Frank Southall

William Frank Southall (2 July 1904–1 March 1964) was an English racing cyclist who won silver medals for Great Britain in the individual road race (run as an individual time trial) at the 1928 Summer Olympics and a track cycling medal at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He also represented Britain in world championships from 1926 to 1933.

Born in Wandsworth, London, Southall, who rode for the south London Norwood Paragon cycling club, broke numerous time trial and Road Records Association place-to-place records in domestic competitions, winning the first four British Best All-Rounder (BBAR) competitions from 1930 to 1933.

Records

He broke his first record on Easter Monday 1925, when he won the Etna time trial on the Bath Road course in 2h 8m 31s, beating the record by five minutes. He followed this by breaking the one-hour record at Herne Hill Velodrome on 26 May by almost 1400 yards to record 25 miles 1520 yards.

He then improved the 50-mile record in the same event the following year and broke the world amateur hour record with 26 miles and 838 yards at Herne Hill in June 1926. Southall was selected by the National Cyclists' Union to represent Britain at the 1926 world road race championship, where he finished eighth.

In 1927, Southall again broke the record in the Etna event, recording 2h 5m 7s. On 24 July, he broke the RRA London-Brighton and back record by 13 minutes, with 4h 53m...
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