New Life Member: Keith Newton
Life membership of the Club may be bestowed upon any individual who has been a member for at least 5 years and who has rendered exceptional and meritorious service to the Club.
At the Club’s AGM on 26th October 2022, Life Membership was conferred on Keith Newton
In his twenty years of membership, Keith has contributed to the success of the Club as an active athlete, and to the running of Club. He has twice been President for two years, most recently 2019-21.
Having turned 40 in 2003, Keith became a stalwart of the Club’s M40 team, but also made significant contributions to the Senior Men’s successes. He was a member of the seven successive winning M40 teams in the SEAA Road Relay championships at Rushmoor Arena, plus the two M40 National Road Relay and two National Cross Country relay winning teams. He won a number of individual national M40 titles having been consistently ranked in the top three in his age group in a MD event through his forties, and competed for England and Great Britain M40/45 teams on track and cross country on a number of occasions, which included a second place in the M45 Home Countries international XC. He won a record eight consecutive Sussex M40 XC championships, and subsequently secured two further wins.
Keith was also a major contributor to the success of HHH Senior teams on road, cross country and track. One of the highlights, aged 44, was winning the Surrey League Senior and M40 individual awards, following four top ten finishes over the season, and helping HHH to one of a number of overall team victories. He was second HHH scorer in the bronze medal winning team in the Southern Cross Country Championships at Exmoor.
Keith was President for the second time during the covid pandemic, and working with the Executive helped steer the Club through this challenging period. This coincided with the loss of Tooting Bec Athletics Track as a racing facility, following loss of trackmark status, and Keith led the Club’s successful campaign to secure funding to get it resurfaced. This was probably the greatest single threat to the Club, of recent decades. Keith was also instrumental in instigating a more formalised approach to diversity and inclusion, arranged a British Milers Club meeting for the first time at Tooting in over twenty years which resulted in a number of ground records, led the bid which resulted in the formation of Tooting Run Club and established a pilot mentoring scheme for some of our young female athletes.
Life Membership was bestowed in recognition of this broad and significant contribution.