Obituary: Northants athletics stalwart John Love loses cancer battle

He dedicated most of his life to the sport as an athlete, coach, official and team manager. He leaves behind son Tim, daughter Julie and partner Carol.

Born on June 3 in 1939, John first joined Northampton & County AC in 1954 at the age of 15.

He competed in his first Birmingham League Cross Country race in November 1964 and went on to complete 20 races in the league during the sixties, leading home the club in 10 of them.

His pinnacle came when he won two races in Division Three in early 1966, which clinched the overall individual title and helped Northampton & County gain their first promotion to Division Two.

In 1969, John was runner-up in the Northants Cross Country Championships and, after turning 30, he then took a break from the sport due to family commitments and within a couple of years the club virtually folded up, but would rise again with a new name.

In the early 1980s, John returned to competition as a veteran athlete for Northampton Phoenix AC and went on to compete in seven different European countries.

He qualified as a middle distance coach and would turn out every Tuesday and Thursday to coach the Senior Men’s squad, while taking part himself.

He would remain active in his coaching role for 25 years.

Throughout the winter he organised a five-mile handicap race for the whole club on a Tuesday evening at Abington Park in Northampton, regularly attracting 50 to 60 people.

John took part in 11 more Birmingham League Cross Country races for Phoenix during the 1980s before hanging up his spikes in 1988 at the age of 48.

His known personal bests were 55 seconds for the 400m, two minutes for the 800m and 51.17 for 10 miles on the road.

He was made president of the club and would remain so for another 20 years and became a qualified track and field official and would spend most weekends at an athletics meeting, officiating for the club during the summer and then was a team manager for the men in the winter for the cross country.

In more recent years as an honorary member of Rugby & Northampton AC he continued to officiate, both in track and field events, which included the Special Needs Championships in Leicester.

John also turned to competing once again, but this time in throwing events and the walk and was still winning medals in his age category when he was 80.

And last year, he picked up a long overdue award when he won the Lifetime Contribution to Sport at the Northamptonshire Sports Awards.