BERNARD   LINLEY

DATE OF BIRTH: June 15, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH: Port of Spain, Trinidad
EDUCATION:
  • St. Mary's College, Port of Spain (1949 - 1959)
  • University of St. Andrews, Scotland (1960 - 1964, MA Social Science)
  • Barcelona University, Spain (1962 - 1963)
  • CAREER:                                       Linley was very active in sports while in high school and was a keen competitor in athletics copping the 880 yard event in 1958 with a time of 2:09.6. His interest in athletics inspired him to collect and forward information on athletic competition results from Trinidad to the Association of Track & Field Statisticians (ATFS). He went on to become a member of the ATFS in 1955 specializing in covering athletics competition results in Central America and the Caribbean (CAC). While studying in Scotland, he was the East Scotland 440-yard champion in 1961 with a time of 51.3 seconds. In 1964, he began working at the United Nations (UN) in Trinidad and, after two years, transferred to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) headquarters in Rome, Italy, where he learned to hurdle. He went on to set the Trinidad National 400 meters hurdles record in 1969 with a time of 52.4 seconds. In 1970, he competed in the 400 meters hurdles at the CAC Games in Panama City, Panama, and published the first CAC Athletics Handbook that included the CAC All-Time list and results of all CAC Games finals from 1926 to 1966. In 1977, he published the first of 18 "Caribbean Athletics Annual," and, in 1987, wrote the biography of the 1976 Olympics 100 meters champion "Hasely The Trinidad Flyer." He was elected to the ATFS Executive Committee in 1992 and nominated to the Central American and Caribbean Athletic Confederation (CACAC) Hall of Fame in 2003. Over the years, Linley has contributed feature articles to specialist magazines in Puerto Rico (Panathlete), Italy (Atletica Leggera and Atletica), Canada (Athletics), Argentina (A Sus Marcas), England (Track Stats), Trinidad (TT Runner), and the Trinidad Guardian. He retired from the UN in 2000 and continues to reside in Switzerland.
    Compiled by Ronald C. Emrit