Athletics Weekly

I am rather amused that UKA of all place decided that Canada was the place to poach Athletics experts of success. Actually most of the Canadians were employed for their experience on the coach development side of things and the Canadian Athletics Coaching Centre was clearly the world leader in this...

Accepting you have no power on influence on a decision is not the same as making the right decisions. The fact he tried such drastic and underhand means to get athletes to follow his centralisation orders clearly shows this. Some great points here and relevant criticism. You along with this article...

How do we evaluate the Eriksson era? Quite short of course, but what are the impact of his decisions during his short time in charge of British Athletics? Will the next leader be forced to stay with the decisions he has made or will they be allowed to make their own? Who are the most likely candida...

It basically tries to claim Jessica Ennis shouldn't have had a go at CVC about him trying to force her to move. I can't help but fee it sounds like it's one of Charles Van Commenee's mates backing him. I don't think it says that. It just says that Jess left out the part where Charles then made an a...

I always said the best location for a centralised British system was in a hot foreign country...

The point I was making was that the examples given in the article are hardly scandalous. While I agree that a lot of US sprint coaches have worked with athletes who have failed tests I think there is a difference between turning a blind eye to doping (as happens in most US professional sports) and ...

Trying to paint him as some scandalous coach that Mo shouldn't have any contacvt with is ridiculous. I would suggest you consider doing a little further research on this matter before defending Smith. Even if he is has never been convicted he is at the very least "scandlous". To point you...

I don't doubt it. But if China, Kenya, etc has shown us, if enough children are thrown into sport and trained hard some will survive in a Darwin like fashion far stronger, drugs or no drugs. Of course the numbers game works but there a numerous reports of doping in these countries as well: http://w...

I don't think you need to do anything other than look at their training plans to know no mortal could withstand the volume they were doing. As for specifics, I've heard first hand stories from very senior Russian coaches about what was going on in the 70s and it rivalled the GDR but we do not have o...

It's a massive loss to the sport. May her name be remembered for many decades to come. My thoughts are with her family.

While I could be wrong, I believe the environment right now is not conducive to a new WR in the 400m. Anyone who can get close to 44s is doing extremely well given the current climate.

I'm not sure if they have been given free reign any more than countries such as Australia (which you probably don't realise have a merky history with doping), it's very difficult to catch cheats and they often get away with it at least for a while. The reason it's always seems to be Russians who get...

I think LLF's time is supposed to be 47...

Under Erikson on the Paralympic side all coaches who work with a medalist are paid something like £4k a year per athlete they work with. Maybe he'll bring this philosophy to the Olympic programme? From what I have heard if you have a finalist or medalist you now get paid to coach them (It's called A...

MYSTERY BRICK - probably my favourite forum name ever! Merry Christmas!

This is a forum for the discussion of (anti) doping issues in T&F but just in case you need this info for a university course or something I suggest the following resource to get you started:

http://www.diabetes.nhs.uk/safety/safe_ ... ng_module/

As i posted above i am somewhat suspicious of the fact that only conveniently low profile, East European throwers have been caught but it is also probably that the new improved tests are only for certain drugs which are maybe more prevalent in throwing than other events. These tests weren't for new...

It looks like EA are not going to introduce this now following the backlash! http://www.athleticsweekly.com/news/england-athletics-set-to-backtrack-on-fees/ Reading this thread the question I come back to is who pays for everything in Athletics - officials, coaches, facilities etc? Up until now all ...

Good point about the membership scheme but if one existed what kind of benefit should i expect as an athlete? If I'm going to pay £15 for a year what benefits should I get? On their website England Athletics suggest the money goes to: Insurance – covering clubs, athletes, coaches, competition Rules ...

Why don't they just add the athletes to the UKA Pru health insurance. They would have to pay a premium but they would have access to experts all over the world this way. If UKA wanted more control they could insist that the expert was approved by them as well as the insurance company. In terms of c...

After a little investigation I've found out that while a lot of existing UKA coaches were interviewed for jobs at Loughborough they were not all for the same job as appointments were across three tiers of seniority - junior, senior and master. So Afilaka was not actually applying for the exact same ...

I'm surprised that UKA simply just pack our few sprinters off to the Racers Track Club playing Glen Mills whatever he asks for his services. No amount of facilities and US coaches in 'Luffbra' will get better results out of them than that. This is what Simeon Williamson and Toby Sanderman tried. Se...

Here's a fairly long interview with her from the BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/disability-sport/20435477

The best coaches are outside the system, if these people were rewarded for their success things would improve. The problem is, people are being paid a high wage and not producing the goods, this would not happen in the real world of industry, unfortunately they are fire proof. So the only answer is...

Plus the many UKA licensed races such as BUPA London type races where no surcharge is payable if the individual member of an affiliated CLUB (£50). Do you really think that a race Organiser has the time or inclination (say a Half Marathon with 600 entries) to cross-check each and every one against ...

I didn't ask that question specifically, but Malcolm Arnold is still working in Bath and Jess is still out of Sheffield so I think they can work from other locations so long as there are athletes there. Certainly there are a few working out of Lee Valley that are not leaving.

The way it was explained to me is that they are no longer providing biomechanics, nutrition, psychology, S&C and physiology out of Lee Valley with these services now being centralised at Loughborough and on Warm Weather Camps. If you want them you have to travel to Loughborough for access or via...

hank wrote:You used to get watches in the early days for meeting the standard, now you get printed off bib numbers with your name on it.

What do the bib numbers say? How do you qualify to get one?

Surely the poor weather this year and the fact that things ended early in the summer (did we even have a summer?) due to the Olympics is at least somewhat responsible for the lack of performances?

I think it's pretty clear they've been running things at a loss for a while. I don't know anywhere else you can get insurance for £5 let alone welfare support and all the rest of it. My competition license for the sports I play is in the range of $50 a year so £20 isn't that unreasonable. However, t...