Alan Pennington represented Great Britain at the Olympic Games after winning a Blue at Oxford where he was President of the athletics club and a member of Hertford College. He obtained his degree of MA at Hertford College 1952. At one time he was British quarter mile champion and English native record holder. He also played cricket for Neston and Rugby for Birkenhead Park and was a member of the Wallasey Golf Club.
Mr J Edwards, former president of Wallasey Athletic Club, wrote, "Alan Pennington was Wallasey's most distinguished athlete of all time. In the years 1936-1939 when the country had a galaxy of sprinters and quarter milers, he fought his way to the top, and reigning 440yds AAA champion with the Olympic Games scheduled the following year. It is fair to say the Hitler war probably robbed him of even higher athletic honours. In the 1936 Olympic team in Berlin, Alan Pennington just missed a place in the final of the 100 metres being placed 4th to Jesse Owens, in the semi-final and was the most successful British sprinter at the games. Whilst at Oxford he captained a combined Oxford and Cambridge team against Princeton and Cornell at the White City in 1938 winning both sprints. A very powerful runner much of his early training was done in Wallasey under the skilled eye of the late W.S. Brookes for many years chairman and vice president of Wallasey AC."