Athletics loses passionate backer | Bay of Plenty Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Bay of Plenty

They say even a short man casts a long shadow at sunset.

When Ted Guy's days drew to a close this week, the regional athletics scene lost one of its most passionate volunteers, a tireless campaigner for fair play and the virtues of activity. He died suddenly on Tuesday, aged 80.

Together with his equally diminutive, equally generous wife Eva, Guy would regularly head over the Kaimai Ranges from their home in Waharoa to officiate and compete in Tauranga-based events.

"They made the trip for years in a little green Mini, which kind of suited them," Tauranga athletics coach Murray Chell remembers fondly.

"Every Saturday, Ted would pack up the car and be off somewhere, to Tauranga, or Taupo or Auckland, through winter and summer, year in and year out.

"They'd do everything for the Waharoa club and I remember going down there to help him rake grass off the track while Ted mowed the lines with his hand-mower, getting things just right."

A kind word here; a firm reminder of the rules there. Generations upon generations of budding athletes came under the upright gaze of Guy, whose only prejudice was against those who ventured outside the rules of his beloved sport.

Chell grew up around the corner from the Guys in Waharoa and remembers them running the local athletics club 48 years ago when he first took up the sport.

He last saw Ted at the Tauranga Open cross-country at Waipuna Park in June, while as late as July, he was the marksman and starter at the North Island cross-country championships in Taupo.

Guy attended nearly every Tauranga Twilight athletics meet at the Tauranga Domain from the 1960s, as an official course measurer for Waikato-Bay of Plenty and a competitive walker.

"Every year, I'd arrive to set up and Ted and Eva would be there early, keen to help out with whatever needed to be done and working tirelessly," Tauranga Ramblers stalwart Malcolm Taylor said. "His passing will leave a big hole in athletics."

Guy was accorded Life Membership of Athletics Waikato-Bay of Plenty and in the 2002 Queen's Birthday honours was awarded a Queen's Service Medal (QSM).

His last competitive title was the 2008 New Zealand M75-79 10km road walking title in Hamilton, while Eva won the W75-79 title the same year. additional information courtesy of Athletics NZ