Jamaican Olympian Neville Myton is dead
Jamaica lost another Olympian yesterday when junior 800m record holder Neville Myton passed after a long battle with cancer. He was 74 years old.
Myton represented Jamaica at the summer Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964 and Mexico in 1968.
In 1964, he ran the 880 yards in one minute 47.2 seconds, becoming the first Jamaican Junior World record holder, a title he holds to this day.
In that same year of capturing his first Champs win, Neville stunned the National Stadium when he won the National Championships and became the first schoolboy and third Jamaican to break the 1:50-minute barrier, stopping the watch at 1:49.3 minutes.
At the National Trials he broke the World Junior Record for 800 metres with an astonishing 1.47.20, a time which still stands as the Jamaican Junior Record for the distance.
Myton was a double gold medallist at the 1966 Central American and Caribbean Games, taking the individual 800 metres title and also sharing in the team gold medals with the Jamaican 4×400 metres relay team.
Myton actually made the national team and attended the Olympics in Tokyo while he was still a student at Excelsior High School.
After graduating from high school, Myton moved on to Mesa, Arizona, to attend Mesa Junior College. His impact was immediate as he helped his college win the National Junior College Athletics Association Championships on two occasions.
He then transferred to San Jose State College where he became teammates with the top-rated stars, Tommy Smith and John Carlos. The team won 1969 NCAA Championships.
While at San Jose State, Myton never lost a half-mile event and even anchored the sprint medley relay team at the 1969 Fresno relays in the second fastest time ever, missing the then world record by one-tenth of a second.
After retiring as an athlete, Myton returned to Jamaica where he became a teacher and coach. He is responsible for the development of Vere Technical standouts and Olympians Veronica Campbell Brown and Simone Facey.
Myton, who was living in the USA at the time of his passing, is survived by his wife Paulette.
— Dwayne Richards
