David Robert Moorcroft (born 10 April 1953) is a former middle-distance and long-distance runner from England, and former world record holder for 5,000 metres. His athletic career spanned the late-1970s and 1980s. He subsequently served as the Chief Executive of UK Athletics from 1997 to 2007. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1983 and promoted to an Officer (OBE) in 1999, in both cases for services to athletics. Early life Moorcroft was born to Robert and Mildred (née Hardy) Moorcroft on 10 April 1953 in Coventry, Warwickshire and he has an elder sister Valerie. He was a pupil at Woodlands Comprehensive School and Tile Hill College. He studied Physical Education and Sport Science at Loughborough University. He has been a member of the Coventry Godiva Harriers athletics club since 1964 and is currently the club's president. Running Moorcroft made his senior debut for Great Britain in 1973 and competed in his first Olympic Games in Montreal 1976, placing seventh in the 1,500-metre final. He won gold in the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton at 1500 metres. Just four weeks later, he won the bronze medal at the same distance in the European Athletics Championships in Prague. In the 1980 Moscow Olympics, he suffered from stomach problems and was eliminated in the 5,000-metres semifinals. Moorcroft had a remarkable season in 1982, where he broke the 5,000 m World Record by 5.79 seconds (without the use of pace-making). His time of 13:00.41 set at the Bislett Games in Oslo stood for three years until broken by Saïd Aouita (though it remained a British record until 2010). He remains the last non-African to set a 5,000 m world record. In the 1982 running season, he set a personal record in most distances, but probably ran too many races or for some other reason lost his peak shape before the European Athletics Championships in Athens. There he took the bronze medal at 5,000 metres, losing to West Germany's Thomas Wessinghage and East Germany's Werner Schildhauer. The same year, he won gold in the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane over 5,000 m, he broke the European and British 3,000 m record with a time of 7:32.79 and he demonstrated his lower end range by recording 1:46.64 for 800 m and 3:49.34 for the mile. His 3,000 m time remained a British record until it was broken by