Steyning Athletic Club - Outstanding Contribution Award to Dave Stevens.

The Steyning Athletic Club Annual Awards for 2020 featured a rarely given honour – the ‘Outstanding Contribution to Steyning AC’ award.

The winner, Dave Stevens, has given an immense amount of time, effort, racing and passion to SAC over the last 55 years.

Dave Race Walked for Twickenham AC before moving to Steyning in the mid-60s. From the earliest days of joining the club, Dave immersed himself into club life and was always involved in helping to run the club. This ranged from being on the Committee, to helping to organise events, getting the teas, getting Cups engraved, driving the Race Walking Teams to races and Championships all over the country, to cleaning the Clubhouse.

Dave held the position of Club Secretary for a staggering 25 years, and was later made a life member by the membership.

Dave has also been a prolific racer and competitor and had a great deal of success during a period when race walking was fiercely competitive and a much more popular sport than it is now. When working at the Stock Exchange (who had quite a few good walkers) Dave won all distances of their championships ranging from 3 kilometres up to the London to Brighton. He also helped Steyning AC to many regional and national titles over many years while racing alongside some of the club’s international elite such as Graham Morris, Tony Geal, Peter Fox and others.

Perhaps Dave’s most successful period as an athlete, and one that meant he travelled even more extensively to race, came as he moved up into the Masters/veteran ranks. He won European and World Championship medals, breaking age group records along the way.

Dave earned a medal at either 3km and/or 5km at the British Masters championships in all but one year between 2005 and 2015, and competed at European and World championships in the USA, Finland, Italy, France, Hungary, Australia and Brazil among others. His proudest racing achievement are the two World Senior titles for 5km Gold in Melbourne, and 10km Gold in New Zealand, in 2004.

His recognition for outstanding contribution is truly deserved.

Other award winners for 2020 were:
Coach of the Year – Liz Claridge
Performance OTY – Juliet Starbuck
Member OTY – Andy Selman
Runner OTY – Aaron Healy
Triathlete OTY – Dan Carter
Race Walker OTY – Ian Richards
Swimmer OTY – Lawrence Naested

For more information about SAC, visit: www.steyningac.co.uk