David Andrew Jenkins (born 25 May 1952) is a former World ranked no.1 track and field 400 metres runner and statistically is the highest ranking Scottish sprinter in history.
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. He then went on to study at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, where he received a postgraduate diploma in business management and marketing (1974).
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.
Jenkins was, for a few years in early 2000s, the U.S. representative for The Edinburgh Academy's Academical Club.
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. Jenkins' international athletic career spanned three decades from 1969 through to 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, John Anderson. He started off as Scottish 100/200/400 champion, followed by his first of 6 AAA's 400 metre titles. Also in 1971, still aged only nineteen, Jenkins won the 400 metres at the 1971 European Athletics Championships in Helsinki, the youngest British male athlete yet to win a European gold medal. Jenkins set a junior world record as part of the British 4 × 400 metres team on 26 September 1971. The team consisted of Jenkins, Gary Armstrong, Desmond Coneys and Joe Caines.
He went on to compete for Great Britain in the 1972 Summer Olympics held in Munich, Germany in the 4 × 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.
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 4 × 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.
In 1975 he was United States of America 400-metre champion, with his fastest time of his career 44.93 which was a British record at the time. In 1975, Jenkins and his brother, Roger Jenkins, represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland v. Finland at Crystal Palace, London as the UK's No. 1 and No. 2 400-metre runners.
Both David and his brother Roger feature prominently in the book A Life In A Day In A Year by Peter Hoffmann which describes their athletics training at Meadowbank Stadium, Edinburgh and their racing careers between 1973 and 1978.
Scottish documentary company, Pelicula Films, featured David Jenkins during his training in 1975 as he prepared for the 1976 Summer Olympics. 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.
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.
He later admitted to having taken performance-enhancing steroids during the latter part of his athletics career, from around 1976.
In 1998 former British 400-metre Olympic silver medallist Roger Black dedicated a chapter titled "The Jenkins Factor", in his autobiography How Long is the Course ISBN 0-233-99644-3 to Jenkins who was helping advise him in the final months of his 1996 Olympic preparation. Jenkins was credited with changing Black's philosophy on sports and competition.
British record holder over 400 metres from 1971 to 1985.