Athlete of the Year – Roll of Honour

 

2019 – Neil Byford  

   

Proposer: Mike Davey
Seconder: Alec Maclean
We wish to propose Neil Byford for the Athlete of The Year award.
There are a number of members who warrant recognition for their running success, and Neil is certainly one of them having achieved success at a range of distances, from Parkrun through half and full marathons to 24 hour races.
As well as personal achievement though Neil has selflessly benefited others, without seeking reward or praise, especially by:
1.Supporting blind runners – travelling with them, guiding them, and encouraging them. Without people like Neil blind runners would be excluded from the sport we in the club are able to enjoy.
2. Supporting, mentoring and encouraging slower runners, both within the club and elsewhere i.e. Rebel Runners.
3. Acting as Run Leader, reliably and effectively, being aware of different abilities and encouraging slower runners.
We believe Neil is very much an ‘Unsung Hero’ whose effort and impact might be rather overlooked. I feel his dedication to the sport, on top of his personal running achievements, deserves the recognition this award would give.

2018 – Chris Bexton  

Proposed by – Sophie Eadsforth

Seconded by- Lucy Grant

Chris Bexton turned 60 in 2018 but this has not slowed her down, in fact she has achieved many goals and prizes over the course of the year. Not only has she been asked to run a marathon for England [Age Group Master] she was also head hunted for Notts AC and has been along to one race and took part which involved Chris having to do the long jump!

Here are just a few of her accomplishments this year…..

Chris is 7th in the country for 10 miles, 47th for 10k and she has had age category wins at Hardwick 10k, the Retford half marathon, Erewash half marathon (for which she was the 7th lady overall), The Run, Clumber Park 10k, Beeston parkrun (prior to 60 and after turning 60) and 3rd in category in the HP Grand Prix series. Chris won the Notts gold medal for her age category for the summer league season. What a list!

Chris is also the club secretary and spends a lot of time on preparing the weekly email each week. We are always really impressed and relieved to get the weekly email as we get the answers to a lot of our questions in there and reminders for events, parking info, directions, social events etc.

Chris clearly deserves being nominated for the athlete of the year.

2017 – Chris Bell

2016 – Paul Page