“I honestly found it hard to believe when the announcement was made as I felt the other people in their sports deserved it more than I did,” he told long-time Gisborne Herald reporter and former editor Iain Gillies in 2011 in the Herald’s They Did It Their Way series.
Others would beg to disagree.
Jim Trowell’s athletics story is one of hard work, achievement and giving back.
From a Wednesday night in 1964 when he went to his first Gisborne Amateur Athletic and Harrier Club Childers Road Reserve meeting to coaching talented young runners for decades up to as recently as a couple of years ago, he was a part of the sporting fabric of this district.
Jim went to the 1964 athletics meeting to help with his fitness and get a bit more action than warming the bench as reserve hooker for his High School Old Boys rugby team.
He didn’t get there on time for the running races so decided to give the one-mile walk a go.
A good go as it turned out.
He won, and a man who was to become a vital part of his career and a life-long friend approached him.
Chief walking judge and athletics coach Eric Hoggins liked what he saw in this stockily built young man and offered to help him with the technical aspects of race walking.
Sixteen intensive months later, Jim won the first of his four national 50,000m titles. Not only that, he did it in a time 57 minutes faster than his only other effort over that distance and in a high-quality field.
It was testament not only to the effort he and coach Hoggins put in, but to the character of the man.
As Gillies wrote: “The amazing thing was that it took him only a couple of years to go from Childers Road Reserve success to national glory.
“And this in a sport that has always demanded a great deal of technical expertise, as well as tactical knowledge, determination, fitness and ultimately that element of raw courage that makes the difference between success and failure.”
Jim had that special ability to rise to the occasion.
The 1966 performance, which also featured a third placing in the 20,000m, was followed by national 50,000m crowns in 1968, 1973 and 1974.
Over his competitive career, he won a total of 18 medals at the national champs, represented his country in the first transtasman walking test and was put on a possible list for the Commonwealth Games.
It did not eventuate but that did not detract from a career that earned him great respect and admiration for his ability and character.
“Jim always worked hard at everything he tackled,” coach Hoggins said in The Herald feature.
“He always gave his best and was a pleasure to coach. He deserved the success that came his way.”
These qualities made him a natural coach, and his contribution extended to other sports such as netball and football.
Jim wore a path on the sideline of many a football field and netball court.
Athletics, though, was where his coaching expertise came to its greatest fruition.
A large number of young sprint athletes came under his wing and several of them went on to claim North Island and national age-group honours.
His was a coaching regime based on three mottos — “Never give up.
“Nobody remembers who was second.
“You run to win.”
He became a life member of Gisborne Amateur Athletics Club and in 2014 joined an elite group when he was presented with a merit award recognising “50 years as an outstanding member of the club, 1964-2014”.
James William Trowell was born in Lower Hutt in 1941 but spent most of his life in Gisborne. He attended Mangapapa School and Gisborne Boys’ High.
He became a qualified joiner-carpenter and ran his business Jim the Joiner for 35 years before retiring at the age of 68.
He died on August 30, aged 76.
Jim is survived by four children and nine grandchildren.
