And for Reverend John Keddie, there's the chance to follow in the footsteps of the boyhood hero whose story was at the centre of 1981 Oscar-winning movie Chariots Of Fire.

The Rev Keddie, who was a consultant to writer Colin Welland on the movie Chariots Of Fire – and had his name included as a character on the cast list – had wanted for years to write a biography of Eric Liddell.

A talented rugby player and athlete, Liddell was a Christian and at the Paris Olympics in 1924 he refused to run on a Sunday. Instead, he swapped races. And though the 100 yards was his event, he won bronze in the 220, but gold in the 440-yard race where he also set a world record.

Liddell's parents were missionaries and he was born in China. After university in Edinburgh and his Olympic successes, he returned in 1925 to work at a mission school and stayed in the country until his death there in a Japanese Prison Camp just five months before the end of the Second World War.

John's book Running The Race, has already had three reprints since it first come out at the end of last year.

Now it has been translated into Chinese and will be launched during the Olympics, as there is still a lot of Chinese interest in Liddell – or "Li Airui" – as he is known there.

Eric Liddell's time in China includes stories of how he did his best to protect the Chinese people from the invading Japanese.

In Weifing prison camp, he tried to ensure fresh food was smuggled in, he helped the elderly, taught the children and when a return to Britain was engineered for him, he gave it up to a pregnant woman.

John said: "He was considered a hero by the Chinese. People have asked me whether he would have been a communist or a nationalist if he had lived. Possibly, a nationalist. But I think he would, above all, have been there for the Chinese people.

"I'm really pleased that the translation is not into Mandarin, but the simple Chinese that ordinary people can read. And because it has been published in china, it can be sold in the country without any restrictions, though it had to go through the censor!"

For John, the chance to go to China, is a great chance to learn more about his hero.

"We will be going to Taijin where Eric was born and to his grave at the prison camp at Weifang.

"I've never been to China before, so I'm really looking forward to getting the chance to see both of those places."

As well as having copies of the book at the Olympic Team GB headquarters, John is set to have the chance to meet the Prime Minister Gordon Brown when he is out there.

John's interest in Eric Liddell's achievements began when he was a youngster in Edinburgh.

He explained: "My dad did some part-time journalism and I tagged along with him to rugby and athletics meetings. I remember going up to an athletics club room where there was a big picture of him and was told that some of his records still stood.

At the launch of Running The Race in London, the Reverend John Keddie with Sebastian Coe, who wrote the foreword.

"I knew about him already because in Scotland we don't have so many field and track Olympic medallists!

"And one of the things I was interested in was why he hadn’t wanted to run on a Sunday."

But there were parallels with John's life.

He too loved rugby – going on to play stand-off half with Boroughmuir, one of the premier rugby teams in Scotland. A member of Edinburgh Southern Harriers, John was a Scottish junior triple jumper, though he laughingly classes himself as "a third-rate runner" before his hip was damaged in an accident.

And in 1987, John went into the ministry of the Free Church, moving from Burghead to Bracadale, Skye, in 1997 and moving into the Free Church Continuing in 2000.

John is also an athletics historian. He produced the centenary history of the Scottish Amateur Athletics Association in 1982, and it was a series of three articles on Eric Liddell for the Athletics Weekly back in the 70s that led to his work on Chariots Of Fire.

And it is from his athletics background that he took his direction for the book.

He said: "It's a very detailed look at his sporting achievements and I think that distinguishes it from some of the others that have been written.

"I would prefer to see it in the sporting section in bookshops.

"I felt that of all the biographers I had some unique qualifications – I was a Scot, I was an athlete and a rugby-player, I am a historian of athletics and I am also a Christian. And I think all these things together give an aspect to it that's a wee bit different.

"I hope it will run to 2012 and that it'll be an inspiration to young Scots and others, particularly those interested in athletics."

* Running The Race by John Keddie (Evangelical Press) is available at Waterstone's, Wesley Owen, Castle Street, Inverness and at www.evangelicalpress.org. You can keep up to date with John's travels in China on his blog at www.runningtheraceinchina.blogspot.com

m.chrystall@highland-news.co.uk

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