Vale Leonard Roy Boyd OAM
(13 July 1932 – 24 March 2025)
Roy Boyd was the doyen of Australian hurdles coaching for much of its modern history. He was a long serving National Event Coach, tutoring countless other coaches in the intricacies of hurdling. He was a Team Coach for the 1994 Commonwealth Games.
But his passion for the sport and his ongoing wish to make it possible for athletes to achieve as much as they might be capable and desire, saw Roy continue his involvement well after others may have considered retirement. He exemplified the perfect model of the dedicated and respected volunteer coach.
Roy coached or was the specialist technique coach for a swag of Olympians, World Champions and Commonwealth Games representatives including Mick Daws, Bill Earle, Mick Ryan, Mal Baird, Max Binnington, Vin Plant, Debbie Flintoff King, Jane Flemming, Kyle Vander Kuyp and Rohan Robinson. Many others made World Juniors and a range of other national teams.
As one fine example, over many sessions, he taught Debbie the difficult alternate lead leg technique, enabling her to hold speed longer. Her superb execution under the pressure of an Olympic final was what probably determined the gold medal in Seoul. It was a real testament to how well ingrained Roy’s hurdles coaching had become.
At one point in time, he had coached three of the four Australian men who had then bettered 14 seconds in the 110m hurdles. Roy coached an extraordinarily lengthy list of Australian champions and medallists. His influence will remain enormous. Sharon Hannan was openly and often appreciative of her consultations with Roy in her development of Sally Pearson.
As a measure of the man, Roy’s relations with other coaches have always been of the highest quality – often with higher motives in mind. He encouraged Henri Schubert to have his squad train at Sandringham so that the club kids could see the tough work that world class athletes like Pam Ryan and Charlene Rendina put in. He also welcomed Frank McMahon, in the period he was advising Ron Clarke, to do his track work at Sandringham to provide a role model for our distance runners.
Roy was a prime mover in the Sandringham Club getting its own track and his role in lobbying the Sandringham Council is often overlooked. He was one of the drivers for installation of the lights at the track and twilight invitation meets every summer.
Roy was just as interested in developing the youngsters at the club as working with the bigger names. He put enormous amounts of time into his coaching and was excellent at cajoling people into that extra 300 metres effort.
He was a student of the sport and was one of the first to introduce resistance running with a belt, with the legendary tractor tyre pull up the hill on the outside cinder track at the club. He also utilised the downhill section for increased cadence work. He arranged for the club to take its first steps into building up a weight training section and was an early user of plyometrics.
He was the first to introduce stair rhythm running for the hurdlers, with the beach steps at Half Moon Bay being used for timed efforts up one, two and three steps at a time. The natural competitiveness of the athletes came to the fore and everybody strove hard.
Roy arranged fun relays at the club of odd distances and legs, with the youngsters allocated amongst senior teams on short legs, to get a real team culture going. With the seniors cheering on their young team-mates and congratulating them after their legs, he had everyone in the right positive mood. He had fun running handicap starting sessions, where he was an astute judge of how many metres start the youngsters could get, to create a blanket finish at 30 or 40m. In essence, he was brilliant at getting training done under the guise of fun.
As a coach he had an easy, chatty and upbeat manner. He exuded a quiet confidence and his technical comments on hurdles were brief, clear and entirely relevant. Many was the time after hearing a comment that one would say internally, “Yes, that’s it!”. For the top level athletes, he always looked first to see if he and the athlete had the right rapport, before he agreed to coach them. Roy never looked for publicity for himself and always directed media queries to the athletes. He was self-effacing to a fault.
One fellow coach observed that Roy had a special and unique talent of being able to explain the same thing in myriad ways so that if an athlete or coach did not quite get it the first time, all was far from lost. And as one of Roy’s most successful former charges said “Athletics can be a very bitchy sport. As a measure of Roy’s standing, I have never heard anyone refer to Roy in negative terms, either within the club or the sport.” It is a view that would be very widely held.
Roy was rightly recognised for his special contribution as a Life Member of Athletics Australia (1995) and then as a Life Governor from 2012. He was a recipient of the Henri Schubert Memorial Award (2002) and through the Australian honours system with the Australian Sports Medal (2000) and the Medal of the Order of Australia (2008).
Roy’s extraordinary service and contribution to athletics in Australia was special and then there is one more thing to say, for he was above all – the Gentleman of Australian Athletics.
The Australian Athletics Family extends it condolences and its deep appreciation for Roy’s service to the sport to Bev and their daughters -Amanda, Tracey, Kendra and Melanie and his extended family.
A Memorial service to honour Roy’s life will be held in the Cumulus/Stratus Chapel, Bunurong Memorial Park, 790 Frankston Dandenong Rd, Dandenong South, on Tuesday 1 April 2025 commencing at 9.30am.
Prepared by Brian Roe for Australian Athletics
Posted: 31/3/2025
