Mike Baxter: 1971 AAA 5000m champion and international competitor at European, Commonwealth and World Cross events
PICTURES: MARK SHEARMAN
MIKE BAXTER was one of Leeds City’s star athletes from over 40 years ago. In 1968, he was fourth in the AAA 5000m then he had a further breakthrough in the winter where he was second in the 1969 Northern cross-country to Trevor Wright, followed by a sixth place in the National at Parliament Hill to Mike Tagg.
Over this period, Brendan Foster moved to the area and regularly trained with Baxter and Lindsay Dunn and he finally reached international level on the track and made Britain’s team for the 1969 European Championships in Athens.