Alan Paterson

ON August 3, 1947, dozens of young kids reported to casualty departments at various Glasgow hospitals. Attempting to leap over clothes props balanced on towers of dustbins on concrete back courts took a steady toll in breaks and sprains as the kids attempted to emulate the latest national sporting hero, Alan Paterson.

The day before, in front of a crowd of 72,000, according to The Glasgow Herald of the day, Paterson had broken the British high jump record at the Ibrox sports, fore-

runner of the modern grand prix athletics meeting.

According to eyewitness Tom McNab, the former British national coach and champion triple jumper, a Rangers v Celtic five-a-side tie was held up, with one of the Celtic players sitting on the ball at the instigation of the crowd: ''You could have heard a pin drop as Paterson went over, having tied a handkerchief round the bar.''

He did so in order to focus on it better, which would not be allowed today, but nor would jumping off grass, into firm sand - no foam pit luxury in those days. Using his own modification of the now-extinct Western Roll, Paterson reached 6ft 71/2in (2.02 metres), equalling the UK all-comers' record. American Bill Vessie had cleared that height at the first attempt, and so won the contest, but a star had been born.

Paterson was even modelled for Madame Tussaud's.

McDonald Bailey clocked 10.4sec for 100m on grass at the same meeting, reckoned to match Jesse Owens's 10.2 world record, set on cinders.

Alan Sinclair Paterson was educated at Hutchesons' Grammar School, and stood 6ft 63/4in tall - exactly two metres. He was the first British jumper to clear that height, at an international meeting in Antwerp, in July 1946.

A month earlier, he had broken the British record which had stood for 25 years. He was only 17 when he set the first of four Scottish records, and went on to win European Championship silver in Oslo with 1.96m, and gold in Brussels (also 1.96m) four years later. When Steve Smith won European silver in 1994, in Helsinki (2.33m, using the Fosbury Flop), it was Britain's first medal in the event since Paterson.

The bulk of the Scottish team travelled to New Zealand by boat for the 1950 Empire Games, but Vic-toria Park's Paterson could not get off work as a trainee chartered accountant. Cinema magnate, Sir Alexander King, paid for him to fly, via Iceland, Gander, Hawaii, and Fiji. Despite competing in the northern winter, Paterson tied for the

silver medal with Nigerian J Majekodunmi. They both cleared 6ft 5ins, 1in less than John Winter of Australia, the Olympic champion.

With his father, William, as British Olympic coach, Paterson competed in two Olympics. He was seventh, with 1.90m in London, in 1948, but failed to reach the final in Helsinki four years later. Winter cleared 6ft 6in, the same as Paterson's best at that time, to win gold, which proved the biggest disappointment of Paterson's career.

Paterson did not compete ser-iously again after Helsinki, and emigrated to Canada. On a visit home

in the mid-1960s contemporaries reported he had expanded to some 17 stones, and he suffered ill-health in later years. He is survived by his wife, Mary, and four sons. His sister, Johanna, is a noted pianist, and lives in London.