Clive Citreon Olaf LONGE

Clive Longe was a basketball player in his native Guyana but after joining the British Royal Air Force his talents as an athlete were discovered by former British decathlon Hywel Williams whilst both were stationed at RAF St. Athan in Wales. Under Williams’ tutelage Longe won the Welsh title in 1964 and later the same year broke his mentor’s Welsh record with 6342 pts, before going on to win silver for his adopted nation in the 1966 Commonwealth Games decathlon in Kingston, Jamaica. In his other major championship appearances Longe finished 9th at the 1966 European Championship but failed to finish the 1970 version of the same championships. He placed 13th in his sole Olympic appearance in 1968 800 points behind the winner. Longe held Welsh records for discus, pole vault and decathlon (the latter stood for 25 years) and broke the British decathlon record on 8 occasions.

Upon retiring from competition Longe accepted a position as national athletics coach for Bermuda. This was a post he held until his death in tragic circumstances on Christmas Eve in 1986. It is believed that Longe strangled his estranged girlfriend before committing suicide himself.

Longe’s daughter, Tania, was also a multi-eventer and competed for her mother’s home country of Norway in the heptathlon. She was also Norwegian champion in high hurdles, long jump and discus. In 2014 she was part of the Norwegian delegation to the Sochi Winter Games as a masseuse.

Personal Best: Dec – 7308 (1969).