Alan is pictured above competing for Middlesex at the Inter Counties Championship.
Later that year Lerwill won a bronze medal at the
Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.
It could have been better, however, as
his jump of 7.94m was the same as Phil May
but it was the Australian who
took the silver by virtue of his second longest jump
being further than
Alan's.
Four years later, in Christchurch, Lerwill enjoyed his greatest
moment when winning gold
by just 2cm from Australia's Chris Commons.
Ironically enough Alan's jump was once again 7.94m!
Lerwill was a
talented all round jumper and finished in 10th place in the Triple Jump
at the 1970 & '74 Commonwealths. More remarkable, though, was the
fact that he set
a UK High Jump record of 2.10m in 1973!
Alan retired
from Athletics having just missed out on selection for the 1976
Olympics.
Alan was an outstanding coach and had a huge influence on a number of athletes over
the years. Alan was the jumps coach at Millfield School, where he met Jazmin Sawyers,
and coached her from a teenager to two times British Champion, an Olympic finalist
and silver medallist at the European Championships. He died on 6th February 2021.
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