Vale Robbins, Hunt and Reed

Athletics Australia reflects of the lives and careers of the three Olympians who recently passing away.

Neil Robbins (9 August 1929 – 6 December 2020)

Neil Robbins was a pioneering Australian steeplechaser, placing seventh at the 1956 Olympics Games. The Melbourne Games would be the first occasion Australia was represented in the 3000m Steeplechase at the Olympics, with Neil the only Australian representative in the final.

In a boom era of Australian distance running, Neil was selected in the 3 and 6 mile events for the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. He had set an Australian 6 mile record in March 1954, but at the Games in Vancouver, his campaign was hampered due to injury, resulting in him not starting in the 3 mile and not finishing in the 6 mile event. A year prior to the 1956 Olympics, he switched to the steeplechase, analysing he had a better hope for Games selection. His seventh place at the Melbourne Olympics remains the third best ever by an Australian male at the Olympics or world championships. He broke the Australian record in the heat and final - a record which stood for six years.

Domestically he won the 1952 Australian cross country title and many Victorian state titles. He didn’t compete in the inaugural Australian steeplechase championship, held in Sydney in 1958, as his career was winding down, and therefore he never won a national medal in his pet event.

Neil worked at Shell for 35 years, starting off as an industrial chemist and in later years was the marketing manager.

He had started running competitively at 20 years of age after a colleague at a Laverton oil refinery (later to become the BP refinery) challenged him to a race during lunchtime. The pair ran around the refinery's perimeter, a distance of about three kilometers with Neil just failing to keep up with his fit friend. Neil ran for Williamstown athletics club and when he switched to the steeplechase, sort out the coaching expertise of Franz Stampfl at Melbourne University, who improved his technique and the ability to efficiently negotiate the steeples and the water.

He passed away earlier this month aged 91.

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Christine Hunt (15 June 1950 – 25 September 2020)

Born 1950 in Sydney, Chris Hunt (nee Thompson) was a leading Australia javelin thrower competing for NSW until she moved to Melbourne in 1969 where she worked in the textiles industry. She had a dazzling career as a junior, winning her first national medal aged 13 in the Australian junior championships. The next few years she won the junior title and placed third in the national senior title, aged just 14-years. She continued to win medals over the next few years.  She made her international debut in 1967 in the British Commonwealth V USA match and at the 1969 Pacific Conference Games won bronze in the javelin throw.

In the early ‘70s she rarely competed, but returned to competition in 1975 to win the national title. In 1976 she won the Australian Championships by six metres, in a magnificent personal best distance of 57.84m. She was selected for the Montreal Olympics where she unfortunately had three fouls in the qualifying round. After the Games in Canada, she travelled to American where she lived for the remainder of her life. She competed for another couple of years for the University of Florida. In retirement, she remarried and was a business owner and real estate agent in Lakeland, Florida and known for her incredible customer service. She was a member of the Leadership Lakeland Class and active in the Chamber of Commerce Program.

Christine Hunt-Clifford passed away in Florida in September, aged 70.

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Ian Reed (13 Jul 1927- 7 Aug 2020)

Born in Footscray, Ian Reed won gold for Australia in the discus in his International debut at the 1950 British Empire Games. In 1950 he moved to America to study Chemical Engineering at Stanford University and competed regularly for the university in 1951 and 1952, continuing to raise the Australian record on numerous occasions. He set his personal best in Stanford University colours competing in Palo Alto in February 1952.  He was selected for the 1952 Helsinki Olympics and travelled from New York on the Queen Mary with other US-based Australians.

At the Olympics he did not progress out of the qualifying round. His experience in Helsinki lead to changes in the Discus Ring from a base of cinders to cement at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Ian was keen to see the discus event move forward, as had shot put and other field events. He worked with the IOC and American sports administrators to improve the technical requirements of the discus throw.

His last discus competition would be the 1954 Australian championships in Sydney, where he comfortably won the title. During his career he won four national titles and raised the national record on over 10 occasions. Half a century later, he returned to competition as a masters athlete and now holds world masters records.

In the ‘50s he married Iris and raised a family in California, becoming a naturalised American in 1965.

He passed away in California in August 2020, aged 93 years.

Prepared by David Tarbotton from various sources, including the Australian Olympic Committee, John Treloar, Paul Jenes, Len Johnson, Trevor Vincent, Fletcher McEwen and Graham Thomas.