Cathal Dennehy: Happy 90th birthday, Ronnie Delany - the man who blazed a trail for Irish athletics

On Thursday, Delany celebrated his 90th birthday, and if there’s one thing that’s defined his life for the past 69 years, since that fateful day in Melbourne, it’s that he’s carried himself off the track with the same class and grace he showed on it.

GOLDEN MOMENT: Ronnie Delany winning the 1,500 metres at the Melbourne Olympic Games of 1956 sparked huge interest in athletics at home. He remains Ireland’s last Olympic gold medallist in athletics.

IT was a race he shouldn’t have won. Yet he did. With one lap left in the Olympic 1500m final in 1956, Ronnie Delany was in a dire position: 11th, stuck in a box, with men flanking from either side. He’d a full tank of petrol, but nowhere to run.

In that situation, most athletes would panic, especially a 21-year-old college kid facing the world’s best in the most important race he’d ever run. But not Delany.