Olympic silver medallist in the 4x400m relay at the 1984 Los Angeles Games
When Britain's Olympic medallists from previous games stood shoulder to shoulder during the opening ceremony for the 2012 London Olympics, it was fitting that Todd Bennett, who has died of cancer aged 51, should have shared that emotion-charged moment with two of his greatest friends in athletics, Roger Black and Kriss Akabusi. The three men had trained together in Southampton, coached by Mike Smith, and had remained close after their years as international athletes in what is now regarded as a golden era of British 400m running.
Bennett, a member of the Southampton Athletic Club, had been a talented junior and first made his mark by winning the 400m gold medal in 1981 at the European junior championships. But he was physically small, only 5ft 7in and weighing around 10 stone, compared with most of the leading one-lap runners many of whom stand well over 6ft tall. For an outdoor runner, Bennett was "simply too small", according to Black, to have ever reached the pinnacle of his sport in the individual event.
Nevertheless, he won a silver medal in the 4x400m at the Los Angeles Olympics of 1984, alongside Akabusi, Garry Cook and Phil Brown, in a British and European record time of 2min 59.13sec. "Todd was quiet on the outside, but steely inside. He was like a terrier, his head up, his arms going like pistons," said Akabusi, who ran the opening leg.
But it was as an indoor competitor that Bennett was truly exceptional. Around the tight bends of 200m tracks, his size was no longer a disadvantage. Instead, he found he was able to motor across the boards more rapidly than big men whose stride length and bulk had an adverse effect on their performance. In 1985, he won 400m gold at the European indoor championships in Athens in what was then a world record time of 45.56sec. In the same year, Bennett took silver in the world indoor championships in Paris and would retain his European title when the event was staged two years later in Liévin, France.
It was because of Bennett that the young Akabusi had first gravitated to Smith's Southampton base. "They were making noises in the junior ranks, and I went in search of Mike. It was the relationship between Todd and Mike that I plugged into. It was their spirit and ethos," said Akabusi. Others would follow, including, notably, Black and Iwan Thomas.
"Training alongside Todd and Kriss was brutal," Black recalls. "It was so hard. I was a young athlete coming through and Todd was incredibly tough. He was so gutsy. Not a runner of great finesse, but you knew you had to run to beat him. He was fit and dedicated."
Bennett was born in Southampton and brought up in Romsey, Hampshire. When Smith first encountered him, Bennett was in his teens and had just competed in the Salisbury Around the Houses race, a three-mile event. "Did you enjoy that?" said Smith to the young athlete. "No, I hated it," said Bennett. "It was pretty obvious he was running in the wrong events," said Smith, who suggested he become a sprinter instead.
The Great Britain national team coach in Bennett's era, Mike Whittingham, said that "Todd represented the kind of athlete we are always looking for. He got the best out of himself and worked incredibly hard. Then he gave something back as a coach. He gave so much time to others. In an era when sportsmen and women seem overly concerned with what they make financially, Todd showed that there is a lot more to sport than merely making money."
Hamstring trouble cut short Bennett's years as an elite runner – he retired in 1992 – but he maintained his connections with the sport. He worked with Great Britain's junior athletes and was their team manager for four years. He also trained his own group of athletes and maintained close links with the Southampton club, for whom he was coach and team manager. In 2008 Bennett linked up with the Olympic sprint relay gold medallist Darren Campbell in the Team Superschools' Challenge, whose aim was to promote sport to schoolchildren.
Bennett's childhood sweetheart Vanessa, who became his wife, survives him, along with their two children, Aaron and Daena.
• Todd Anthony Bennett, athlete, born 6 July 1962; died 16 July 2013