Voices of Sport: Ron Pickering - The popular athletics commentator who also presented We are the Champions and Superstars

In our weekly series, Yahoo Sport’s Nick Metcalfe features a famous voice of sport. This week, the BBC athletics commentator Ron Pickering goes under the spotlight.

Ron Pickering was a voice millions of sports fans came to know very well for more than 20 years. A lifelong lover of track and field, Pickering was a regular presence for the BBC at all the athletics events that mattered.

Pickering also presented the popular programmes We are the Champions and Superstars in the 1970s and 1980s. For a time, he was one of the most familiar faces on the BBC.

Many of us still miss his measured tones when Olympic Games and World Championships roll along, and within athletics there will always be great respect and affection for him.

London-born, Pickering became a PE teacher after school and university, and married Jean Desforges, an Olympic and Commonwealth medalist in both sprint relays and long jump.

When he was in his early thirties, Pickering moved to Cardiff to become national athletics coach for Wales. He coached several Olympic athletes, including the great Lynn Davies, who won long jump gold at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

Many years later, Pickering recalled first coming across Davies, saying: “There was this slim young lad. He didn’t know what he was doing but he was such a talent. I said ‘listen, I know what the great game of rugby football is to Wales, but you could be the greatest athlete that Wales has ever seen.’ At that moment I absolutely believed it.”

Such was the depth of Pickering’s knowledge and sheer passion for athletics that the BBC wanted him as part of their commentary team. His first major event was the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games, where he worked alongside the great David Coleman, who I profiled in this series back in August.

The Games featured one of the most memorable moments in the history of athletics, an incredible world long jump record of 18.90m set by American Bob Beamon. It was Pickering’s first stand-out moment as a broadcaster.

“Here he goes for his opening leap. Oh it’s an enormous one, my goodness me it’s an enormous one. That’s surely shattered the Olympic record. Good gracious me, he was up in the air for an age it seemed. An incredible opening leap for Beaman.”

Pickering soon became a regular member of the BBC team at all the major athletics occasions, including the European Championships and Commonwealth Games, and from 1983 the World Championships.

The most special event was always the Olympic Games of course, which continued to weave its magic. The two Games of the 1970s, in Munich and Montreal, produced just one British athletics gold, for Mary Peters in the pentathlon in Germany. But in the 1980s there was wonderful British success, including two gold medals for decathlete Daley Thompson, and middle distance glory for Steve Ovett and Seb Coe.

Coleman was always the No.1 on the BBC team but the longer races often saw him share commentary with Pickering. And for field events, Pickering regularly commentated alongside Stuart Storey.

When Thompson began to take command of the decathlon at the 1984 Los Angeles Games Pickering, who knew the athlete very well, struggled to contain his excitement. As one throw of the discus flew past the 40m mark, his voice kept rising: “It’s a better one, it’s a better one, it’s a better one, it’s a better one.” He was almost shouting by the end. It was a superbly effective piece of commentary.

And when Britain’s Tessa Sanderson joyously claimed javelin gold at the same Games, Pickering was on duty again and managed to find just the right words.

“Tessa Sanderson walks out with the javelin but she can hardly hold it. This is a girl who started her international career at 16 years of age. For almost a decade she’s been in the headlines. In the last couple of years she’s just been in the shadow of Fatima Whitbread. But this is going to be her night tonight. Tessa Sanderson, her sixth and final throw. It’s not as far as her first, but who cares? She knows it and we know it, the gold medal is hers and that’s history. Fatima the first to go over, what a pair these have been for British field events and throwing in particular. A magnificent night here. A gold medal in a technically difficult event, a demanding event, and the girl who put British javelin throwing on the map takes the gold in Los Angeles.”

Pickering was always the same really, having a natural authority about him and a genuine passion, along with very good knowledge of those competing. As with so many broadcasters in this series, you never doubted for a second Pickering’s deep love of his sport. It shone through during every broadcast.

Pickering will also be remembered by a certain generation for his involvement with the popular children’s programme We are the Champions. Not only did Pickering help to create the show, but he presented it for nearly 20 years.

The series had a simple format and a timeless quality. Two schools would battle against each other in a series of athletics and swimming contests. It was aired at teatime and beloved by school children across the country, including many who weren’t ordinarily big fans of sport. A fair few adults were known to tune in too.

The programme contained what became a Pickering catchphrase. At the end of every show, he would tell children “Away You Go”, which was their signal to jump into the swimming pool.

Pickering was also a regular presenter of another BBC programme, Superstars, which featured sporting personalities competing against each other in various athletics disciplines. Pickering shared presenting duties with David Vine, who I profiled in this series last June.

Superstars, which was shown on BBC One in prime time, became a firm favourite with millions of viewers, and ran for 12 years, from 1973 to 1985. Pickering had become a well-known national figure.

But athletics always came first for him. Pickering was part of the BBC team at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. The track and field programme will sadly mostly be remembered for men’s 100m winner Ben Johnson being sent home from the Games in disgrace having failed a drugs test.

There were no British gold medallists in the athletics at the Games, with six silver medals including Colin Jackson in the men’s 110m hurdles and Liz McGolgan in the women’s 10,000m. Much of the action took place in the middle of the night in Britain. Otherwise it was more of the same. Coleman and Pickering behind the microphone at sport’s greatest show.

His involvement with the sport extended far beyond those big events of course. For some time, he was recreational manager at Lee Valley Regional Park, a place he was very proud of. He always believed in the unifying power of sport, particularly athletics.

It seems pretty obvious that Pickering would have worked at many more events for the BBC, long into the 1990s and beyond. But sadly he died in early 1991, a few weeks after undergoing a heart bypass operation. He was only 60.

The Ron Pickering Memorial Fund was founded soon after he died, and it has supported hundreds of young athletes every year. When Britain’s Linford Christie won 100m gold at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, he dedicated his triumph to Pickering.

Continuing the proud family tradition of involvement in the sport, Ron’s son Shaun represented Britain in the shot put at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and won a bronze medal for Wales at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur. In more recent times, he has been a coach with UK Athletics.

It seems incredible to think that 26 years have passed since Pickering died. The British people have always seemed to have a genuine love for athletics, and for those involved with the sport. Pickering was somebody we naturally trusted and just enjoyed listening to. He’ll always be remembered with real fondness.