Anna Maria Cutillo

Anna-Maria Cutillo died tragically in a road traffic accident at Mount Murray on 2nd September 1985, aged just 19 years. She was the eldest daughter of Leucio and Jennifer Cutillo, and sister to Giuliana, Sandrina and the late Dino Cutillo. The whole family was involved in athletics, and they were members of Manx Athletic Club.

Her coach Graham Davies remembers Anna-Maria as a beautiful young lady with a fantastic personality to match. She was an outstanding individual at most sports, but she enjoyed team sports most of all. She was a member of Graham’s coaching group that included her younger sister Giuliana, as well as Leslie Hope, Helen Mackay, Juliet Brown and the late David Teece. David was later to marry Anna-Maria’s sister Sandrina.

Anna-Maria won the very first junior race to be held in conjunction with the Foxdale 6 in the early 1980s. Unfortunately in later years the junior races had to be discontinued due to the heavy traffic. At the time of her death, Anna-Maria was the Isle of Man 400 metres champion, IOM diving champion, and was a member of the IOM women’s basketball team. Her basketball club team were the IOM league champions.

At weekends, Anna-Maria worked in Graham’s Alpha Sports shop in Douglas before taking up full time employment with Mann Link Travel. She spent many hours in Foxdale at the Davies family home as babysitter. Graham says “The island lost a superb all round athlete, and I lost a very close friend. So that nobody would ever forget her, I named the Foxdale 6 road race after her". Her sister Sandrina Teece recalls “Anna-Maria had a lovely outgoing personality, and was well liked and respected in all areas of her life.” Dave Griffiths