Tim Hutchings, Terrence Mahon, Ricky Simms and Alberto Salazar at the UKA Endurance Q&A Conference (© Mark Shearman)
This morning at the Croydon Park Hotel, the meeting HQ of the two-day Aviva London Grand Prix - Samsung Diamond League an exceptionally well attended endurance running coaching conference, was held by UKA, the IAAF Member Federation for Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Anyone lucky enough to avoid the real world of 9 to 5 and follow the athletics circuit around each year will confirm that in the various hotel lobbies around the globe at which this sporting caravan stops you’ll find a broad mix of athletes, coaches, managers, media. Its a small world of familiar faces, who for the three to four months of the main outdoor season share much the same experiences, the repeated packing and unpacking of suitcases, delayed flights, hotel to stadium shuttles, the habitual blandness of the bedrooms of a modern chain hotel etc…
There is a vast depository of anecdotes and stories recounted on the tour between the members of this intimate athletics family, and it smartly dawned on UKA that along with the jokes and reminisces, that this group holds an encyclopaedic knowledge of our sport in particular the coaching of elite athletes. So why not make use of it, move the discussions of the dining room, bar and lobby into a more formal environment, and tap into this reservoir? From this kernel of an idea, today’s UKA Endurance Q&A Conference was born.
Like the spectator tribunes of Crystal Palace over the last two days, the banqueting room of the Croydon Park Hotel was full to capacity this morning. In excess of 150 coaches, athletes, officials and media packed the room to take part in a question and answer session with some of coaches and managers of the top endurance athletes.
The morning got off with an introduction by Ian Stewart, the meeting director of the London meeting and head of Endurance at UKA, who as a 5000m European champion and Olympic medallist during the 1970s knows a thing or two about the subject. The audience then participated in an interesting exchange of information with Ricky Simms, Terrence Mahon and Alberto Salazar, a discussion which was moderated by Tim Hutchings, renowned athletics commentator, twice World Cross Country Championship silver medallist and fourth place finisher in the 1984 Olympic 5000m.
Simms, one of the world’s leading agents and coach to World champions Vivian Cheruiyot and Linet Masai and 2010 World Cross Country champion Joseph Ebuya, is also advisor to European 5000m and 10,000m champion Mo Farah. Mahon, a former Olympic trials marathoner, is based at altitude at Mammoth Lakes, California, and is coach to Ryan Hall, US Half Marathon record holder and Deena Kastor, the 2004 Olympic Marathon bronze medallist. Salazar, the three times New York Marathon winner and coach to Kara Goucher, Adam Goucher, Dathan Ritzenhein and Galen Rupp, made up the trio of endurance experts.
Speed, jumps, hurdles and combined
But this morning didn’t just stop with endurance, as a few miles away in the media hotel, The Jury’s Inn, UKA had also taken the opportunity of so many elite international coaches being in town for the Aviva London Grand Prix - Samsung Diamond League, to set up coaching sessions for other event disciplines.
There were Masterclasses held for speed, jumps, hurdles and combined events, with John Smith leading the speed session, Loren Seagrave the jumps, with Bob Kersee the focus of the Hurdles and Combined Events discussion.
Smith is coach to World Championships bronze medallist Carmelita Jeter and guided among many others the careers of Olympic champions Steve Lewis (400m), Maurice Greene (100m/200m), Marie-Jose Perec (200m/400m) and Kevin Young (400mH). Seagrave, one of the leading coaches in the world for long jump and speed development, is the man behind multiple World Long Jump champion Dwight Phillips and twice Olympic 400m Hurdles champion Angelo Taylor. Kersee has guided numerous athletes to Olympic, World, US and NCAA titles, his latest star pupil being Allyson Felix, the three-time World 200m champion.
The unqualified success of today’s activities thankfully assures that this project will be repeated and the likelihood that other meetings on the Samsung Diamond League tour will follow UKA’s inspired example in the future must be high. The holders of knowledge are already travelling to each city so while resting at each location it would be crazy not to tap such a resource of knowledge.
Chris Turner
IAAF Editorial Senior Manager
