Roddan, a much-loved figure in British athletics, also contributed to the coaching of Sydney 2000 Olympic medallists Darren Campbell and Katharine Merry and helped the careers of other elite athletes such as Frankie Fredericks, Bruny Surin, Joice Maduaka and Jamie Baulch.

A club-level sprinter who won medals at the Middlesex Championships, Roddan found his true calling as a sprints coach and from 1964 onwards, guided several dozen athletes to international level.

His coaching initially took place in Alperton and then at West London Stadium - an arena that would later be named after Christie - and he coached athletes of all standards.

"My athletes getting PBs or just running better than they thought they were capable of… those moments make me feel that it is all worthwhile,” he was quoted as saying by Athletics Weekly.

In 1984, Roddan told Christie that he needed to start showing commitment to his talent or their partnership would be over.

Early in 1986, Christie won his first international gold medal as he earned the European indoor 200m title.

Later that year, he succeeded Allan Wells as British record-holder for the 100m before going on to win Olympic 100m gold in Barcelona in 1992 and the World Championships title in Stuttgart in 1993.

Inspired by his mentor, Christie later went into coaching himself and was present in Sydney to support Campbell and Merry.

Roddan was a quiet man whose geniality did not prevent him making his opinion firmly known when he felt it was justified.

"I’m not pushy," he once said

"I’m the opposite to what most sprinters are.

"They’re brash, loud and extroverted.

"I don’t know what it is but I just seem to be approachable."

Roddan won the Ron Pickering Memorial Award for Services to Athletics and in 2016 he was inducted into the England Athletics Hall of Fame.

Announcing his death, Christie’s management agency Nuff Respect said: "It is with deep sadness that we heard the news that the amazing and irreplaceable Ron Roddan passed away.

"Ron was a valued coach at Thames Valley Harriers which came to be his second home, but his relationships reached far beyond West London.

"His coaching achievements are too many to mention but the most obvious is the Olympic, world, Commonwealth and European medals that Linford won with Ron by his side and the Olympic medals won by Katharine Merry and Darren Campbell at the Sydney Olympics.

"Ron was devoted to his athletes, brutally honest, pushing them to their absolute best.

"This most modest of man was at his happiest with a stopwatch in his hand, standing trackside."

Christie, whose career was tainted following a positive test for banned performance-enhancing drugs in 1999 which saw him suspended for two years, himself once said that money and medals aside, the thing he prized most at the end of a race was "seeing a smile on Ron’s face".