David Jenkins (sprinter)

David Jenkins

Athletics
Event	400m
Club	Rugby & District AC Gateshead Harriers Birchfield Harriers
Medal record Representing  Great Britain Women's Athletics Olympic Games 1972 Munich 4 × 400 m relay European Championships 1971 Helsinki 400 m 1974 Rome 4 × 400 m relay 1974 Rome 400 m European Cup 1975 Nice 400 m 1975 Nice 4 × 400 m relay 1973 Edinburgh 400 m 1973 Edinburgh 4 × 400 m relay Universiade 1973 Moscow 4 × 400 m relay 1973 Moscow 400 m Representing  Scotland Commonwealth Games 1978 Edmonton 4 × 100 m relay

David Andrew Jenkins (born 25 May 1952) is a former World ranked no.1^[1] track and field 400 metres runner and statistically is the highest ranking Scottish sprinter in history.^[2]

He was part of the British relay team which won a silver medal at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics. In 1988, he received a 7-year prison sentence for drug smuggling, but was able to serve a reduced sentence by becoming an informant.

Born in Pointe-à-Pierre, Trinidad and Tobago, British West Indies, Jenkins was the son of an oil refinery manager.

Jenkins was educated at Edinburgh Academy, where he excelled at sport. From 1970 to 1973 he attended the University of Edinburgh (1970–1973) where, as a BP industrial apprentice. He earned a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering.^[1] He then went on to study at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, where he received a postgraduate diploma in business management and marketing (1974).^[3]

In 1976, Jenkins was awarded a Travelling Fellowship from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trusts. His project's title was "Community sport participation and provision", and the fellowship enabled him to visit the United States and West Germany.^[3]

Jenkins was, for a few years in early 2000s, the U.S. representative for The Edinburgh Academy's Academical Club.^[4]

Jenkins' first coach was Jake Young, then head of physical education at the Edinburgh Academy. In his youth, Jenkins was the European record holder at 400-metres for under 17 and under 19 years old. In 1969 he represented Great Britain's senior open team in Hamburg, West Germany, winning the 400-metres aged 17 years four months.^[5] Jenkins' international athletic career spanned three decades, 1969 through 1982 starting on cinder tracks, to synthetic tracks from hand timing to electronic timing.

From 1970 to 1973 and again in 1980 Jenkins was coached by the then Scottish National Coach,

He went on to compete for Great Britain in the 1972 Summer Olympics held in Munich, Germany in the 4 x 400-metre relay where he won the silver medal with his teammates Martin Reynolds, Alan Pascoe and David Hemery. From 1973 to 1977 Hemery, a contemporary and 1968 Olympic hurdles champion, coached Jenkins.^[6][7]

In 1974 he won the silver medal on the 400 metres at the European Athletics Championships in Rome as well as the gold medal in the 4x 400-metre with his teammates Glen Cohen, William Hartley and Alan Pascoe. Commentating on the race for the BBC David Coleman remarked that Jenkins had the "greatest run of his life", when he won the 4 × 400 m relay.^[8]

In 1975 he was United States of America 400-metre champion, with his fastest time of his career 44.93 which was a

Scottish documentary company, Pelicula Films, featured David Jenkins during his training in 1975 as he prepared for the 1976 Olympic Games (Montreal, Quebec, CA). The film, The Long Sprint: Diary of an Olympic Athlete, follows Jenkins from his training, races and the Olympic Games heats. Jenkins qualified for the Olympic 400-metre finals but did not win a medal. The documentary film was directed by Michael Alexander and won the Gold Grand Prix Award in the British International Sport Film and Television Festival, the Toronto Film Festival and the Turin Film Festival in 1977.[13]^[14]

In 1976 and 1980 Jenkins finished seventh in the 400-metre final at the Summer Olympics. In 1977 he participated in the first IAAF World Cup in the 4×400-metre relay at the Rheinstadion in Düsseldorf, West Germany. He also won the 200 metres at the Jubilee Games event. In 1978 he won a gold medal competing for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada in the 4 × 100 m relay, alongside Cameron Sharp, Allan Wells and Drew McMaster. In 1980 he was U.K 400-metre champion.

He competed at the 1982 European Championships in the 4×400–metre relay team which won the silver medal in this event.^[15]

He later admitted to having taken performance-enhancing steroids during the latter part his athletics career, from around 1976.

In 1998 former British 400-metre Olympic silver medallist

• British record
  holder over 400 metres from 1971 to 1985.
• Held British and United Kingdom records for best performances 100 metres at 10.1 seconds [10.33], 200 metres at 20.3 seconds [20.66], 300 metres at 32.44 seconds, 400 metres at 44.93 seconds and 500 metres at 1:00.9 seconds.[10]
• 1971 – Jenkins broke iconic Scottish Olympic sprint champion, Eric Liddell's, University of Edinburgh's 400-metre record of 47.6 seconds (world and Olympic record Paris, France 1924). A record Liddell held from 1924 until 1 May 1971 when Jenkins ran 46.4 seconds at Meadowbank. Jenkins' University record of 45.3 seconds (Europa Cup Semi-final Oslo, Norway, 1973) remains today.

Jenkins claimed that during his career he felt pressure to uphold high competitive standards, leading to his use of anabolic steroids. He said "It was the beginning of selling my soul, really."^[17]

In January 1986 Jenkins met with Juan Javier Macklis, who owned Laboratorios Milanos, a pharmaceutical plant in Tijuana, Mexico, that was contracted to supply medicines for the Mexican government. Together, Jenkins and Macklis manufactured anabolic steroids. With the help of Macklis' trusted colleagues, Jenkins then smuggled the drugs into the United States, which at the time was a felony. However, there was no precedent for a smuggling case of this magnitude, not to mention anabolic steroids had yet to be codified under the Controlled Substances Act in the U.S.^[18][19] A federal indictment filed in the U.S. Federal Courts in San Diego named Jenkins as the mastermind of a complex network of more than 33 steroid-dealing co-conspirators. In April 1987, weeks before federal prosecutors filed the indictment, Jenkins was arrested and later entered a guilty plea for the trafficking of steroids worth approximately $100 million through the Tijuana border crossing. It was reported that at one time Jenkins and co-conspirators Dan Duchaine and William Dillon were responsible for up to 70% of the steroids trafficked in the United States.^[6]

Jenkins was sentenced by Judge J. Lawrence Irving in US District Court San Diego to seven years in the Boron Federal Prison Camp in California's Mojave Desert.^[20] British newspaper The Independent reported that Jenkins became an informant and was thus able to be released after serving only 10 months and 15 days.^[21][1][22]

Admitting he "screwed up" by getting involved in the steroid-smuggling operation, while out on bail Jenkins became involved in a legal fitness enterprise.^[17] Referring to David Hemery, the gold medal winner of the 400 metres hurdles at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Jenkins told The Independent that "I sold him down the river, and that wasn't cool."

During the late 1970s Jenkins began his commercial career as the sales director at

In 1988, Jenkins started his nutrition company and began working on a protein powder, convinced that its muscle-building properties could be marketed as a healthy, legal alternative to steroids.[24] This is when he created and launched Pro Optibol.

Combining his engineering degree and manufacturing knowledge with his passion for sports, Jenkins went to work developing whey-based powders.^[25]

Jenkins is self-employed and an inventor within the United States sports nutrition industry and is an international multi-patent holder.^[26][27]

Jenkins founded and incorporated NEXT Nutrition, based in Carlsbad, California, in 1988.

In 1993 he set up a partnership with Dan Duchaine, a well known steroid guru and two-time convicted felon, and founded Next Proteins, a company which produced dietary supplements for athletes and bodybuilders. When Duchaine died Jenkins became the chairman of Next Nutrition.^[28][5]

Next Proteins, Inc. is the owner of the world's first carbonated protein drinks patents, issued in 41 countries.^{[29][30][31][32][33][34]}

In September 2006 NEXT Proteins sold its protein bar business and factory in Minden, Nevada to Forward Foods.^[27]

In April 2011 Jenkins sold the Designer Whey business including the protein powders, bars and shakes business to Designer Protein, LLC., a subsidiary of Athena Wellness Brands, LLC.^[26]

Jenkins founded Xipe Press in 1996 and published the book Underground Bodyopus: Militant Weight Loss and Recomposition. The book was authored by two-time convicted felon

He is the brother of Roger Jenkins, also formerly an international athlete.^[20]