With the Olympics less than a year away, the expectation and pressure being heaped on the nation’s sportsmen and women to perform and win medals is immense, writes Graham Moody.

But athletics is not just about winning and taking home gold medals, as a new book by Croydon Harriers’ head coach, and former world class 800m runner, Mike Fleet, promotes.

I Also Ran, by Mike Who is the 73-year-old’s first book and an autobiographical look at the sport he has been involved in all his life – he was Britain’s top 800m in the early 1960s, missing out on a place in the 1964 Olympics due to illness and then going into coaching at Harriers shortly after.

“Hopefully, the book is motivational in that I try to reveal experiences in Athletics and the things that make it rewarding,” said Fleet, who was born in Streatham, grew up in Thornton Heath, and now lives in Purley.

“It is a good way of life with the experiences it opens up to you with the places you travel to.

“I wanted to show that just because you get a knock, it is not the end and athletics is a really rewarding career, if you just enjoy it and have fun.

“That is shown by some of the sections about my career, some of the serious things, some of the funny things and some of the sad things that happen.

“At 18, I raced against Chris Chataway and at the 1962 World Student Games I won bronze with the relay team which included Sir Menzies Campbell.

“I topped the GB junior rankings one year and the senior rankings one year, but the senior year didn’t coincide with the Olympics.

“I was fifth that year and you don’t take five people to the Olympics, it was a big blow not to go, but not the end of the world and I still enjoyed my athletics career, and that’s what I want to get across to people.”

Fleet’s beliefs have spread to the athletes he has coached, which include Don Faircloth, a medallist in the marathon at the 1970 Commonwealth Games, Olympic finalist Donna Fraser and more recently Martyn Rooney.

“Mike was the first coach I ever had, he made athletics fun for me and something I could train hard at but enjoy,” said Rooney.

“He instilled in me to make sure I enjoyed myself and I do enjoy what I do, that is why I do it.

“If I didn’t, I would stop.”

Fleet, whose book has been backed by Lexus Croydon, has produced a number of commemorative bookmarks signed by athletes such as Sir Roger Bannister to raise money for Cardiac Risk in the Young, in memory of Cecilia Barriga, a promising Croydon Harrier runner who died aged 14 of an undiagnosed heart defect.

They and the book can be bought by visiting ialsoran.co.uk.