MANY-TIME Olympic and World Champion Veronica Campbell Brown, the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) and the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) have joined the long list of those who have paid tribute to Olympian and national record holder Neville Myton who passed away on Wednesday after battling cancer.

He was 74 years old.

Myton’s national junior record of 1:47.2 minutes in the 800m that he set in 1964 still stands.

He was part of Jamaica’s Olympic teams to Tokyo in 1964, while he was still a student at Excelsior High, and four years later when the Games were held in Mexico City.

Campbell Brown, who was among a number of student athletes at Vere Technical who came under the mentorship of Myton and his wife Paulette, said he had “a great influence on my life from the moment I met him as a young girl at Vere Technical High school”.

Campbell Brown said: “His support and encouragement were instrumental, and to date it remains a positive impact on my life. He took so many young women and men like myself under his wings and pushed us to achieve greatness. He was a selfless man, a father to many, and a true lover of people and sports.”

JAAA President Garth Gayle said Myton was “an athlete ahead of his time and a man for all seasons”.

“Neville was willing to give everything he had to the sport he loved and to the young men and women of this country,” he said.

“Just like his performances on the track, his kindness and warm and inviting smile will stay with us always. We will miss him dearly, and may his soul rest in peace,” Gayle added.

JOA President Christopher Samuda said Myton “exemplified an educator of the ideals and values of sport, a custodian of the courage of sport, and a benefactor of the wisdom of sport”.

In hailing the former teacher, coach and track and field administrator, the JOA boss said: “The mighty has not fallen in the form of Neville Myton for he rose in the eyes of his earthly peers – and generations before and after him – and is now transcendental, having been called to higher service.

“The Jamaica Olympic Association salutes an Olympian of the ’64 and ’68 eras and applauds a Jamaican sportsman whose imprint in the middle distances has given us the length, breadth and depth of character.”

Myton also served as the physical trainer for the Harbour View Football Club,which also paid tribute.

“We celebrate his sporting achievements to recognise an extraordinary human being [and] a record holder of over 50 years,” the club said in a statement.