Martin Winbolt-Lewis

Martin Winbolt-Lewis was a good hockey player during his time at Marlborough College but was an outstanding runner, and was so good that he won the 1965 English Schools and AAA Junior 440 yards titles. Still only aged 19, he was selected for the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games at Kingston, Jamaica, finishing fourth in the quarter mile and winning a bronze medal with the English quartet in the 4x440 relay. Also in 1966, Winbolt-Lewis won his first Surrey 440 title and went to the European Championships in Budapest.

After leaving Marlborough, Winbolt-Lewis went to Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, to read social anthropology. During his time at university, he was a three-time athletics Blue in 1967-69, and that was after missing a large part of the 1967 season with glandular fever. The captain of the university athletics team, Winbolt-Lewis won the 1968 AAAs 440 title and was selected for the Mexico Olympics. As the lead-off leg, he reached the 4x400 final with the GB squad that finished fifth. He narrowly missed a place in the 400 metres semi-final after finishing fifth in his quarter with a personal best 45.91, which was an Olympic record - as the fastest time to be eliminated in the 400. Winbolt-Lewis held that record for 24 hours until Poland’s Jan Werner deprived him of it.

Winbolt-Lewis continued to win County titles and was third in the 1969 AAAs 400 metres, and that year also competed in his second European Championships, at Athens. In 1970 he went to his second Commonwealth Games, in Edinburgh. Also in 1970 Winbolt-Lewis won silver in the 800 at the World Student Games (Summer Universiade). He missed most of the 1971 season suffering from the effects of glandular fever for the second time.

An atheist at the time of the Mexico Games, Dave Hemery persuaded Winbolt-Lewis to attend a religious rally at Westminster Hall in 1969 and that was a significant moment in his conversion to Christianity. Winbolt-Lewis found his calling and in 1972 went to St John’s Theological College, Nottingham. Winbolt-Lewis was ordained by the Church of England in 1975 and was appointed a curate at a North London church before spending many years as a rector in Yorkshire, where he was also a hospital chaplain. Winbolt-Lewis had several poetry and children’s books published.

Personal Best: 400 – 45.91 (1968).