[2] As a 14-year-old boy, he read about the 1948 Summer Olympics that were taking place in London, and was inspired by Czechoslovakian long-distance runner Emil Zátopek whose performance made a lasting impression on him.

[3] He attended grammar school, where he discovered his natural ability for cross country running and soon started to take the sport seriously.

After finishing 5th in his first attempt at the Seniors level in 1957 at Peterborough, he eventually won the national title for the first time in 1960 at West Bromwich.

[5] He successfully defended his title the following year at Parliament Hill Fields, and completed his national hat-trick in 1963 with his third win at Cambridge.

[5] He also represented Warwickshire at the Inter Counties Cross Country Championships during this period, winning the title in 1959 and taking second place in 1960.

[3][7][8] On 15 April 1961, in the AAA Championships at Hurlingham Park in London, he broke his hero Zátopek's world record for the 10-mile run, with a time of 47 minutes and 47 seconds.

[2] His first outing was at the 1963 AAA marathon in Coventry, which he used as a dummy run to test his potential,[2] but he finished the race in second place to clubmate Brian Kilby with a time of 2:19:56.

[3][4] In October of the same year, encouraged by his success in the AAA, he took part in the Košice Peace Marathon in Slovakia, and took fourth place with 2:20:22.

[3][5] Four minutes after Bikila had won the race, Tsuburaya entered the stadium in second place in front of a cheering home crowd, but he was running out of strength.

[4] Heatley was the fourth Briton to win silver in the Olympic marathon (after Sam Ferris in 1932, Ernie Harper in 1936 and Tom Richards in 1948),[3] and although Charlie Spedding took the bronze medal in Los Angeles twenty years later, no Briton has won a silver medal in the Olympic marathon since Heatley's achievement in 1964.

[5] He continued to compete in the Third Division of the Birmingham League for several years after his international retirement and remained closely involved with the sport into later life.