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Toby Wolpe: In memoriam
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Toby Wolpe.
Toby has been a long-time member of our club, joining in the early days of the club’s formation in the late 1980s.
Toby Wolpe Easter 10K Rise Farm
Toby was a fantastic runner, and his preferred discipline was 800m, running this distance competitively over the years. In recent years, Toby competed for Lewes in many cross-country races and even completed a few parkruns last year as a V65 runner.
Moving into coaching in 2015, Toby was a supportive coach within our club in the Junior and Senior Endurance groups, the Sprints group (with friend Jamie Powell) and the adult memberships, supporting our Beginners course and its participants and of course, taking on our Thursday Track night as lead coach since 2020.
Many club members have been coached on Thursdays by Toby who set fair and hard sessions every week and turned up no matter the weather every week to ensure we got our track training.
Toby became a member of the clubs executive committee in early 2021 and took the role of Club Coach in 2023.
In 2024, Toby helped lead the performance improvement plan for adult members which included the introduction of Strength & Conditioning on Monday evenings. This has been attended by over 20 members every week since its inception and has been a tremendous success.
In addition, Toby led the training for the cross-country season for the last 3 years and because of this, Lewes AC won the East Sussex Cross Country League in 2025, its first victory in this league in over 7 years.
Toby has helped encourage and support many of us on our athletic journeys, sharing such in depth knowledge of technique, coaching, performance, along with great advice on training, life and even the trumpet which he dearly loved.
For me, Toby has been a great friend over the years and a real example of how to coach & operate in the athletics world. A sounding board for many an idea, always there to listen, providing advice and feedback, and overall, just being a really decent human being.
Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with Toby’s family and loved ones during this difficult time.
Philip Westbury
Chair-Lewes Athletic Club
If you would like to leave a memory or have any recollections, pictures of Toby, these can be added here: https://tobywolpe.muchloved.com/