Brian Seymour has given a lot to athletics over a long time. Photo / David Haxton
Humbled is how Brian Seymour feels about being made a life member of Athletics Wellington.
Seymour, the club captain of the Paraparaumu Track and Field Club, received the accolade with fellow recipient Amanda Goldsmith, who is part of the Olympic Harriers club.
“I was completely surprised,” Seymour said.
“I felt humbled.”
It was an honour richly deserved for someone who has given a lot to athletics throughout many years.
Seymour is a stalwart of the club and gives a lot of his time to coaching, officiating, and organising.
Moreover, he has a lot of respect from club members and the wider athletics community, who value his knowledge and passion.
Seymour was a distinguished national runner when he was a young man specialising in shorter distances.
His interest in athletics developed when he grew up on a farm in Ohau, just south of Levin.
When he started at Horowhenua College, he met a woman called Molly Dorne, who lived nearby.
Dorne, who was heavily involved in a range of sports, used to take students to various settlements such as Levin, Ōtaki, Shannon, Foxton, as they had combined athletic and cycling clubs associated with them.
“We’d be racing four nights a week as part of our training.”
Dorne was “a huge influence on all of us”.
One day, Dorne took Seymour and some of his mates to Waiouru to introduce them to army captain Frank Sharpley, who coached various runners.
Sharpley became Seymour’s coach and they would correspond via letters.
When Sharpley was transferred to Ardmore, Seymour would visit him on weekends and run on a 200m cinder track that Sharpley had created.
At the age of 16 Seymour went to his first national championships, in Christchurch, in 1960, and made the junior finals in the 220 yards.
The next year, in 1961, the nationals were in Christchurch again, with Seymour winning the junior 440 yards and coming second in the 220 yards.
And the year after that, in 1962, at the nationals in Invercargill, Seymour was the junior favourite for the 100 yards, 220 yards and 440 yards.
“But in the semifinal of the 100 yards I did a hamstring.
“It was the first injury I’d had.”
My philosophy is, if you can turn a young person into a decent citizen, it’s far more important than sport.
By 1963, aged 19, he competed in the nationals in Dunedin, this time in the senior division, and on an all-weather track.
“In those days your running spikes weren’t interchangeable.
“You bought running shoes and had spikes about 15mm long and they gradually wore down.
“We got down there and were told we couldn’t use ordinary spikes.
“They had grinders set up in a gym so we ground down the spikes so they were very short.
“I won the 220 yards, and got third in the 440 yards, but the weather was horrendous on the finals day.
“There was a southerly blowing and horizontal rain which we had to run into.”
Disaster struck again at the 1964 nationals in Napier when Seymour blew a hamstring again in the right leg, this time in the 200m final.
“It was really bad.
One of his running highlights was in Palmerton North, in the late 1960s, when a team of Australians came out to take on the Kiwis in the 100 yards.
“At the time, Morrie Rae, who ran at the Olympics in Melbourne, held the record which was 9.6s.
“The world record, at that time, was by an American guy called Frank Budd, which was 9.2s.
“This Aussie guy, called Bill Earl, broke the New Zealand record, in 9.5s, and I got third in 9.8s.
“And that record still stands because not long after that it turned metric so 100 yards were never run again.”
While the hamstring injury curtailed his athletics participation, in 1966 his attention turned to rugby, where he played for Paraparaumu Rugby Club.
“During that year I got selected to play [wing] for the Manawatu-Horowhenua team to play against the British and Irish Lions.”
He was part of the Paraparaumu team that won the Horowhenua title three years in a row in 1967, 1968 and 1969.
But his love of athletics remained strong and in the early 1970s, when his daughter Michelle was about 7, his wife Venna joined her up at the then-named Paraparaumu Athletic Club.
“A year after that I got dragged in as treasurer ... and then got involved in coaching and administration.”
He took extra-mural papers to achieve diplomas in level 1 and 2 coaching and sports management diploma.
He’s coached countless athletes throughout the years including national representatives Michael Craig, David Falealili, Donald MacDonald and his own daughter Michelle, who represented New Zealand at the 1990 Commonwealth Games, in Auckland, and set records before Zoe Hobbs put her name to them this year.
Seymour was a coach attached to the New Zealand team at the Commonwealth Games, in Victoria, Canada, in 1994.
He helped set up the New Zealand Children’s Athletics Association as well as the Colgate Games.
He also has various other roles, such as Athletics Wellington chairman, but his affinity has always been with the Paraparaumu club, which was very strong when he started.
“Back in those days there were no other sports in the summer apart from athletics and tennis.
“We had a big membership.
“During club nights, the grass banks would be full of parents.”
The club was so strong that on Saturdays a few minibuses were used to take teenagers into Wellington to compete.
Performances impressed people, including national jumps coach Grant Birkenshaw, who was delighted some of his athletes joined the club.
During a national league, in the 1990s, the club excelled at the senior level.
“North Shore always won it, Hamilton was second, and Paraparaumu was third.”
It’s a busy time for Seymour during the summer helping the club with weekly meets at Paraparaumu Domain and winter conditioning during winter.
He loves helping youngsters and getting feedback from them.
“It’s not a chore — it’s enjoyable.”
Nowadays the club is still strong, albeit catering to a younger age range.
“We’ve got a lot of really good youngsters come through but the problem is there’s no tertiary education here so when they get to 17 or 18 they leave.
“People ask if I find that depressing but I say don’t really.
“My philosophy is, if you can turn a young person into a decent citizen, it’s far more important than sport.
“I feel we’ve achieved something if we can do that.”