A sportsman’s dinner with Olympic athlete Derek Redmond as the speaker has raised £5,000 for SportsAid and Rotary charities.

A prestige raffle raised £1,200 and an auction of a signed Ipswich Town shirt and Portman Road sign raised £100.

The event, on Monday, April 11 drew 143 people at the Foakes Hall Dunmow, for a four course dinner followed by an address by the gold medallist. Derek told his audience of his early struggles with injuries. At the 1991 World Championships he was a member of the British team that shocked the athletics world by beating the much-favoured American team into second place to claim the gold medal in the 4x400 metres relay.

He ran the second leg in the final and, together with team-mates Roger Black, John Regis and Kriss Akabus completed was then the second-fastest 4x400 metres relay in history.

Derek told how he is perhaps best known for an incident during the 1992 Barcelona Olympics 400m semi-final when tipped as one of the favorites for gold, he injured his hamstring but, showing great spirit, picked himself up and helped by his father finished the race to be greeted by a cheering crowd. Both events were shown at the dinner in film.

After his talk, Derek answered questions from the audience and a vote of thanks was given by Dunmow triathlon athlete Rob Newman. The event was organised by Dunmow Rotarians Eric Rogers, Willie Fraser and Kathryn Archer with sponsorship by estate agents Beresford.