Athletics Weekly

By strong I mean huge physical strength. Some people do not seem to need it but having seen Kipketer hopping over 3:6 hurdles you can understand why I felt weak. It was clear to me from Gym sessions in germany with guys who could run 45 and 1:44 that I was just weak by comparison. Yes I could destro...

Sprintfan. If your sister was Hilary who was assistant adjutant of 19 Field Regiment and who played shove halfpenny underwater, then yes of course I did. How is she by the way? Send her my love. The Regiment was probably one of the best units in the world at the time she was there. We were just 500 ...

I just reread all this and even enjoyed my own posts! I would not change anything. But I wanted to make a comment that all the athlete mentioned were immensely strong. Ovett from running the South Downs daily, Coe from conventional weights but heavy, Cramm and Elliott from hiily runs too. I think th...

Eddie
was that 110H or 800m - two events where talent, tactical nouse, inspiration, good health and freshness can make a big difference, even when not the fittest? I always thnk the other events need a greater extreme in one particular physiological direction to deliver the goods.

The comment by MarkC on selection and motivation is right on the mark! This linkage with motivation is perhaps THE key element in keeping people in the sport and working. We have been dismantling it steadily for about 15 years and the current team show no signs yet that they understand it. The Unive...

I am sorry I mised this thread earlier I have known Clarence for the best part of two generations. He came up through a hard school in an Army team that once had 11 Internationals and you had to be international standard to make the 4x100 or 4x400. Not to mention the 800 with Mal Edwards (who took O...

The selection of Ian is interesting and has the capacity to be either amazing or an enormous failure. I was one of the two people who was interviewed for the endurance lead post. There was no coach present and when I said that one of my key strengths was that I was a physiology based coach and used ...

Whaatever is done, a healthy dose of reality is needed. We have what we have and that is the start point. To suggest that we can suddenly up the number of coaches is unreal. Ther are simply not that many people who like our sport let alone want to stand outside on a cold winters day watching thrower...

Does anyone know what happened to Cherrie Hanson. I trained with her and Ovett at Mrthyr Mwr and she was awesome. Then I think she joined the police and that was the end of her? I would like to meet her again.

Actually you may be wrong about DM putting soemthing back. I think that he may actually be more comfortable with that than being a manager. But like many succesful athletes, I wonder if he knows where the perfomance came from? In his defence, he was totally untrained and unskilled for the CEO post i...

Well sadly (i suppose for me, perhaps not for the sport) I have been told that I will not be given an interview for the post of Chief Executive. :( I am left feeling a bit that doing serious jobs out here in the real world where you are accountable does not matter these days! The feedback was that t...

Thanks for the comments. If you really want advice then it is not a simple answer on email. For example with athletes I coach I need to know much more before Istart giving advice.. To give you an indication, before I start to tell people what they should do there is a question and answer session of ...

Thats me!!! 800 1:48 - although I ran this three times at least, once after being tripped up and falling at 550 in Hannover in 77. 3:38 at Commonwealths in Edmonton in 78 13:55 in Uerdingen Germany in 78. I trained with Ovett in the BMC, Southern and National Camps from 72 until 76. They were all ty...

Bevone you almost made me cry!. I spend my life looking for things like this to read about my sport. JE was right. Why are we not using you more. It is funny. I have a coaches eye for many activities. I can watch an athlete on the track running a session and tell you his best times, at 1500m pace ne...

No he didnt, but I always contend that this was because Harry Wilson was always happier developing endurance than speed. I did some sessions with Steve that made me sure he could run under 1;40 but his training took him the other way. And I am afraid that I still think that over 4 rounds Steve would...

Sleady

me too sorry - and well spotted.

Hmm but It was Ovett that won th Olympic final with heats not Coe. Ovett had better recovery powers I felt. he certainly did loads more aerobic work. I am sure that you are right about Cramm and Elliott though. Who else to leave out then???

Good though. As a club mate of Steves I tried to sit behind him at every chance and saw his big throw at CP and several others. I always thought his throwing was a bit big and ugly compared to the technique of my Finnish frends. But there was no arguing about the effectiveness of that arm of his. Aw...

You forgot tom say if there were heats to get to this race or if it was a one off. The result would be different with three rounds first.

There is a bit of nonsense on both sides here. I like the need for a manager comment from Sam. I have thought this for a while. We have athletes on contract but because of the way we do business they are not actually members of the British Team and therefore apparently responsible to noone other tha...

How did we get from 5 Live forum closing to Steve Backley with his foot in a bucket in so few steps?

I cannot get the web page to open at all, even from the power of 10 link. I suppose that I have been disenfranchised already. Will anyone who can read the UKA pages please tell me if the job appears - er - and send it to me, not the link!!!

I notice that we now only have a power of 10 webpage and nothing from UKA. What do people think about this?

Dennis

your points are all valid and well argued. The silly thing is that with IT, we can now get the data needed quickly and easily and at very little cost. But I do not see movement in this direction. We are actually getting very little value from our expensive website.

Eddie thank you. the main reasons I want this job are simple. I love athletics (especially 800m - and 50K race walk. The two great tactical events) and I love people. I would want to continue posting and arguing and discussing because that is the stuff of life. I would want to attend club training n...

Dennis I am inclined to agree with you. But like all these things, whoever takes over must deal with the reality as it is and not as she/he would like it to be. I think that with many things we are in a mess , and this is one of them. I am sure that UKA found themselves under considerable pressure t...

Dennis That is a good question. But a few thoughts before I answer. I currently have mixed views on this in athletics because I cannot see what benefits are really going to be delivered (not just said). I have been a member of the British Orienteering Federation for a long time (although not at pres...

Not with me in charge there wont be. I dont do layers!!!!

Jennifer I agree the ideas totally in principle although I understand one or two things may be harder to implement in reality. We need to look at all the options we can and find those that empower, attract and excite. What we did in BMC was to authorise the volunteers to run things with clear object...

Jennifer Well we have saddled ourselves with this one and as legal matters go I doubt that we can change this in a hurry. In effect UKA has become the employer of 250 (or so) sick and injured people. I am not personally convinced that the sports administrative body should be engaged in this sort of ...