Richard David Nerurkar MBE (born 6 January 1964) is a former track and field athlete from Great Britain, competing in the long-distance running events.

Personal life

Nerurkar was born in Wolverhampton, England, to an Indian father and English mother, he moved to Bradford, where he attended Bradford Grammar School. He has a brother and sister. He was a language teacher at Marlborough College between 1989 and 1991. His son Lukas Nerurkar is a professional cyclist.

Career

Nerurkar won the English national cross-country championship three times and twice finished in the top 20 in the World Cross-Country Championships. On the track, he finished fifth in the 10,000 metres in the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo, and 17th in the 10,000m final of the 1992 Olympics. He held the British record for 10 miles of 46:02, set in October 1993 (and which wasn't broken until March 2023 by Emile Cairess). That year he moved up in distance to the marathon. He won his debut marathon in Hamburg in a time of 2:10:57 and went on to win his second marathon, the World Cup Marathon in San Sebastián, in October 1993. His other marathons included a fifth place in the 1996 Olympics and a personal best time of 2:08:36 in the 1997 London Marathon where he also finished in fifth place. His time was the third fastest of all time by a British athlete and is the fourth fastest as of 2016.

Post-retirement

Nerurkar is general manager of the Great Ethiopian Run event hosted yearly in Addis Ababa, an event he started in 2001 with Ethiopian long-distance runner Haile Gebrselassie. He is the author of the book Marathon Running: From Beginning to Elite (ISBN 978-0713668308). He was awarded the MBE in 2002. He plays bass and sings backing vocals in an Isley brothers tribute band, with his fans referring to him as ‘Big Rich’.

Achievements

Personal bests