Mervyn George "Merv" Lincoln (22 November 1933 – 1 May 2016)[1][2][3] was an Australian middle-distance runner who won a silver medal in the mile run at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games and twice competed in the Summer Olympic Games.
[1] He was tipped as a potential successor to the retiring John Landy as Australia's leading miler;[4] however, newcomer Herb Elliott defeated him at the 1957 national championships.
[5] Lincoln ran his first four-minute mile on 23 March 1957, the eleventh man in the world and the third Australian to accomplish that feat.
[8] Track & Field News ranked him #7 in the world for 1957, one place below his Australian rival Elliott.
[12] Track & Field News ranked Lincoln as second in the world that year; however, that proved to be the last time he was ranked among the world's top ten,[9] and at the 1960 Olympics in Rome he failed to qualify from the heats.