Olympic race walker and 400m sprinter are recognised in the New Year honours

Tom Bosworth and Joslyn Hoyte-Smith have been rewarded with MBEs in the Kings New Year honours list for their athletics exploits.

The two retired athletes both won Commonwealth Games medals and competed in the Olympic Games during their careers.

Bosworth, 33, was sixth in the Olympic 20km race in Rio in 2016 and also competed in the Tokyo Games. At the 2018 Commonwealth Games he finished runner-up representing England behind Dane Bird-Smith of Australia.

The Tonbridge athlete set the British record for 20km of 79:38 in those 2018 Games. Whats more, he set world bests in the mile and 3000m outdoors and indoors. In addition he was seventh in the 20km at the 2019 World Championships before retiring in 2022.

Bosworth received his MBE for services to race walking while Hoyte-Smith was honoured for services to athletics.

As an athlete Hoyte-Smith won Olympic 4x400m bronze in 1980 and Commonwealth 400m bronze in 1982. She also finished just outside the medals in the 4x400m at the 1984 Olympics after anchoring the GB team to fourth place and won multiple British titles.

Her 400m best of 50.75 set at Crystal Palace in 1982 still places her 13th on the UK all-time rankings, whereas since retiring from the track she has worked in anti-doping, in para-athletics and for the English Institute of Sport. The 69-year-old is also chair of the GB Olympians.

In what was otherwise a relatively small number of awards for the sport of athletics in these latest New Year honours, Dean McNeilly of Newcastle AC received a BEM for services to athletics in Northern Ireland while Rick Townsend from Milton Keynes AC also earned a BEM for services to sport and the communities in Milton Keynes and South Yorkshire.