Neville's Story
Neville Sayers was a pioneer of modern pentathlon in Victoria, and indeed Australia. He won the first Australian modern pentathlon championship in 1956 in the lead-up to an Australian team debuting in the sport at Melbourne 1956. Forbes Carlile had been Australia’s first Olympic modern pentathlete, at Helsinki 1952. Sayers finished a creditable 19th (out of 40 participants) in his Olympic debut. He combined with Sven Coomer and Greg Nicholl for Australia to finish 8th in the team competition.
After he completed his Olympic career as a competitor, at Rome 1960, Sayers became the modern pentathlon section manager at Tokyo 1964 and Mexico City 1968. At various times he was a member of Olympic juries of appeal, an international judge and a vice president of the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM). He also competed in the rapid fire pistol at Rome 1960 and joined that exclusive band of Australians to compete in more than one sport at the Olympic Games (http://corporate.olympics.com.au/olympian-search/team-trivia-stats. He tried unsuccessfully to make the shooting team at Melbourne 1956.
