IN 1974, Brendan Foster was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year on the strength of winning the 5,000 metres European Championships and taking silver at the Commonwealth Games.

The Gateshead Harrier was one of the biggest names in British sport at the time and he remains a North-East athletics icon but this year you will probably be turned away at the door of the BBC’s annual showpiece unless you’re an Olympics champion.

Over the last 20 years there has been a phenomenal turnaround Britain’s success at major championships.

At the Atlanta Games in 1996, we won just one gold medal – Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent in the coxless pairs. In this year’s Olympics and Paralympics we are rated as the world’s second strongest nation. Last night our Paralympians equalled their tally of gold medals from London 2012 by winning three in the space of 20 minutes.

The secret to our success has been a talent pool trained by world class coaches supported via the National Lottery. 

When it was introduced by John Major’s government the lottery was dismissed as something that would do little more than create a few millionaires and a nation of gamblers, but it went on to provide a lifeline for Britain’s cash strapped sports and arts.

Shortly after the Atlanta Games lottery funding for elite sport came on stream and Team GB started to overhaul powerhouses such as Germany, China and Russia. 

UK Sport ploughed a record £355m - the vast bulk of it lottery money – to support this year’s success.

It is ruthless system in which some events and athletes lose out. But it has undoubtedly boosted grassroots sport in some areas and built a platform for stars, such as County Durham gymnast Amy Tinkler, to become role models in their communities.

It has enabled sportsmen and women from all backgrounds to commit themselves full-time to their discipline whereas in Brendan Foster's era Britian's amateur athletes often struggled to make an impact when they faced state sponsored rivals from the Eastern Bloc. 

The lottery support for athletics and its trickle down effect provides an example for other sports, notably professional football, which channels vast wealth into the bank accounts of star players while amateur clubs go to the wall.   

Just imagine what more a talent such as Foster could have achieved on the track with the support given to modern athletes. Then again by creating the Great North Run his impact on the regional sport scene will be almost impossible to surpass.