PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — Jamaica’s first individual winner at Penn Relays, Neville Myton, still remembers the day vividly, some 50 years after he won the mile event in 1965 for Excelsior High School.

“After 50 years, I look back and scratch my head saying, I must have done something well,” Myton told the Jamaica Observer.

“When we went to the Penn Relays, we went with KC. Their managers and coaches were our coaches too, so they all told me to be patient and make sure I was in the [right] position when ready to strike,” Myton reminisced.

“So instead of running for time, I just raced them because back then Penn Relays was not like now. The track was chewed up, it was raining, cold and muddy. You had to take off your clothes and they put you in an area they called the Bull Pen and you were there for about five minutes freezing,” noted Myton.

He continued: “So by the time you get on the track…the Penn Relay track is kind of an egg shape, so you really didn’t know actually where you were. So I just made sure I stayed in position and when I realized the pace was slow I just took off,” he revealed.

That year, Myton also anchored Excelsior’s mile relay team to a third-place finish in the finals behind Kingston College. At that time, Myton’s efforts were not for Excelsior alone, he was representing the wider Jamaica. That kind of success paved the way for what the rest of world is witnessing today at Penn Relays.

Myton would eventually became a legend in Jamaica’s track and field and would be the first high school student ever to run under 1:50 minute for the 880 yards clocking 1 minute 48 seconds.

“At that time, only Dr Arthur Wint, George Kerr and Mel Spence ran under 1:50, so I joined an elite group at that time,” he informed the Observer.

Myton, now 68, would represent Jamaica at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics as a schoolboy and again in 1968 in Mexico. He was a double gold medallist at the 1966 Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games winning the 800m title and the 4x400m relays.

“I was the first world junior record holder from Jamaica. The second is Merlene Neuville [Commonwealth Games 1970, 51 seconds for the 400m] and the third is Usain Bolt. All of what we accomplished today, only three of us as ever ran World Junior records,” said Myton.

“I still have the Jamaican junior record after 50 years. August coming is 51 years. It’s the oldest record in the western hemisphere in track and field. 1:47.2 for 880 yards was the world junior record and still the Jamaican junior record. It is converted to 1:46.6 for 800m,” he noted.

–Howard Walker