The British educated athlete who was nicknamed ‘the flying Scotsman’ and born in Tianjin, returned to China in 1925 to serve as a missionary teacher, where he mostly remained until his death in 1945, in a Japanese civilian internment camp. On Monday, the marble sculpture of Liddell, captured in mid-stride, was unveiled in Tianjin…

British Olympic champion, devout Christian and prisoner of war Eric Liddell, who famously chose his faith over competing in a championship race, has been honoured with a statue in his native China.

After refusing to run in the heats on a Sunday, for his favoured distance, the men’s 100 metres, Liddell could still compete in the men’s 400 metres at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, which he won.

The British educated athlete who was nicknamed ‘the flying Scotsman’ and born in Tianjin, returned to China in 1925 to serve as a missionary teacher, where he mostly remained until his death in 1945, in a Japanese civilian internment camp.

On Monday, the marble sculpture of Liddell, captured in mid-stride, was unveiled in Tianjin, coincidentally the scene of two deadly explosions last week.

The statue was revealed in front of his daughters, the internment camp’s remaining survivors and the actor Joseph Fiennes, who is due to play to play him in The Last Race, which has just finished filming in China.

Liddell’s Olympic training and racing, and the religious convictions that influenced him, were first depicted in the Oscar-winning 1981 film Chariots of Fire, in which he is portrayed by fellow Scot Ian Charleson.

“It’s one thing to preach Bible study or whatever, but it’s another to actually live your beliefs under conditions like being in an internment camp,” said Fiennes at Monday’s unveiling.

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