FORMER British sprinter and Olympic hero Peter Radford was delighted to be offered tickets for Sunday’s 100 metres men’s final by the British Olympic Association.

But his joy quickly faded when he learnt the honour came at a price – he would be required to pay £1,470.

Prof Radford, a former world record holder, won a bronze medal in the 1960 Rome Olympics, also picking up a bronze in the 4x100m relay.

He entered history with two world records in one sprint race in 1960 at the Staffordshire Championships in Wolverhampton with a time of 20.5 seconds in the 220 yard event, which was also recognised for the 200m distance.

He established himself as one of the fastest men ever to have run for Britain after overcoming serious childhood kidney illness, which had confined him to bed between the ages of seven and 10.

Now aged 72, Prof Radford, who moved to Burford 12 years ago, is also a former chairman of UK Athletics.

He said: “I was offered tickets all right but at £735 and I had to take two. That’s an awful lot of money so I will be getting a grandstand view on my television.”

British Olympic Association officials agreed to provide seats to former Olympians. Former members of the British Olympic team were all offered the chance to buy two tickets for the sport in which they participated.

After retiring from running with a knee ligament problem that wrecked his dream of gold at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, he went on to become a professor of sports sciences at Glasgow and Brunel universities.

But he said he was not bitter at being charged despite his standing as one of Britain’s Olympic sprinting greats.

He added: “I’m long enough in the tooth to know what rules modern sport: it’s commercialism, sponsorship and marketing. A lot of sportsmen and women who are being lauded now will be forgotten in a few years’ time. Sport is about now. It is not about yesterday. I’m not complaining, that’s just the way it is.”

Prof Radford said he had been able to take part in last weekend’s opening ceremony, when he joined the group of ex-British Olympic medallists who were warmly welcomed by the crowd shortly before the Olympic Torch arrived.

Prof Radford says his failure to win a gold medal still hurts him because he considered himself to be the fastest man to reach the final.

In the Rome Olympics, Radford ran the 100m in 10.3 seconds. Jamaican sprint star Usain Bolt, who hopes to set a new 100m world record at the London Games, took the 100m gold medal at Beijing 2008 in a world-record time of 9.69 seconds. He went on to better that with 9.58 at the World Championships in Berlin.

In one of the most controversial finals in Olympic history, the 1960 gold went to the German sprinter Armin Hary, who became know as the “thief of starts”. False starts led to the race being delayed by 20 minutes and the English runner’s concentration was badly affected by the long wait in a heatwave. Prof Radford, of Sheep Street, said: “It took me two years to get over that. People said, ‘well done.’ But I was never satisfied. I believe I could have won if I hadn’t had such a dreadful start.”

Looking forward to Sunday’s final he said: “The winner in London will have to show great power to dominate the early part of the race but he will also need unusual skill to maintain his composure while being chased by the second and third fastest men in the world.”