Clifton Bradeley was born in the UK but on his first birthday emigrated to Australia with his family. He ran everywhere as a child and when his family returned to the UK he was soon to be recognised as a promising young schools athlete.

His school athletics career culminated in three All-England Schools titles both on the track and cross-country. This included smashing Steve Cram's long-standing senior boys 1500m record. Clifton's 1985 championship record of 3.45.6min/secs still stands to this day. He went on to win silver at 1500m in the world schools games and was set to become a senior Great Britain and England international athlete at the age of nineteen often running along side Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe.

Clifton Bradeley was born in the UK but on his first birthday emigrated to Australia with his family. He ran everywhere as a child and when his family returned to the UK he was soon to be recognised as a promising young schools athlete. His school athletics career culminated in three All-England Schools titles both on the track and cross-country. This included smashing Steve Cram's long-standing senior boys 1500m record. Clifton's 1985 championship record of 3.45.6min/secs still stands to this day. He went on to win silver at 1500m in the world schools games and was set to become a senior Great Britain and England international athlete at the age of nineteen.

As a senior England and Great Britain International athlete Clifton presented his country both at track and cross-country. He finished 20th in the World Cross-Country Championships in 1983 and was heading for the 1988 Olympics. He was now set to replace the likes of Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett as Britain’s number one 1500m runners and miler.

Clifton will tell you that the greatest moment of his running life was when he was asked to take the place of an injured Sebastian Coe in the England V USA indoor match at Cosford Indoor Arena on March 9th 1985. Coe was the current Olympic champion and wanted to be the first man ever to run a sub-4 minute mile in doors on British soil. This was one of the last great sporting milestones left to be broken. Clifton took his place in the starting line up against Olympic medalist Jim Spivey (USA), James Mays (USA), Bob Verbeke etc. Clifton broke the UK All-Comers record becoming the first man to run sub-4 minute mile on British soil; the first Staffordshire man to run under 4 minutes for the mile and the fastest man in the world at that time. Clifton Bradeley had arrived on the world athletics stage!

Tragedy followed. Unknown to Clifton at that time he had an anatomically long right leg by approximately 8mm, which meant he was very suited and fast off the bend on an outside running track but should never had run indoors anti-clockwise with the indoor track chambered up to the right. This placed a great deal of stress on his pelvis creating unexplainable pain at the pubic symphisis (one of the joints that joins each side of the pelvis together). Within two weeks Clifton's was diagnosed with Osteitis pubis a career finishing injury due the long period of time it takes to heal, due to poor blood supply to the area. Unknown to Clifton at the time, his international running career was sadly over.

Two years later and still injured Clifton decided to take up the offer of treatment at Iowa State University where he remained for twelve long months receiving treatment every day. Clifton developed a strong friendship with Danny Harris (Olympic Silver medalist behind the great Ed Moses in the 1984 Olympic 400m hurdles final). Danny was also injured and it was during the long daily treatment sessions that they became friends. A decision was taken to send Clifton and Danny to see a Sports Podiatrist in New York City who specialised in biomechanics. Clifton received his first set of bespoke functional orthoses, which helped him, recover over a further two years. On his return to England Clifton was so impressed that he trained to become a Sports Podiatrist himself specialising in biomechanics.

He trained intensively at Huddersfield University; Manchester Metropolitan University; Nene College Northampton and is now the managing director and clinical director of Sub-4 Ltd (orthotics and biomechanics lab).He has treated over 15000 athletes over twenty years and now works for a number of top sports peronalities all over the world. Clifton works for a number of top premiership football clubs and has assessed footballers like Michael Owen, Kieron Dyer, Nicky Butt and other England internationals. Clifton is currently on a nationwide tour of 21 courses where he shares his clinical skills with other practitioners interested in sports biomechanics and thinking out of the box. He also works extensively with ASICS the footwear company as their biomechanics consultant and is currently helping a number of young athletes prepare for the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games.

Did you know you can learn more about the benefits of biomechanics in sport and also arrange a personal consulatation with Clifton through his website! Simply click here and jump to his new website.