be quicker. I want to be a professional and I do get a lot of enjoyment out of it. I want to be the best in the world at both 800m and 1,500m."

Dad Tony didn't start running professionally until he was 25.
Tony said: "I started life as a pipe fitter and combined that with running. It wasn't until I started to break into the top 50 for the 800m that I dedicated more time to it. I left work at 25 and for the next four or five years my life was dedicated to training and competing."

Tony is well aware of the pressures that his teenage sons face if they want to make it all the way to the top. "It is a very unforgiving sport. There are lots more lows than highs and if you get injured it can wipe out a whole season's work. You are always on that knife edge.

"I used to train two, sometimes three, times a day and if I wasn't training then I was sleeping. That was my life. I was very much dedicated to my sport and didn't drink from the age of 19 until about 30.

"They boys are now equally dedicated and they respect what I did because they know how hard it is. They have the utmost respect for it and they do listen and take on board what I tell them."

Tony has two daughters Jessica, two, and Lily, four, with second wife, Elizabeth, a 32-year-old NHS human resource officer.

He was a key member of the GB middle distance athletic team and in 1987 he represented his country at the World Championships in Rome running the 800m.

He also ran in the 1500m at the Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1990.

Tony is proud of his running career and he is second fastest on the all-time indoors list for 800m behind Seb Coe.

In 1988 he missed Coe's world record by just under seven tenths of a second.

And while Tony may be happy that they are both doing well, he reckons he would easily beat them in a 60m dash.

He said: "If we had an 800m race now then Richard would probably win but I'm convinced that I'm still quicker than them both over 60m."