THE plaque at Southampton Sports Centre says it all: This is where Mike Smith trained multiple Olympians including 4 x 400m silver medallist Iwan Thomas MBE.

British athletics owes much to the man who trained, coached and mentored the likes of Roger Black, Kriss Akabusi, Donna Hartley and Todd Bennett.

Thomas, who lives in Netley, did a lap of the Sports Centre track in honour of his former coach, following news of his passing, aged 88, on Sunday.

“Most my adult life was based around him & everything I achieved was because of him,” Thomas tweeted. “You helped so many people, Rest well coach, mentor & most of all friend.”

Black and Akabusi also paid tribute on Twitter when he learned of Mike’s passing on Sunday.

Mike outlived two of his greatest stars.

Transformed Like Thomas, Akabusi and Black, Hartley and Bennett – who both passed away in the summer of 2013 – were Olympic 4 x 400m medallists.

Mike first coached a 14 year-old Hartley at Southampton Amateur Athletic Club in the 1960s and she went on to become UK and Commonwealth champion and a bronze medallist at Moscow 1980 as well as being the blonde-haired golden girl of British Athletics.

Bennett was transformed from a frustrated middle-distance runner into a 400m star by Mike and won silver with Akabusi at Los Angeles 1984.

Mike formed the elite sprint club Team Solent in 1986 and Akabusi and Black were two of its first members.

They became 4 x 400m world champions together in 1991. Akabusi also won a 4 x 400m hurdles bronze at Barcelona 1992, where Black won 4 x 400m bronze.

Black went one better in the same event at Atlanta 1996, winning silver alongside Thomas as well as 400m individual silver behind the great Michael Johnson.

Mike qualified as a coach while with Thames Valley Harriers, where he was a contemporary of another of Britain’s future coaching greats, Ron Roddan, who mentored Linford Christie to Olympic gold.

An all-round sportsman, he started playing cricket for West End after moving to Southampton to teach at Bitterne Park Secondary School 62 years ago.

Born in Stone, near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire Mike had a nomadic childhood His father, George Charles Smith, was in the RAF and the family were living in West Drayton, Middlesex shortly before the start of the Second World War bombing.

Leaving The Blitz behind, they upped sticks again in 1940 when George was posted to Melksham.

It was while in Wiltshire that Mike met wife Jo at Trowbridge Athletics Club.

Daily Echo:

Mike and Jo Smith with their dog 'Bumble' on their diamond wedding anniversary at home in Thornhill in 2012


They married on July 26 1952 during the Helsinki Olympics – on the day Josy Barthel won the 1500 metres.

Mike would meet Barthel, a surprise winner in Helsinki and the only Luxembourg athlete ever to have won Olympic gold, some years later.

He was one of many track and field greats Mike encountered on his travels as one of Europe’s, if not the world’s leading masters of the 400m art. Following National Service in the RAF, Mike did teacher-training at Borough Road College, Middlesex and landed his first job at a primary school in nearby Heston.

He moved to Southampton in 1955 when he became a form master at Bitterne Park Secondary school in Manor Farm Road.

His son, Bob, was born that year. Three years later, daughter Janet arrived.

Both followed their dad into athletics, Bob as London Development manager for England Athletics and chairman of Newham & Essex Beagles AC.

Janet, a coach and starter/marksman, worked as a technical official at London 2012.

Although principally a history/geography teacher at Bitterne Park, sports-mad Mike inevitably gravitated towards games lessons.

In an interview with the Daily Echo five years ago, in which he also recalled his memories of attending the London 1948 Olympics with his dad in the build up to London 2012, he recalled: “I fell on my feet because the senior master was a man called Wally Prevett who was known throughout Southampton.

“He ran the Southampton Schools’ football team and took them to the England Schools’ Trophy final.

“Wal was the boss man in the staffroom. Luckily, he decided I was alright and gave me the privilege of taking the under-13 football team on Saturday mornings – in my own time, of course!

“I’d played a bit of football in the West Middlesex League, but I got rheumatic aches and pains. So I took my refereeing qualifications and managed to disgrace myself during a match at the Supermarine ground,” he laughed.

Claim to fame “A spectator shouted at me, so I went over and told him to shut up and he said: ‘You can’t speak to me like that – I’m chairman of the Southampton Football League!”

“My claim to fame is that I refereed a Salisbury Schools match featuring a young chap called Channon.

“Mick and I became friends – mainly because I gave him a photo of Donna (Murray) who really was the golden girl of British athletics in those days.”

Smith left Bitterne Park to become senior master at the old Hightown Secondary School. He took early retirement to concentrate on athletics and do “bits and pieces” for the BBC.

During the 1980s/90s he was the voice of the Non-League Show for Radio Solent and did match reporting on Portsmouth, Bournemouth and, occasionally, Saints.

He still ventured out to games at Eastleigh or AFC Totton in his early eighties, but was a lifelong West Ham fan from the moment his dad first took him to Upton Park.

Fittingly enough, the Olympic stadium is now the Hammers' home.