Frank Sando

{{Short description|British long-distance runner (1931–2012)}} {{EngvarB|date=August 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}} {{Infobox sportsperson | name = | image = FrankSando.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Sando winning the International Cross Country Championship in Belgium, 1957. | nationality = British (English) | birth_date = 14 March 1931 | birth_place = Maidstone, England | death_date = 12 October 2012 (aged 81) | death_place = | height =171 cm | weight =52 kg | sport = Athletics | event = long-distance | club = Aylesford Paper Mills SC | medaltemplates = {{Medal|Sport |Men's athletics}} {{Medal|Country|{{GBR2}}}} {{Medal|Competition|European Championships}} {{Medal|Bronze|1954 Bern|10,000 m}} {{Medal|Country|{{ENG}}}} {{Medal|Competition|British Empire and Commonwealth Games}} {{Medal|Silver|1954 Vancouver|6 miles}} {{Medal|Bronze|1954 Vancouver|3 miles}} {{Medal|Competition|International Cross Country Championships}} {{Medal|Gold|1955 San Sebastian|Men's race}} {{Medal|Gold|1957 Waregem|Men's race}} {{Medal|Silver|1953 Paris|Men's race}} {{Medal|Silver|1956 Belfast|Men's race}} {{Medal|Silver|1959 Lisbon|Men's race}} {{Medal|Bronze|1958 Cardiff|Men's race}} | show-medals = }}

'''Frank Dennis Sando''' (14 March 1931 – 13 October 2012) was a British long-distance runner. A two-time winner at the International Cross Country Championships (1955, 1957), Sando represented Great Britain in two consecutive Summer Olympic Games.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.racingpast.ca/john_contents.php?id=168 |title=Frank Sando |publisher=Racingpast.ca |date= |accessdate=19 October 2012}}</ref>

== Early life == Sando was born on 31 March 1931 in Maidstone, to Ernest and Maria Sando. Attending Maidstone Grammar School, Sando first began his involvement in athletics at sixteen, breaking the school mile record. Simultaneously, he began an amateur career at Maidstone Harriers, winning the Kent County Junior Cross-Country Championship in 1948 and the Kent Youth Cross-Country Championship in 1949. He finished fourth in the English Youth Cross-Country Championship in 1948 and 1949.

Having left school, Sando undertook National Service in October 1949, joining the army. In 1951, he broke the Army three-mile record which had stood for 23 years, having previously that year won the Inter-Services Cross-Country Championship.

== Senior career == Leaving the army in 1951, he began working for the Reed Paper Group in Aylesford, Kent, where he met his future wife Sybil Page. After resigning from Maidstone Harriers, Sando joined the Paper Group's athletics club, juggling work, professional examinations, family commitments and his athletic career. It was at this time that he gained the nickname: the "Maidstone Mudlark".

The following year, 1952, he finished fifth in the English National Cross Country Championships and ninth in the International Cross-Country Championships. Over the next eight years Sando maintained a record of finishing in the top eight positions in the International Championships, as well as an extended period of captaincy of the British team over seven years. In 1952 he was called up to represent Great Britain at the Helsinki Olympic Games, in the 10,000 m. It was in this event that he famously lost a shoe early in the race but, continuing on with one bare foot, he still managed to finish in fifth position. Also in 1952, he finished third behind Gordon Pirie in the 6 miles event at the 1952 AAA Championships.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000540/19520623/190/0007 |title=Results |newspaper=The Scotsman |date=23 June 1952 |via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |access-date=21 April 2025}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=July 2025}} He would finish runner-up in the AAAs every year from 1953<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000687/19530711/176/0006 |title=Results of AAA finals |work=Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer |date=11 July 1953 |via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |access-date=24 April 2025}}</ref> to 1956.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nuts.org.uk/Champs/AAA/index.htm |title=AAA, WAAA and National Championships Medallists |website=National Union of Track Statisticians |access-date=21 April 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gbrathletics.com/bc/aaa.htm |title=AAA Championships (men) |website=GBR Athletics |access-date=21 April 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000324/19540713/008/0008 |title=Pirie may not oppose Zatopek |newspaper=Hull Daily Mail |date=13 July 1954 |via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |access-date=25 April 2025}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=July 2025}}

In 1954 Sando represented the English team<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003295/19540622/094/0005 |title=England pick strong team for Empire Games |work=Halifax Evening Courier |date=22 June 1954 |via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |access-date=18 September 2025}}</ref> in the British Empire and Commonwealth Games, where he finished second in the six miles to Peter Driver and third in the three miles to Chris Chataway. Later in that year he finished third in the 10,000 m in the European Athletics Championships in Berne, Switzerland – which was won by Emil Zátopek. He married Sybil Page in September of the same year.

Sando went on to win the International Cross-Country Championships in San Sebastien, Spain in 1955. In 1956, after returning from injury, he finished second in the International Cross-Country Championships. Running well in the domestic track season of 1956, Sando was selected to represent Great Britain in the 10,000 m in the Olympics of that year, where he finished in tenth position. He later described this as the greatest disappointment of his athletic career, and it was the final time he represented his country on the track. In 1957 Sando won the National Cross-Country Championship at Parliament Hill Fields and the International Championships.

The International Championships of 1958 resulted in a 3rd-place finish for Sando and, in the two consecutive years, he finished 2nd and 8th in the same competition. However, in 1961 he failed to qualify for the national cross-country team. He subsequently decided to retire from serious athletics to concentrate on family commitments and further study, bringing to an end a long sporting career at the top of world athletics.

He was one of many signatories in a letter to ''The Times'' on 17 July 1958 opposing 'the policy of apartheid' in international sport and defending 'the principle of racial equality which is embodied in the Declaration of the Olympic Games'.<ref>Brown and Hogsbjerg, ''Apartheid is not a game'', 16</ref>

== Later life == After retiring from athletics, Sando studied at Birkbeck College and graduated with a degree in Statistics in 1964. The following year he resigned from the Reeds Paper Group and joined the Civil Service. He retired from the Civil Service in 1991 as Chief Statistician.

Sando continued his involvement with athletics in an organisational capacity into his later years, having been President of Kent County Athletics Association in 1980 and 2003, as well as various other administrative roles within the county organisation. Subsequent to his presidency of KCAA, he continued to be involved in organising grass roots cross-country events. From 2007–2008, Sando served as President of the Old Maidstonian Society.

== Family and personal life == Sando was married to Sybil and the couple had two children – Lorraine and Andrew – and two grandchildren. Until his death in October 2012, Frank continued to live in Aylesford, Kent with his wife – within sight of the Aylesford Paper Mill training ground where his athletic career first began.

== References == {{reflist}} * Brown, Geoff and Hogsbjerg, Christian. ''Apartheid is not a Game: Remembering the Stop the Seventy Tour campaign.'' London: Redwords, 2020. {{ISBN|9781912926589}}.

== External links == * {{SR/Olympics profile|sa/frank-sando-1|archive=20090418023111}} * {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120916143802/http://www.britishpathe.com/video/empire-games-chataways-3-mile-triumph |date=16 September 2012 |title=Empire Games - Chataway's 3 Mile Triumph 1954}} * {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120316155546/http://www.s195364797.websitehome.co.uk/bah/images/46_49extract.pdf |date=16 March 2012 |title=Starting out in the 1940s}} * {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120916143720/http://www.britishpathe.com/video/britains-1-2-3 |date=16 September 2012 |title=Britain's 1-2-3 1957}} * {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070828152618/http://www.olympics.org.uk/athleterecord.aspx?at=2739 |date=28 August 2007 |title=British Olympic Committee}} * {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131216014837/http://www.athleticsweekly.com/news/distance-legend-sando-dies/ |date=16 December 2013 |title=Frank Sando's obituary}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sando, Frank}} Category:1931 births Category:2012 deaths Category:Military personnel from Kent Category:20th-century British Army personnel Category:British Army soldiers Category:Sportspeople from Maidstone Category:English men long-distance runners Category:British men long-distance runners Category:Olympic athletes for Great Britain Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1952 Summer Olympics Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1956 Summer Olympics Category:Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England Category:Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Category:European Athletics Championships medalists Category:International Cross Country Championships winners Category:People educated at Maidstone Grammar School Category:Alumni of Birkbeck, University of London Category:Medallists at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Category:20th-century English sportsmen Category:Commonwealth Games silver medallists in athletics Category:Commonwealth Games bronze medallists in athletics