Herb Elliott

Athlete, born in Perth, Western Australia. Winner of the gold medal in the 1500 m at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, his time of 3 min 35·6 s for that event was unbeaten for seven years. He was never beaten on level terms over a mile or 1500 m, and he ran the sub-4-minute mile 17 times. In 1958 he won the Comonwealth Games double at 880 yards and the mile. He was noted for the rigour and severity of his training schedule.

Herbert James ("Herb") Elliott (February 25, 1938) was an Australian athlete, one of the world's greatest middle distance runners.

Elliott, a native of Perth, Western Australia, set a new world record for the mile on August 6, 1958 (3.54,5) at Morton Stadium in Dublin and broke the 1500 metres world record the same year.

Elliott credited his visionary and iconoclastic coach, Percy Cerutty, with inspiration to train harder and more naturally than anyone of his era.

Elliott retired from athletics in May 1961.

He was one of the bearers of the Olympic Torch at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and entered the stadium for the final segment before the lighting of the Olympic Flame. http://www.aquinas.wa.edu.au

Olympian althlete and Old Aquinian "Herb Elliot" was recently ranked in Western Australia's 100 most influential people