Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers Weekly Newsletter Thursday 28 May 2020

Posted on 26/05/202027/05/2020 by sbharriers

Happy Birthday from this Thursday 28 May to Daniel Bainbridge, Ellie Baker, Dick Bober, Ojie Edoburun, Shermia Edwards, Orr Farkash, Richard Horton, Sarah Kuti, Jean-Paul Laurent, Ashok Mathur, Paul Ogun, Maayan Radus, Nicola Rogers and Sophia Staab

RECENT NEW MEMBERS – We wish you a very warm welcome, and a happy, healthy and successful time with Shaftesbury to KEIRA GILMAN and THOMAS FISHER

ADAM MAJOR 2 NOVEMBER 1981 – 8 APRIL 2020 – Written by GEOFF MORPHITIS. It is with great regret that I have to report the recent death of ADAM MAJOR. I was his team manager and we had many great times together when he was an athlete for Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers in the late 1990s. He was a very talented Under 20 Shot and Discus man and in the year 2000, he was the best in the UK. His best performance in the Shot came in the National Junior League at Haringey in June 2000 with (16.58m) and in the Discus at the NJL Final in Birmingham in September 2000 with (55.16m). He was GB Junior international and was 2nd in the Shot and 9th in the Discus on the UK All-time rankings at the time. He was also our club record holder.

He retired from athletics in early 2001 to concentrate on his studies at Edinburgh University. He graduated and began working for Cisco Products as a software engineer. He married in 2010 and moved to Darlington a year later. Unfortunately, he suffered a migraine induced Stroke in 2014 which left him with a 25% permanent reduction in his sight. He was not allowed to drive and working at Home became difficult. However, after 3 years of treatment he recovered his driving licence. By this time, ADAM had become the father of 2 girls.

Then a further medical disaster happened in April 2020 when Adam was rushed to hospital with a very serious heart attack and in spite of extensive efforts died shortly thereafter. Sincere condolences from all at SBH to his wife ALISON and his daughters ISLA and ANNA. He will be missed but his memory will live on through his tremendous Athletics performances.

RE-OPENING OF ALLIANZ PARK – Discussions are taking place and a decision is imminent. Once the details are available I will post a statement on the SBH website Home Page.

CAN YOU HELP PLEASE – During the period when all competitions are suspended, I will do my upmost in keeping the Newsletter information and other content going.
I would welcome any contributions From Yourselves, any impending marriages, or additions to the family, any running or competing incidents, also past warm weather training/holidays (No Club 24 please). Currently the response has been excellent, but if you have anything that could make it into next week’s Newsletter – please email me.

TRAINING VIDEOS PRODUCED BY JADE LALLY – JADE has recently produced two videos relating to the basic fundamentals for Discus, this is the link to JADE’S first video on How To Hold A Discus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA9jyS4Wung&t=6s the second video is on Discus Basics: Foot Placement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8ahzDmrldk

MANY THANKS TO GEOFF WILLIAMS FOR HIS NOSTALGIC LOOK AT HUMBUG SUCCESSES IN THE NINETIES AND NOUGHTIES – Part 1: English Cross Country Union – National Cross Country Relays – Berry Park, Mansfield Saturday 31 October 2009.

The 2009/10 winter season was a truly memorable one for Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers’ youngsters with many county, regional and national individual and team titles being won.
The early winter season National Cross Country Relays is always one of the key events which attract all of the UK’s top clubs who are keen to test early season form and vie for national honours. The 2009 event saw both the Shaftesbury Under 15 Boys and Under 17 Men convincingly win titles at Berry Park, Mansfield.

Under 15 Boys – In the usual frenetic opening lap first year LUKE AMES-BLACKABY, who was to place 11th in the ESAA Championships later in the season gave the team a great start with 5th position in (6m 33s) handing over to MICHAEL CALLEGARI who produced a mightily impressive effort to dominate the opposition and put us into the lead with a time of (6m 41s) leaving the hugely talented MATTHEW MCLAUGHLIN to secure victory with a controlled and well judged (6m 41s) effort. The strength in this Under 15 group of Humbug athletes was further indicated by the ‘B’ team placing 7th overall with CHANDI UDUWAWLA 13th (6m 48s); MARK PEARCE 11th (7m 01s) and JOE HEADLAND 7th (6m 38s).
Overall Results: 1st Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers (19m 53.7s), 2nd Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow (20m 05.2s), 3rd Tonbridge (20m 17.4s), 4th Bedford & County (20m 20.4s), 5th Leicester Coritanian (20m 26.2s), 6th Coventry Godiva (20m 26.5s), 7th Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers ‘B’ (20m 28.5s).
Photograph Left to right: MICHAEL CALLEGARI, MATTHEW MCLAUGHLIN and LUKE AMES-BLACKABY and Individual photographs

Under 17 Men – Going into this race the favourites were Ipswich Harriers who had not been beaten as a team for 3 years, Aldershot, Farnham & District and Tonbridge both clubs being able to call their usual great depth of talent. TADGH GRANT led us off and initially struggled with the fearsome pace set by leaders SHAUN WEBB (Ipswich), JOSH GRACE (AFD), ROBBIE FARNHAM-ROSE (Tonbridge), CHARLIE HULSON (Sale) and GORDON BENSON (Leeds City). He recovered in the second half of the lap to bring SBH home in11th pace in (9m 38s). RICHARD GOODMAN, who was to go on to huge success later in the winter, set off 20 seconds behind the leaders and produced the run of the day as he systematically ran down each of the eleven runners in front of him with a time of (8m 53s fastest of the day by 16s) to give FRANK BAILEY a comfortable 11secs advantage to protect. IAN BAILEY of Aldershot and KIERAN CLEMENTS of Ipswich (incidentally now one of our own ‘humbugs’) gave it their all in the difficult first half of the lap and as they emerged from the tight woodland section appeared to be closing fast but with the long 500 metre drag up to the summit of the hill FRANK put his foot down to draw away and amidst vociferous support from the whole club enjoyed a comfortable eight second advantage at the finish.
Overall Results: 1st Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers (27m 58.2s), 2nd Aldershot & Farnham (28m 06.4s), 3rd Ipswich Harriers (28m 12.3s), 4th Tonbridge (28m 53.2s), 5th Leeds City (28m 55.5s), 6th Bedford & County (29m 09.5s).
Photograph Left to right: TADGH GRANT, FRANK BAILEY and RICHARD GOODMAN and Individual photographs TADGH and FRANK

RAY POWELL INSIGHT INTO SHAFTESBURY’S PAST – RAY has put together a few stories, which reveals to most of you, the unknown side of the club.

HOMEBREW HARRIERS – The homebrew harriers were a group of Shaftesbury runners who used to meet in each other’s houses every week, go for a run, have some food, followed by numerous pints of home brew.
The training runs were done at a fair lick, usually 6-8 miles including hill sessions and reps on the track behind the monster factory. We were very wary of water consumption back then, so one bath was run and depending on what order you came back in the run that was the order for the bath. So, you can imagine if eight of us went for the run, what the water was like for the last person in. Most of us lived within 5-10 minutes of Copthall so it was easy to get home. The time was from about 1980-92 we were all very fit at the time thus proving that homebrew and real ale of course made us better athletes.
The photograph features 5 of the HH – DAVE ALLEN, BRENDAN GALLAGHER, ANDY MCGRATH, RAY POWELL and JOHN KELLY. Others not present on the day of the photograph were CHRIS WELCH, DAVE MCDIARMID, JOHN ROLF and BRIAN CAKEBREAD. Link to photo Homebrew Harriers

SHAFTESBURY TAVERN – Back around the late 1970s there was a tea room in the West Stand and within it was the Shaftesbury Tavern, this room is currently used to house the SBH trophies and where we have cake and sandwiches during track meets. The photograph shows RAY POWELL as acting barman, and JOHN KELLY and DAVE BEDFORD sampling a fine brew. Link to photo Shaftesbury Tavern In West Stand

SHAFTESBURY TRAINING NIGHT IN 1984 – BRYAN SMITH’S Tuesday night training session was as many athletes agreed, enjoyable in a very challenging way, and in the upcoming years it grew to about 25 athletes. The photograph left to right RAY POWELL, DAVE CHALFEN, DAVE WILSON and JOYCE SMITH, unfortunately we are struggling to identify the athletes behind RAY and the JOYCE (any ideas). Link to photo Tuesday Night Training 1984

The T Shirt JOYCE is wearing is from the 1983 World Championships, in which JOYCE was selected for the Marathon. Being is Helsinki, Finland, the course designed was probably the most challenging in the championships history. Taking place on Sunday 7 August, the route included some 18 hills, GRETA WAITZ from Norway dominated the race, winning in a time of (2:28.09) three minutes in front of MARIANNE DICKERSON of the USA (2:31.09), JOYCE finished with a group of runners in 9th place (2:34.27).

HUGH RICHARDS ON THE LATEST LOCKDOWN PERIOD – It’s not that there’s too much pressure on time, thus said the days seem to pass rather too quickly for my liking! The garden has benefited greatly as a consequence of the lockdown.
Like you I am really missing the Parkruns and comparing our times each week in ALAN WELLER’S SBH newsletter. The nearest Parkrun to our home is Upton House, a couple of miles away, then the next nearest is Poole, about 5 miles. My partner PIPPA and I tend to go to Blandford, 12 miles from us but a nice out and back course on a tarmac/firm gravel surface. The toughest UK Parkrun I’ve done is without doubt Guildford, JOHN DRYDEN’S ‘home course’ which JOHN introduced me to in early March – it was gloriously muddy and reminiscent of true cross country. Our local Upton House course is ranked 447 in ‘hardness’ but is it much easier than Guildford’s 419 ranking. Blandford has a modest 120th place and Poole is ranked 38th – it is really flat but too crowded for my liking. PIPPA and I have been fortunate enough to do Parkruns in Australia and Singapore, the Singapore courses were really flat but the humidity hit hard! They reminded me of when JOHN and I competed in a 3000m steeplechase in Singapore in 1978 – in which he finished 2nd and I was 3rd – and the saying ‘pain has no memory’ – which to my mind is a load of claptrap (!)
I’m managing to get out most days for either a run or a cycle and have got used to people overtaking me at a speed I am totally unable to match. However, I consider myself fortunate that I am still able to run. But what I am finding is that progression is almost non-existent and ‘training’ at best helps to slow down a gradual decline. It will be interesting to look at our times when Parkruns resume! I’m taken with RUSSELL DEVITT’S ‘private parkrun’ – an excellent idea – it resulted in PIPPA and me driving to Blandford last Friday with the dog and ‘running’ the Parkrun course. PIPPA has been injured for months and it was her first 5k for a very long time so we were pleased with our 36 minutes. Next Friday it will be faster – will keep you informed!
I hope you are managing to keep well and injury free, best wishes HUGH

HISTORY OF THE PARKRUN – The following was compiled by ALAN WELLER from the Parkrun website.
Currently Parkrun’s take place in 22 countries. The first Parkrun was in the United Kingdom on October 2004 at Bushey Park, Teddington, with 13 runners and 4 volunteers. There are currently 722 locations, there has been 166,896 Parkruns, 2,364,345 individual participants and 312,999 volunteers. The remaining 21 countries are;

Denmark commenced on May 2009 at Amager Faelied, Copenhagen. There are currently 8 locations Poland commenced on October 2011 at Gdnyia with 5 runners. There are currently 75 locations
South Africa commenced on November 2011 at Delta Park, Johannesburg with 22 runners who completed the hot and very hilly 5k loop. There are currently 227 location
Australia commenced on 2 April 2011 at Main Beach on the Gold Coast with 108 runners. There are currently 398 locations
New Zealand commenced on May 2012. There are currently 30 locations
United States of America commenced on June 2012 at Livonia, Michigan with 28 runners. There are currently 46 locations
Ireland commenced on 10 November 2012 at Malahide Demesne Castle and Gardens. There are currently 98 locations
Russia commenced on 1 March 2014 in 2 parks simultaneously in Moscow. There are currently 80 locations
Singapore commenced on June 2014 at East Coast Park with 29 runners completing the sea front course. There are currently 4 locations
Italy commenced on May 2015 in Uditore. There are currently 18 locations
France commenced on June 2015 at Les Dougnes. There are currently 8 locations
Canada commenced on August 2016 in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. There are currently 43 locations
Sweden commenced on August 2016 at Hagaparken, Stockholm. There are currently 4 locations Eswatini commenced on May 2017 at Mbabane. There are currently 227 locations
Norway commenced on August 2017 at Toyoparken, Oslo. There are currently 6 locations
Finland commenced on 14 October 2017 at Tampere. There are currently 3 locations
Germany commenced on 2 December 2017 at Kuchenholz, Neckarau and Georgengarten. There are currently 34 locations
Malaysia commenced on April 2018 at Taman Pudu Ulu. There are currently 3 locations
Japan commenced on 6 April 2019 at Futakotamagawa, Tokyo. There are currently 17 locations
Namibia commenced on May 2019 at Swakopmund and Walvis Bay. There are currently 2 locations
Netherlands commenced on February 2020. There are currently 11 locations

HISTORY OF THE LONDON MARATHON – The following was taked from the Virgin Money London Marathon website.
In The Beginning – It all started in the pub, according to JOHN DISLEY and CHRIS BRASHER, co-founders of the London Marathon…
The Dysart Arms next to Richmond Park is the home of the Ranelagh Harriers running club, and on Wednesday nights runners drift in and talk over pints of bitter. One night, the talk was of the New York Marathon – a marathon with a buzzing atmosphere and spectators who don’t let you give up.
Several club members had competed in the 1978 New York City Marathon and never tired of talking about it. They were amazed how different it was to the UK marathons, where a handful of spectators and a few cows watched 20 or so competitors trudge around country lanes.

After several weeks of listening to these stories, BRASHER and DISLEY decided to see the New York Marathon for themselves. They did some training and entered the 1979 race.
BRASHER admitted he’d been unsure about running a marathon, the most punishing event of the Olympic athletics programme, but he saw the New York race as a great opportunity to experience the drama and get a true understanding of the determination needed to compete for over two hours. So the pair ran, finished, and witnessed how wonderful a ‘city mass marathon’ could be. With world famous sights, cheering spectators, and the camaraderie of the runners all around, they found the event exhilarating.
On returning home, BRASHER wrote an article for The Observer called ‘The World’s Most Human Race’. This is how it started:
“To believe this story you must believe that the human race can be one joyous family, working together, laughing together, achieving the impossible. Last Sunday, 11,532 men and women from 40 countries in the world, assisted by over a million people, laughed, cheered and suffered during the greatest folk festival the world has seen.”
BRASHER ended the article by wondering “whether London could stage such a festival? We have the course, a magnificent course … but do we have the heart and hospitality to welcome the world?”
DONALD TRELFORD, then editor of The Observer, hosted a lunch in early 1980 so BRASHER and DISLEY could meet the relevant authorities who’d be involved in organising a marathon – the Greater London Council (GLC), the police, the City of London, the Amateur Athletics Association and the London Tourist Board.
The pros and cons of a marathon were discussed and it was agreed that the idea was worth pursuing. The difficulty came in persuading the police that 26 miles of road could be closed off for a marathon without causing London to shut down completely.
A couple of weeks later, DISLEY presented a course design that used the Thames as a ‘handrail’, while only closing two bridges. One of those, Tower Bridge, was often shut on Sundays anyway. The police approved the event and the tourist board were happy the course passed so many of London’s sights – Cutty Sark, Tower Bridge, the Docks, The Embankment, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace.
However, there was one condition from SIR HORACE CUTLER, the chairman of the GLC, who told BRASHER and DISLEY: “You should never ask the ratepayers to bail you out. Not a penny from the GLC.”
Later that year BRASHER travelled to America, where the 1970s running boom had started. He witnessed the Boston Marathon and revisited New York to discuss finance and organisation.
On his return, a budget was prepared for the first London Marathon with an expenditure of £75,000 over and above any revenue expected from entry fees. This was serious money, which even second mortgages on BRASHER’S and DISLEY’S houses wouldn’t meet.
Then fortune smiled on the enterprise when Gillette gave up their sponsorship of cricket’s Gillette Cup. The company asked their agents, West Nally, for advice on what to sponsor next. PETER WEST told them two young Olympic medallists were putting on a marathon and needed help. A deal was done and Gillette became the Marathon’s first title sponsor. The deal was worth £75,000 a year for three years.
Charitable status was established for the event, and BRASHER and DISLEY devised six aims for the London Marathon:

To improve the overall standard and status of British marathon running by providing a fast course and strong international competition.
To show mankind that, on occasions, they can be united.
To raise money for sporting and recreational facilities in London.
To help boost London’s tourism.
To prove that ‘Britain is best’ when it comes to organising major events.
To have fun, and provide some happiness and sense of achievement in a troubled world.

Five months later, on 29 March 1981, the first race was held. Some 20,000 people wanted to run. 7,747 were accepted. There were 6,255 finishers, led home by the American DICK BEARDSLEY and Norwegian INGE SIMONSEN, who staged a spectacular dead heat at the rain-swept finish on Constitution Hill. JOYCE SMITH, 43 years old and mother of two, broke the British record to win the women’s race.
The event was a massive hit with the runners, the thousands of spectators who lined the course, and viewers who followed the race on the BBC. As a result, the 1982 race received more than 90,000 applications from hopeful runners around the world. The entry was limited to 18,059.
The race has grown in size, stature and popularity ever since. Now established among the major events in the sporting calendar, the London Marathon is shown on television in nearly 200 countries around the world.
Over one million runners have completed the London Marathon (1981 to 2016), while a record 40,255 people finished in 2018.
CHRIS BRASHER CBE died in February 2003. JOHN DISLEY CBE, the President of the London Marathon Charitable Trust, died in February 2016.

Course History – The London Marathon course is flat and fast. It starts in Blackheath, heads east through Charlton and Woolwich for three miles, turns west and passes the Cutty Sark in Greenwich after six to seven miles. It crosses the River Thames at Tower Bridge and the loops around the east end of London, past Canary Wharf in Docklands, before heading west again along the Highway and the Embankment to Parliament Square, Birdcage Walk and the final corner in front of Buckingham Palace.
The first London Marathon, held on 29 March 1981, finished on Constitution Hill between Green Park and Buckingham Palace. From 1982 until 1993 the race finished on Westminster Bridge with the Houses of Parliament in the background. But in 1994 repair work to the bridge meant the finish line was moved to The Mall where it has been ever since.
Apart from the finish, the London Marathon course hasn’t changed much in its 39 year history. In 2005 it was altered slightly at 22 miles to avoid the cobbled area near the Tower of London, and that year the route around the Isle of Dogs between 14 and 21 miles was switched from a clockwise to an anti-clockwise direction. In 2015 part of the course changed in the Canary Wharf area due to building works.

BRITISH ATHLETICS LEAGUE 50TH YEAR BOOK – We are delighted to announce that a publication celebrating 50 years of British Athletics League history is now available to purchase.
Copies can be bought for £5, or £8 for two, and £10 for three, which is the maximum order. The cost includes postage and packing, with all money raised going to help young athletes through the Ron Pickering Memorial Fund, which has also supported many BAL athletes on their journey along the athletics pathway.
To order, simply email geoffrey.morphitis@capeandd.com with the details of your order and make an online payment of the appropriate amount to;
ACCOUNT NAME : SHAFTESBURY BARNET HARRIERS, BANK : HSBC, ACCOUNT NUMBER : 41308378, SORT CODE : 400426
The publication itself features a range of nostalgic contributions from athletes, committee members, team managers and officials. Olympic champion and President of World Athletics, SEBASTIAN COE said: “The competition has been of constant high standard and I remember fondly my own competitions as a member of the Haringey team that were not only important for the club and its status but were important stepping stones to championships later in the season.”
There are great stories of feats that will impress, surprise and amuse you, from exhausted athletes doubling-up to score points, to guitar sing-alongs on team buses. Liverpool Harriers’ MIKE HOLMES has provided a fascinating series of archive reports that bring the piece to life, as do images by MARK SHEARMAN and MELISSA GRESSWELL. Statistical information has also been compiled by PETER MATTHEWS, with a club-by-club directory of every team to compete over the last five decades put together by MIKE HEATH.
Please note that orders will be satisfied on a first come first served basis. No booklets will be sent until payments have cleared so allow please allow seven working days between order and delivery.

ENGLAND ATHLETICS DRAFT COMPETITION PROGRAMME – England Athletics have just published May 2020 version 9 of The Draft Competition Programme for the period w/e 19 July to w/e 27 September. This sets the structure for joint men/women meetings which SBH hopes to follow.

All the promotions listed below are subject to: –
1. Government lifting the present lockdown by 1 July so as to allow group gatherings
2. UKA issuing specific instructions to allow compliance with Government requirements
3. Obtaining a sufficient number of appropriately qualified officials from the participating clubs
4. Facility availability
5. Securing a suitable First Aid provision
6. Receipt of the appropriate licences from UKA

Saturday 25 July – LICC (1) – Allianz Park – all age groups, Sunday 26 July – U17/U20 Southern Premier Division (1) – Allianz Park – (Inter-Club competition featuring the 6 clubs which would have been the now cancelled YDL), Sunday 2 August – National Athletics League – Premiership Division (1) – Bedford – U20 / Senior, Saturday 8 August – LICC (2) – Allianz Park – all age groups, Sunday 9 August – U17/U20 Southern Premier Division (2) – Venue TBA – (Inter-Club competition featuring the 6 clubs which would have been the now cancelled YDL), Sunday 16 August – National Athletics League – Premiership Division (2) – Venue TBA – U20 / Senior, Saturday 22 August – LICC (3) – Allianz Park – all age groups, Sunday 23 August – U17/U20 Southern Premier Division (3) – Bromley – (Inter-Club competition featuring the 6 clubs which would have been the now cancelled YDL), Saturday 5 September – U15/U17 Southern Area Championships – Venue TBA, Sunday 6 September – National Athletics League – Premiership Division (3) – Venue TBA – U20 / Senior, Saturday 12 September – U20/Senior Southern Area Championships – Venue TBA, Saturday 19 September – U15/U17 England Championships – Venue TBA, Saturday 26 September – U20/Senior England Championships – Venue TBA

The British Championships are due to be held in Manchester on 8/9 August, however, they have not yet been confirmed.

A MESSAGE FROM ENGLAND ATHLETICS CEO CHRIS JONES – Which I received on the 12 May. Link to the message which includes a video from CHRIS JONES – England Athletics Message From Chris Jones 12 May

THE FOLLOWING SBH DOCUMENTS/INFORMATION CAN EITHER BE VIEWED, DOWNLOADED OR PRINTED
SBH 2020 Summer Fixture Card Front Sheet – Summer 2020 Fixture Card Front Sheet Final Issue 12-02-20
SBH 2020 Summer Fixture Card Fixtures, Updated 30-04-20 Showing Cancelled & Postponed Fixtures – Summer 2020 Fixture Card – Updated 30-04-20 Showing Cancelled & Postponed Fixtures
Track and Field Team Managers Details – http://sbharriers.co.uk/athletics/track-field/team-managers/
Road Running Team Managers Details – http://sbharriers.co.uk/athletics/road-running/team-managers/

THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION OF INTEREST CAN BE FOUND ON THE SBH HOME PAGE BY USING THIS LINK, THEN SELECT THE LEFT OR RIGHT ARROW – http://sbharriers.co.uk/
Allianz Park Membership, which gives SBH members 10% discount on entry to the Allianz Park stadium – Membership details and Form can be either printed or downloaded
Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers Club Hoody, information on how to purchase one, please go to the bottom of this Newsletter

SBH MIDWEEK JUMPS CLUB AT ALLIANZ PARK – Currently Suspended. POLE VAULTERS REQUIRED FOR 2020 – Currently Suspended. STEEPLECHASE TRAINING AT ALLIANZ PARK – Currently Suspended.

YOU CAN JOIN TY HOLDEN’S CIRCUIT SESSION ON ZOOM – TY will be holding a circuit session on Zoom, which is a conferencing platform, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6pm. If you wish to join, please email TY at dtyholden@yahoo.co.uk and he will email you an ID number for you to join in. Zoom can accommodate up to 100 users at a time.

ENGLAND ATHLETICS CORONAVIRUS HELP FOR ATHLETES – Many thanks to TUNJI who as reported on the 19 March newsletter is the father of NIAH AKINTOKUN.
In these unprecedented times, I wanted to draw the club’s attention to some of the great resources available online. England Athletics is expanding its campaign to support Athletics and Running for everyone @home, with a focus on ‘Running @home’ support and advice. The homepage can be accessed here
There are many webinars, interviews and tips from top coaches and athletes on how to stay conditioned and focused.
In addition, there are some fantastic videos for 4-11yr olds on the Funetics webpage put together in conjunction with England Athletics. The videos demonstrate parents and children (aged 4-11) taking part in FUN activities based on fundamental core movement skills: running, jumping and throwing. Funetics is a programme that has been designed to reflect the requirements of the National Curriculum Key Stage 1 and 2. At this time when our children are currently schooling at home, we hope that these video activities will support the need for education to continue at home. You can access the videos here TUNJI AKINTOKUN MBE – Non Executive Director, England Athletics

PARKRUN 5K RESULTS – Currently Suspended

PARKRUN – Can you make sure that you are registered as ‘Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers’, as the link I use to select all results only shows SBH athletes. If anyone is also officiating can you please contact me, and advise me where and when.

UPCOMING SHAFTESBURY BARNET HARRIERS FIXTURES AND OTHER FOR THE NEXT 4 WEEKS – Due to the Coronavirus situation, all fixtures until the end of April and part May have been cancelled. We have also been advised that the Lee Valley Athletic Centre fixtures have been cancelled until the End of May

All fixtures have been Cancelled until the Tuesday 30 June, this is the link to the SBH Fixture Card updated on the 30 April – Summer 2020 Fixture Card – Updated 30-04-20 Showing Cancelled & Postponed Fixtures

PHOTOGRAPH’S – From time to time we have photographs of our members taken at meetings or presentations which we would like to use both on the website or incorporated within our report to our local newspaper. Can you please let me know if you do NOT want your photograph to be used. Also, I would appreciate if you could send me any photographs, which I can then publish on the website and newsletter.

CLUB EMBROIDERED RED HOODIES – Currently there are now over 750 Hoodies in circulation, this is the link giving details on how you can order your Club Hoody for £35, which includes having your name embroidered on the front Club Hoodies Updated 01-07-19

FACEBOOK – Photographs can be found on the SBH page.

CURRENT DISTRIBUTION OF SHAFTESBURY INFORMATION – Currently I notify members (by email) using “MailChimp”. The reason I changed, was in November 2017 “Gmail” put a limit of 100 addresses that users could send to in a 24-hour period, and currently I send to approximately 850 members each issue.

On seeking technical advice “MailChimp” was recommended as the best way for SBH to go forward. There is one thing you should be aware off is that when you receive an email from me, the footer at the bottom has 4 options, of which one is “Unsubscribe Me From List”. Could I ask you not to select this as if you do you will be automatically removed from my distribution list.

SBH PRIVACY STATEMENT – In becoming a member, SBH will collect certain information about you. Can you please read the attached ‘Privacy Statement’ which contains Information on General Data Protection Regulations – SBH Privacy Statement Final April 2018

ALLIANZ PARK – Main Switchboard telephone number is 0203 675 7250.

CHARGES FOR USING ALLIANZ PARK – Currently the stadium is closed for athletics until the 31 May.

ALAN

Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers Weekly Newsletter Thursday 21 May 2020

Posted on 19/05/202022/05/2020 by sbharriers

Happy Birthday from this Thursday 21 May to Krishawn Aiken, Shaka Bunsie, Zachary Caparanga, Sophie Connor, Sienna Corbyn, Liam Dee, Toby Edwards, Andrew Elkins, Andrew Evelegh, Zoe Holley, Rebecca Jeffery, Lucy Johnson, Harriet Mollinson, Alice Musgrove, Sophia Obi and Leonie Onyems

DAVID STONE, FROM 2018 TO LOCKDOWN – The following was written by ROSALIND ZEFFERRTT.

DAVID STONE will always remember the dramatic conclusion to the 2018 national cross country championships. As one of the youngest competitors in his age group, he would have been content to finish anywhere in the top 10. “Then I started leading and only one other person came with me,” said DAVID, now 18. “I held on and won by one second. It’s the proudest moment so far in my running career.”
But for athletes, sometimes running a strong race without ending up on the podium can feel pretty good too. Not long after the nationals, DAVID suffered an injury which, added to his asthma, severely disrupted his 2019 season. By the time the English Schools championships came along this March – one of the last events before lockdown – he had not competed for four months. “It was my last ever English Schools so, even though I didn’t think I was in good shape, I thought it would be fun to do and I’d just see how I felt,” he said. “I probably started a bit too slowly, but I gradually moved up and in the last 500m I went from 12th to fourth place, four seconds off a medal, so I was really happy.” Photograph of DAVID at the English Schools.

DAVID, a member of Raleigh Close shul, originally played Maccabi football for Hendon, but after joining a training group at nearby Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers he discovered how much he enjoyed running. “Although I’ve had more success at cross country, I enjoy track and field just as much,” said DAVID who, despite his injuries, still ended the 2019 season high in the U20 UK rankings for the 1500m (39th) and 3000m (60th).
He is now back to full fitness and in a routine largely unaffected by lockdown, other than the cancellation of his A Levels at JFS school which allows him even more time to train (and to draw – he is also a talented artist). He runs four days a week supplemented by faster track-type sessions and, at home, core work. DAVID plans everything himself, in conjunction with Harriers’ JEREMY SOTHCOTT who also coaches GILAD NACHSHEN, OLIVER GREENSTEIN and ADAM CAHN.
All being well, DAVID will be studying geography in the autumn at a university chosen for its sports facilities as much as for the degree course. “It’s a good setup at Birmingham and there’ll be a group there I know from races,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to it.”
Footnote from ALAN WELLER – My first recollection in meeting DAVID was at the National Young Athletes Road Relays at Sutton Park, Birmingham on Sunday 13 October 2013. It was a foul day and prior to the start of the races the Shaftesbury tent was bursting at the seams with athletes and parents. The Under 13 Boy’s race was early in the timetable, NATHAN FERNANDES was on Leg 1 and completed his leg in a not to distant 9th place (14.13), DAVID took over on Leg 2 and moved through the field to complete his leg with a 19 second lead (14.04), I was standing at the switchback section some 800m from the handover, and when DAVID passed me his determination was apparent. The final Leg was given to JAMIE HARPER who took up the challenge and extended our winning lead to 41 seconds (14.01). The team finished 1st (42.18), 2nd was Team Bath (42.59) and 3rd Charnwood (43.14). JAMIE was 6th fastest time of the day and DAVID 8th fastest.

DAVID BRADLEY REMEMBERS THE EARLY BRITISH LEAGUE DAYS – Many thanks to DAVID memory on the downfall of one of the UK’s athletic icon. DAVID joined the club in 1972 was a regular for many seasons in the BAL, competing in the 400m. In his final few years he moved onto the 400 hurdles, and represented the club regualrily. DAVID is a club Vice President, served as General Secretary from 1997 to 1982, and currently Clerk to the Council and Promotions Secretary.

Back in the 1970’s the British League attracted the attendance of many top athletes which added extra spice to the competition. And so it was that DALEY THOMPSON turned up at the match at Haringey. He was well known there because in those days it was an excellent training venue that he regularly used. DALEY came to the BAL matches to get good competition at the less frequented events like the Pole Vault and High Hurdles as well as doing several events as in a Decathlon. And DALEY was good at all these events – something he let the other competitors know. In his usual cheery manner DALEY won events, and scored well in others. He revelled in his performances and thereby did not endear himself to his fellow competitors.
In the mid-afternoon, it was time for the High Hurdles which DALEY was going to contest.
Shaftesbury was represented by JACK MORGAN – an excellent hurdler who had won the Southern Championships the previous year. JACK had a lot of experience – he was well into his thirties – very well into his thirties. DALEY made a point of mentioning this, asking JACK if he had his Bus Pass, and whether he had his Pension Book with him, and would he be using a walking stick. All this was taken as good humoured banter as the athletes got on their blocks. DALEY ran well, but JACK ran to real form and won the race.
At the finish a perplexed DALEY suddenly found himself surrounded by concerned “well wishers”. There were Long Jumpers, Vaulters, High Jumpers, all of whom were confounded by this awful turn of events.
“Hey DALEY tell us there has been a mistake – they say you got beaten by this old guy.
He used his Bus Pass, and he stopped to get his pension.”
“So DALEY what went wrong – seems like you got beaten by this old guy using a walking stick”.
“Oh dear DALEY, I used to think you were good but you can’t even win a league race.”
Meanwhile JACK had attracted a crowd of admirers who were congratulating him.
“JACK you are a star, you beat the great DALEY”.
“JACK, can you coach me, you know how to beat Daley and I want to learn how to do it too.”
“JACK you beat the Olympic champion – you got to go to the Olympics now”.
Certainly, JACK was smiling more than DALEY – as was everyone else. DALEY always had tremendous confidence – it was his strongest competitive asset. But sometimes you just have to rein it in, otherwise it can be an embarrassment.

GEOFF WILLIAMS FOUND THIS PHOTOGRAPH – Many thanks to GEOFF who sent this photograph of a fit looking JOHN KELLY in the 1981 Southern Cross Country Championships at Trent Park.

KINGSTON MILLS VIEW ON IMMUNOLOGY – The following article was published on the Athletics Weekly website and photograph taken by MARK SHEARMAN.

Former athlete Professor Kingston Mills says that with some innovation, running is a sport which could soon get back on track following the coronavirus pandemic. Former Irish international runner and immunology expert Professor Kingston Mills believes there is no reason why athletics competition might not be able to restart within weeks or months, but says event organisers will need to be innovative. Kingston ran for Ireland in the 1987 world championships marathon (pictured, 556) and is now professor of experimental immunology at Trinity College Dublin and head of the Centre for the Study of Immunology at Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute, currently co-leading its Covid-19 immunology project.

In his view, running training is a low-risk activity when it comes to transmitting the coronavirus but the issue comes with the mass-participation and spectator elements of the sport. That’s not to say an athletics calendar will not be possible in the late summer and autumn, it may just look rather different. “Certainly (running) training is a low-risk activity. There’s no question about that,” says Kingston, who ran for Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers and appeared in the pages of AW in the 1980s, winning the Irish marathon title in 1986 and setting his PB of 2:13:55 in Berlin later that year. “Two or three people going for a run in the mountains or on a river bank is not a dangerous activity. “The virus is transmitted by aerosols when you cough and sneeze so if somebody has the infection and doesn’t know they have the infection, they could pass it on to somebody if they are sitting in the same room as them, within a close proximity. But out running, the wind is going to blow away the virus very quickly and the chances of you picking it up are very slim.

“But a mass marathon, something like the London Marathon where there are tens of thousands of people congregating together, that’s a huge risk. “Right now, mass marathons are not on. I think championship-type (elite) events could very well be run without any problem and sprint events up to 400m where you’re in your own lane on the track is not a major issue. I think the issue is around spectators.”

“Certainly (running) training is a low-risk activity. There’s no question about that” Some events would be more feasible than others in that respect, he adds. “Clearly right now we can’t have spectator events where there are thousands or even hundreds of people congregating, so if we are going to get back to competitive athletics I think it’s going to be initially non-spectator, which is easier to control in track and field than it is in road,” he explains. “Although, in the days when I ran the 12-stage road relays down at Wimbledon Common, there were precious few spectators watching and we did it for the love of it! The spectators were the other club members that were watching you, so that wouldn’t pose a great risk. “But something like the London Marathon, you can’t envisage the numbers that you get watching the London Marathon ever happening in the present circumstances. So, I think the mass participation marathons are still a long way off but I do think that championship running is something that could return sooner rather than later. “Even the most informed scientist has absolutely no idea where this pandemic is going to be in two months’ time.” The Virgin Money London Marathon is among many events to have been postponed until later this year because of the pandemic. Having originally been set for April 26, the 40th edition of the race has been moved to October 4, while the World Half Marathon Championships in Poland has been moved to October 17. World Athletics also this week announced a provisional Diamond League calendar of track and field meetings for August through to October.

“Obviously, from the financial perspective, the mass participation is necessary for the organisers to make it a viable success financially,” recognises Kingston. “I think that there is a very strong case to be made for some of these bigger city marathons to become elite marathons only in the short term.” Travel is another major problem, he adds: “The big issue with the mass participation city marathons is the international travel to them. “There is absolutely no doubt that the most dangerous activity you can take part in (when it comes to virus transmission) is flying. You are in a very confined space, you are in an area where the air is very low in humidity. High humidity represses transmission so in an area of low humidity, it is going to transmit easier. The other issue is that the air in aircraft is recirculated. It is filtered but unfortunately the size of the coronavirus is quite small and it is not guaranteed that the filters will take out something as small as coronavirus. So, there is a real risk that you’re actually breathing in air if there is any one person in an aircraft that is infected. “So for the London Marathon or other big city marathons, the big issue is travel as well as the congregation at the start of the race.”

In a recent interview with AW, sports manager JOS HERMENS explained how he believed creativity would likely be necessary if an autumn road race season is to become a reality, with the former Dutch athlete offering ideas such as elite-only or time trial events. Kingston also believes that staggered start time trials could be a good option. “It might not work on the track so easily, but I think it might work in road races – you could have a system whereby athletes go off at different stages,” Kingston says. “In cycling, when you do a time trial, you allow each rider off at an interval. In running it could be 20 seconds. “I think it would make for a great spectacle, in fact. To put the highest-ranked runner off last and the lowest-ranked off first, then you would have the best runner trying to catch the weaker runners in front of them. I think it actually might turn out to have very good times. They obviously wouldn’t be allowed for record purposes, but it would be one way of social distancing the start of a race and putting an interesting additional element that would normally not be there.”

“I think the mass participation marathons are still a long way off but I do think that championship running is something that could return sooner rather than later” Some countries have already announced a planned return of athletics action, including Ireland where limited club activity will be allowed from May 18. Putting himself in the shoes of current elite athletes, Kingston adds: “One thing I would be doing if I was an athlete right now, I’d be still training. “I think that running actually is in a much better position than a lot of other sports because you can continue to train and keep a level of fitness. Obviously, what you haven’t got is the race sharpness, but that is going to come back with the first competitions that will be reintroduced. “I would be hopeful that the race organisers should be looking at innovative ways within the rules of their country to get racing back within weeks or months.” Waiting until a vaccine is available to resume sporting events is a “dangerous” principle, Kingston believes. “We have heard it said that the Olympics may not happen if we don’t have a vaccine,” he says. “I think it’s a dangerous principle in which to base the resumption of the Olympics on. “We may never have a vaccine. The chances are we probably will but there’s no guarantee. If we don’t and we have got rid of the pandemic by other means, such as suppression, why would we not have the Olympics? So, I don’t agree with the philosophy of wait for a vaccine. “I’m a huge believer in vaccines, that’s what I work on, but I don’t think it is the correct thing to say that you’re only going to resume a sporting event once you have a vaccine.”

THE STORY OF COACHING – The following was written by TOM MCNAB, part 2 of 2.

Q What was happening in the USA after the Great War?
A College sports scholarships arrived after 1920, though only for white athletes. Coaches like Dean Cromwell, Lawson Robertson and Dink Templeton thrived in this environment, one enhanced by an intense competitive system. But it is worth observing that these coaches rarely worked outside the college environment, since the USA had no club-system equivalent to ours.
Q And was this reflected in the literature?
A Yes, primarily in the Spalding series in the mid 1920s. These were thick, chunky, practical booklets written by ex-athletes or coaches like the great Dink Templeton. They were heavily-illustrated and often had more than one writer. The Spalding series were excellent works, probably the best specialist practical guides written until the AAA booklets of the 1950s.
Q What about film?
A One might have expected the Americans to be ahead in this area, but I have as yet seen no evidence of American instructional film in the 1920s period. Pathe have a 1924 British news film of Mussabini and Abrahams in training, showing the latter attempting a ludicrous cross-arm action and forward lean, but that seems to be the sum total, though it could hardly be called an instructional film.
Q So this was the dawn of technical coaching?
A Yes, but more than that, it was the dawn of coaching that went beyond technique and conditioning, to that in which coaches developed strong personal bonds their student-athletes, becoming shapers of youth.
Q Why did this take root in the USA?
A Because a highly-competitive society produced equally competitive universities. This was the ideal environment in which ambitious coaches could operate. Unlike professional running, it covered the technical events, thus engaging coach and athlete in learning complex skills.
Q And over long periods of time?
A Yes, at least three years, 2-3 hours a day, working with intelligent, ambitious young men, in educational contexts. The influence of these coaches often extended well beyond athletics. They were shapers of youth.
Q And what was happening in coaching here?
A Very little. Our governing bodies saw their role as being to regulate and administer, not to increase participation or quality of international performance. To be fair, this also applied in the USA, but they had strong school/ college programmes, in contrast to our harrier-based environment. This was enough to create a corps of professional coaches, and sufficient senior athletes to dominate at Olympic level until the middle of the century.
The big development came in Nazi Germany, who applied hothouse methods in preparation for the 1936 Olympics. In three years, they went from zero Olympic medals in field events to eleven, seven more than the USA.
Q How was this done?
A Simply by creating a core of semi-pro athletes, and exposing them to the best of German coaches. The Germans simply changed the landscape, just as the Soviet Union were to do twenty years later.
Q What was happening here?
A in 1934, we had Webster’s first AAA Summer School at Loughborough.
Q Who attended it?
A Mainly teachers from the public schools and Armed Service personnel. It was a practically-based programme, and there is Pathe footage of it on Google, with commentary by Webster himself. And remember that in the Public Schools and Oxbridge athletics was a WINTER( March-April) sport, to make way for summer cricket. In 1935, Webster created the Loughborough School of Sports and Games, and was soon joined by an ex-army apprentice, Geoff Dyson.
Q Was this a period of rapid growth in coaching throughout the world?
A No. Coaching always relates directly to the social/ financial context within which it exists. It developed to some degree here in pedestrianism in the 19^th century, because there was money at stake, but even then it is doubtful if the number of 19thc. professional coaches ever went far beyond double figures. In the “professional” Highland, Southern and Lakeland Games there was never enough cash to stimulate the development of paid coaching. Men simply used the fitness they secured from their work, and worked out techniques by trial and error. Only in the USA was there the competitive culture and the scholarship-based incentive for coaching to flourish.
Q So world technical development was slow?
A Very slow-remember there wasn’t any TV, film or Youtube to transfer visual material across the world at a flash. Thus, the 1936 Olympics featured at least five different high jump techniques, and even Olympic shot-putters were still using pretty much the same technique as 19thc. Scottish farmers.
Q What about sports science?
A We had Muybridge with his sequence-photography back in the 1880s, Morehouse had investigated somatotyping, A.V. Hill the physiology of distance-running. By the end of the 1930s Gerschler had produced interval –training. But sports science was still in its infancy, and was not linked directly with coaching.
Q So most change was happening in the USA after the Great War?
A As I have said, college scholarships arrived in the 1920s, though only for white athletes. Coaches like Dean Cromwell and Dink Templeton were therefore exposed to the cream of white American talent and developed their expertise.
Q So coaching at world-level was pretty static?
A Yes. Remember that the 1936 Olympics had only 49 nations, about a quarter of the present number. There were no state-funded national teams (apart from Nazi Germany), and the only change in the USA was an increase in the late thirties in the number of negro sports scholarships. The essentially experience-based nature of coaching had not changed, and the literature of the time therefore simply expressed the experience of athletes and coaches.
The best book of the period was Dean Cromwell’s “Championship Track and Field” in 1941, an outstanding piece of work. His book is significant, not merely at a technical level, but because Cromwell is one of the first coaches to stress that coaching is not simply a technical process, but one of relationships. This is probably the book which gives the most three dimensional account of coaching at this time.
Q What was happening in the coaching of women?
A Outside of Nazi Germany, very little. Women’s athletics developed rapidly after the Great War, but was enveloped by the IAAF in the late 1920s. Their five-event Olympic programme in the Amsterdam Olympics of 1928 reflected only a fraction of the events in which women had competed in the 1920-8 period. There were no American sports scholarships, and in 1932 their women’s association was actually against competing in Los Angeles. Fortunately, the AAU overrode that decision, and fielded a very successful team.
Q But things changed for British coaching after the War?
A Yes. In 1946, Geoff Dyson became Chief National Coach, with the brief of “teaching the teachers and coaching the coaches”, funded by the Department of Education. By 1950, he had been followed by Denis Watts and John le Masurier, and Tony Chapman had arrived in Scotland. All of these men had taught in schools and served in the Army, (Dyson as a Major), and most had attended Webster’s Loughborough School of Sports and Games in the late thirties.
Q So Dyson was very much a legacy of Webster?
A Very much so. Indeed, almost all of that first tranche of National coaches were. Webster died in 1949.
Q Was this now fertile ground for coaching?
A Yes and no. Many working-class servicemen had returned from the war having experienced organised sport and exercise for the first time, and were eager to get involved in it. P.E. was being pursued vigorously in the state sector (I was getting four hours a week), and after-school sport grew massively in the post-war period. Spectator sport was immensely popular and in Scotland the annual Rangers Sports drew over 60,000 spectators.
Against this, the harrier brigade which ran most clubs and dominated our governing bodies was not much interested in coaching, and there was also resistance to the influence of professional coaches at the top of the sport. In Scotland, our National coach was not allowed to speak unless first spoken to at committee meetings! Our Blazerati insisted on keeping Dyson and his colleagues on a tight rein, rather than letting them get on with creating a coaching scheme, and even in the 1948 London Olympics we had no coaches with our Olympic team.
Q What did Dyson see as his first priority?
A To create a corps of voluntary coaches in our clubs, and to train teachers to coach in their schools. But he also saw that a critical test of the coaching scheme would be to succeed early at Olympic level in the technical events. As he put it to me in 1968, his aim was to get rid of the British inferiority complex vis a vis field events.
Q How early did this begin to produce results?
A In 1948, his wife to be Maureen Gardner took silver in the Olympic 80m.hurdles, and in 1952 he coached Shirley Cawley to an Olympic bronze in long jump and John Savidge to 5^th in the shot. His colleague John le Masurier took Mark Pharoah to 4^th in discus in Melbourne in 1956.
Q So early success?
A Surprisingly early. Many National Coaches were created in other sports in the 1950s, but athletics’ big advantage was that we were the only sport to allow them to continue to coach. This meant that everything that Dyson and his colleagues learnt was immediately ploughed back into the coaching scheme.
Q What was happening outside Britain?
A In the USA, not much, but they were now reaping a rich harvest of black athletes which they had begun to receive in their colleges in the 1930s. Their Olympic success masked a lack of formal coach-training or government support.
But things were now happening fast in the Soviet Union., even though they had lost 26 million of their 200 million population in the War. The Russians rather surprisingly turned up at the 1946 European Championships, but not at the 1948 Olympics. But their satellite Hungary had brought the great Emil Zatopek to London, a taste of things to come.
The Russians arrived in Helsinki in 1952 with high jumpers performing the Eastern Cut Off, but by 1956, they had taken the event apart and produced a composite of all of the best elements of the past. By 1956 they had a bronze in Kashkarov and by 1960 a gold with Shavlakadze.
Q Had they moved into sports science?
A Undoubtedly, and had linked it up to practice Thus they brought in approach-run speed (Carlson 1920), free-leg swing (McNaughton 1924), double- arm swing (McNaughton, 1924) and the more advanced clearance-lay-outs which a 1938 change of rules had permitted. That, and specific conditioning.
Q This applied in every event?
A Pretty much. I had noticed it with Russian triple jumpers as early as 1954. They had already understood the need for active landings, and had added the double arm-swing and specific conditioning. The Russians haven’t been given much credit for it, but they were the fathers of applied sports science. And they developed the training of women at a rapid rate.
Q And here?
A Dyson was in constant conflict with the Blazerati, headed by Jack Crump and Harold Abrahams, officials who until his arrival had been seen as the fount of all athletics wisdom. And the WAAA insisted on having a sort of “shadow” coaching scheme, with an under-funded programme. There was nothing for performance-coaching, nothing for research, nothing for the training of our National Coaches. And behind it all, the Blazerati wanted to control coaching, an area in which they had no experience.
Q But the coaching scheme was successful?
A No question of it, it gave great bang for the buck, and during the 1950s our AAA scheme led the Western world
Q Did it vary from region to region?
A Yes. Very strong in the South, in the London area, very weak in the North and in the Celtic nations. Indeed, in Scotland in the mid-1950s, qualified practicing technical event coaches barely reached double figures. Much of the problem lay in the fact of a mass of harrier-clubs, and a weak, handicap-based competitive programme, a poor environment for the development of coaching.
Q Was a lot of coaching done in the schools?
A In the 12-15 age-group all of it, and most of the 15-17 coaching. In those days, few clubs had athletes in the 15-17 age group, and none at all in the under 15 age-group. So, boys arrived at clubs at 15/16 having already shown ability at school. And very few girls.
Q And when did you arrive as a National Coach?
A 1963, a year, alas, after Dyson had left.

The British Championships are due to be held in Manchester on 8/9 August, however, they have not yet been confirmed.

PARKRUN 5K RESULTS – Currently Suspended

FACEBOOK – Photographs can be found on the SBH page.

ALLIANZ PARK – Main Switchboard telephone number is 0203 675 7250.

CHARGES FOR USING ALLIANZ PARK – Currently the stadium is closed for athletics until the 31 May.

ALAN

Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers Weekly Newsletter Thursday 14 May 2020

Posted on 11/05/202008/03/2022 by sbharriers

Happy Birthday from this Thursday 14 May to Chiyenne Adrien, Malachi Amadi, Sabrina Bakare, Evan Campbell, Dave Bradley, Oliver Graham, Asha Horbacki, Barnie Malladaine, James Musa, Haaris Mwagaza, Arthur Phillips, Lily Rachel and Michail Stamatogiannis

SHAFTESBURY BARNET HARRIERS CORONAVIRUS STATEMENT, UPDATED 24 MARCH – The following is a joint statement by SBH and Saracens SBH Coronavirus Statement 24.03.20 Rev A

Saturday 25 July – LICC (1) – Allianz Park – all age groups
Sunday 26 July – U17/U20 Southern Premier Division (1) – Allianz Park – (Inter-Club competition featuring the 6 clubs which would have been the now cancelled YDL)
Sunday 2 August – National Athletics League – Premiership Division (1) – Bedford – U20 / Senior
Saturday 8 August – LICC (2) – Allianz Park – all age groups
Sunday 9 August – U17/U20 Southern Premier Division (2) – Venue TBA – (Inter-Club competition featuring the 6 clubs which would have been the now cancelled YDL)
Sunday 16 August – National Athletics League – Premiership Division (2) – Venue TBA – U20 / Senior
Saturday 22 August – LICC (3) – Allianz Park – all age groups
Sunday 23 August – U17/U20 Southern Premier Division (3) – Bromley – (Inter-Club competition featuring the 6 clubs which would have been the now cancelled YDL)
Saturday 5 September – U15/U17 Southern Area Championships – Venue TBA
Sunday 6 September – National Athletics League – Premiership Division (3) – Venue TBA – U20 / Senior
Saturday 12 September – U20/Senior Southern Area Championships – Venue TBA
Saturday 19 September – U15/U17 England Championships – Venue TBA
Saturday 26 September – U20/Senior England Championships – Venue TBA

The British Championships are due to be held in Manchester on 8/9 August, however, they have not yet been confirmed.

MARLI JESSOP TRAINING DURING LOCKDOWN – MARLI along with her mother LISA have developed a superb way to train, and at the same time she is entertaining the neighbours. The Video shows that social distancing especially from cars can be achieved. In the meantime, it has helped MARLI with motivation knowing that there is still a chance of competing this year. Video (1)

BRADLEY SINGER RUNS FOR THE NHS – Hi Alan on Thursday 7 May I did a marathon around where I live in Hadley Wood. It was for the NHS and I did a video which is on YouTube. This is the link to It – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxTRttYdMU4

DAVE BEDFORD TESTED AT THE FINISH – GEOFF WILLIAMS sent me this video of DAVE easily winning the London Cross Country Championships, which was held at Parliament Hill Fields on 24 November 1973, although it was a close finish as his Labrador Snoopy almost beat him, with JULIAN GOATER finishing 2nd. Also featured at the end of the finish funnel is HAROLD ASHTON. There are a few Shaftesbury vests in the video, does anyone recognise anyone (possibly TONY PACKHAM). Link to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf9T0ZagfKg&feature=youtu.be&t=23

MULLER ANNIVERSARY GAMES – Due to take place on the 4-5 July has been cancelled.

BMC BANISTER VIRTUAL MILE – The following article was published on the Athletics Weekly website.
PIERS COPELAND (4:02) and LILY COWARD (4:38) post the quickest mile times overall at the end of the three-day event
The early racing on the third and final day of British Milers’ Club Bannister Virtual Miles action was particularly impressive as Manx athlete RACHAEL FRANKLIN breezed down the Douglas seafront to record (4:45).
However, further drama awaited as HOLLIE PARKER, based in Louisiana, returned (4:43) for the second quickest mile.
Lilly Coward’s 4:38 from day two remained as the fastest female solo mile effort.
Multiple masters record-holder CLARE ELMS clocked (5:14), with the W55 athlete’s score of 103% easily topping the age-grading.
The men’s time trial had even more fireworks as GB cross country international ADAM HICKEY returned a swift (4:09) to challenge the overnight lead of 4:07.
Welsh Commonwealth Games athlete and sub-3:39 1500m man TOM MARSHALL moved into second with (4:06) in the early evening.
MARSHALL’S coach JAMES THIE sped to (4:29) for the fastest M40 time. Their fellow Welshman OSIAN PERRIN was out of the blocks early with (4:15), an under-20 lead.
DANNY RAY also ran (4:15) in the grounds next to Iffley Road.
However, in true ‘Bannister’ style the event was brought to a fitting finale when European under-23 silver medallist PIERS COPELAND, who ran 3:38 for 1500m indoors this winter, flew down the banks of the River Stour to return a stunning (4:02) which remained as the quickest mile at the end of the three days.
The event has now surpassed its £1609 target for the Turn2Us coronavirus appeal, with the fundraising page still open at justgiving.com/fundraising/british-milers.
Almost 1200 competitors took part and the BMC would like to express their gratitude to the running community for celebrating the 66th anniversary of Roger Bannister’s era-defining achievement in such tough times in a friendly yet competitive spirit in aid of charity.
Read more about the virtual event here.
A day one round-up can be found here, while a day two report is here.
Results can be found here.

SBH Results – JAKE SHELLEY 17th (4:17), TIM PARKIN V40 689th (5:41)

SCOTT LINCOLN IN IN VIRTUAL SHOT PUT REMATCH – The following article was published on the Athletics Weekly website.
Elite competition will again feature SOPHIE MCKINNA and SCOTT LINCOLN against top U20s LEWIS BYNG and SERENA VINCENT, with wider contest open to all
After losing by just a single centimetre in the inaugural Valhalla Virtual Shot Put Competition earlier this month, British champions SCOTT LINCOLN and SOPHIE MCKINNA will face top under-20 athletes LEWIS BYNG and SERENA VINCENT once more in a rematch on May 25. The free-to-enter event, which has been created by SCOTT’S coach PAUL WILSON, will again be open to throwers from around the world. The first event, which was held on May 3, when SCOTT should have been competing at a meet in Poland which was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, had over 210 entries from countries including New Zealand, Namibia, South Africa, Costa Rica, Sweden, USA, Ireland and the UK. In the elite competition, the team result featured the best throw by each athlete, plus a 1.5m handicap for the juniors. The junior team won with 37.69m to the seniors’ 37.68m.

The action was streamed live by Vinco Sport and Wilson is now seeking the support of a sponsor to allow the second event to be live streamed too. “Following on from the amazing success we had after the first Valhalla Virtual Shot Put Competition and the number of people who messaged me thanking me and asking if there would be another one, I decided to go ahead and create number two,” said WILSON. “Also, having spoken to the four athletes who did the live stream competition, they wanted a rematch straight away and enjoyed the format and the opportunity to compete. “For me, it was inspiring to see so many happy faces competing and the amount of effort a lot went to in creating their own special numbers, some created their own score cards and some drew their own circles. We had athletes aged from nine to in their 70s. “This also gives us a chance to raise even more money for our heroes in the NHS. Having now broken £1500, it would be great to raise over £2000.” The fundraising page for entrants wishing to donate to the NHS can be found at justgiving.com/fundraising/valhallavirtualshotcomp

READ MORE: GB juniors win virtual shot put contest “The main thing to remember is that the competition is fun and to keep people active with a competitive edge,” added WILSON. “Everyone was eager to see the results from across the world.” The event again has support from athletic equipment supplier Neuff, who have offered a discounted rate for people wanting to order their own shot put to use in the virtual competition. Before the first competition, however, Wilson was keen to stress that in this case, having an official implement is not required. “There are so many athletes who don’t have their own implements,” he said. “What I have suggested to these people is, just throw a tin of beans or, if you’re in a park, find a rock!” To enter the event on May 25, athletes should email their name, date of birth and country, plus PB and weight of shot if applicable, to valhallathrowsacademy@outlook.com. Although results will not be official to count towards rankings, all of the throws from the competition will be collated and spreadsheets with the results will be posted.

DEATH OF COACH STAN HARRY – The club is deeply saddened to learn of the death on Sunday 3 May of long-standing sprint coach STAN HARRY, aged 72, we have been told that Covid-19 was a factor in his death. SHEREEN CHARLES said the Stan was her former coach and the coach to many of our athletes who came from Ealing, Southall & Middlesex, and was a much-loved club member and a dedicated coach who had served the club since the late 1980s. Despite moving out of the area after his second marriage some 20 years ago, he continued to travel by public transport to Perivale athletics track three times a week to coach his squad, as well as supporting them in competition – most recently at the Middlesex Indoor Championships in March. He will be greatly missed. Sympathies are extended to his widow PAULA and to his wider family.

THE STORY OF COACHING – The following was written by TOM MCNAB, part 1 of 2.

Q When did athletics coaching begin?
A There is no precise date, but probably when the Ancient Olympic Games moved from being the province of amateurs to one of full-time professionals, supported and rewarded by Greek city-states, and that would be around the fifth century b.c.
Q So we have had about nine hundred years of coaching?
A Yes. At least until the final Olympics of 390a.d., but it’s likely that the circuit of Games around the Mediterranean lasted beyond the end of the Olympic Games, taking coaching with it.
Q So Greece had a highly-developed athletics culture?
A Yes. Probably the most sophisticated competitive set-up until the 1970s, with at their centre the Crown Games of the Olympic, Isthmian, Delphic and Nemean. Every Crown Games was dedicated to a god. In the case of the Olympics, it was Zeus. On the other hand, the Greeks didn’t have a recreational sports-structure in any way equivalent to what we have now.
Q The equivalent of the modern health club?
A Yes, but culturally much richer, much more diverse, in that the gymnasium was also a centre for poetry, debate and discussion. From there it was a fairly big step to professional, working-class athletes, supported by the city-state. That was a different world.
Q Their treatment of athletes was roughly like the old Communist system?
A Yes. To win at the Olympics meant that the victor received from his city a pension, cash, a house, or a statue in his honour. The word “athlete” comes from “athlos”, meaning competition or prize. So, though the Olympic Games themselves offered the athlete no money, they offered a fortune to him on return to his home. Remember too that the idea of competition for its own sake or personal bests meant nothing to the Greeks. The Olympic Games offered no second prizes.
Q So the coach was important?
A Yes.The paidotribes was an extremely important person. Indeed, one of them, Herodicas of Megara, was mentor to Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine.
Q But surely the coaches themselves followed the medical theory of the day?
A Yes, but based on the Humours, it was pretty much useless to both the coaches and the doctors as a training, diagnostic or curative tool. But the coach was able to go well beyond the limitations of the Humours, and soon worked out for himself what produced speed, strength and endurance- the Greeks even created a rough form of periodization, the tetrad.
Q So the coach was in some ways ahead of the doctor?
A Yes. The coach didn’t cure the sick, but he created supermen. The doctor, although he didn’t know it, relied heavily on self-cure or on the placebo-effect. After all, the understanding of the true nature of disease was over fifteen hundred years away. So, the Greek doctor’s “cure” consisted mainly of purging, sweating, fasting and bleeding, plus a handful of herbal remedies.
Q But these methods were also used by the coach?
A Yes, but the coach added to that strength, endurance and speed-training, and this filtered back into the gymnasium, and spurred the development of health-related exercise. The Greeks initially saw sport as a means of creating warriors, but over the years they saw that, although it was essential to be fit, specialised athletics ability was no guarantee of success in battle.
Q The coaches didn’t know, in any scientific terms, how it worked, but simply used trial and error?
A Yes. The Greek coaches found out over time how to develop athletic qualities. And they even experimented with diet, attempting to find foods that would give their athletes bang for the buck.
Q But mainly vegetarian?
A Yes. The Greeks ate very little meat. But they developed all kinds of theories on what was best to eat, and even at one point debated on the value of eating fish that foraged at great depths.
Q Was this the first technical coaching?
A Yes, but this element of coaching was not to re-appear till the first decade of the twentieth century. Their technical training related to javelin, discus and long jump, events which only appeared in the Olympics in pentathlon. Alas, the destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria meant that pretty much all record of what they did is lost to us. We have only the sculpture and the vases, one of which show the coach playing the pipes as the long jumper runs in to the take-off.
Q So the Greeks had advanced coaching substantially during the 776b.c. – 390a.d. period.
A Yes, and they had invented starting blocks and a starting gate! This was a very rich sports culture indeed.
Q And you are saying that there was around 1500 years before any such coaching again in athletics?
A Yes. This was the late 18^th century in track and the late 19^th century in field events. The athletics trainers of the 18^th and 19^th century worked exclusively with professional walkers and runners, and were essentially conditioners. Pedestrianism was a culture which grew rapidly in the mid-19^th century with the growth of the railway system, as did rural sports like the Highland Games. But it was not until the last quarter of the 19th century, with the five and a half day week, the entry of the Olympics, and the rapid growth of university athletics in America that field event coaching really began to take off.
Q Why were the Americans first?
A Our amateur sport was, on the one hand, harrier-based and on the other rooted in our public schools and universities. The latter saw themselves as naturally superior and with no need for coaching, and the harrier world was non-technical.
Q These early trainers of pro runners-they followed similar methods to the Greeks?
A Yes, not because of any classical scholarship, but because medicine had changed little since Greek times. So it was a programme of purging, bleeding, fasting, sweating and emetics, similar to the training of animals. And remember the professional set-up was based on match-racing or major pedestrian carnivals, with the athlete very much like a professional boxer, going into hibernation between competitions. It was a Scot, Captain Barclay Allardice, who first outlined these methods back in 1813, but they essentially reflected earlier, 18^th century methods.
Q When were these methods discarded?
A Most of them by the early years of the 20^th century, even by the professionals, And they had no place in what was now a growing but essentially recreational amateur sport.
Q When were the first books on track and field coaching?
A The final decade of the 19^th century, with a relatively modest book by the Irish-American Mike Murphy, the inventor of the crouch start. The Americans had brought a coach, the Scot John Graham, with them to the first Olympics of 1896. Graham wrote what was probably the next book on track and field coaching around 1905. In 1913, Mike Murphy wrote a definitive book, three years after F. A. M. Webster had written “Olympian Field events”. By that time, the Americans were employing professional coaches in their schools universities and clubs, often doubling up in other sports..
Q Where did Webster come from?
A The Army. Up till that point, coaches had been working-class “trainer”-types, concerned only with running and walking. Webster broke that mould. He was middle-class, from the public school system. In 1910, he formed The Field Events Club, and travelled round England putting on field-event displays. Webster was a remarkable man, pursuing a lonely path in a world of harriers, public schools and Oxbridge till his death in 1949.
Q But there were earlier books on running?
A Yes, in the early years of the19th century with Captain Barclay ,. Later works were mainly from ex-runners like W.G. George and Alf Shrubb, though Sam Mussabini published his first book in 1908.
Q Was there any coaching in Europe?
A Yes, in Scandinavia and Germany, both nations with strong gymnastic traditions. It is worth noting that most European teams had as early as the London 1908 Games secured support from their governments in travelling to London. In contrast, our government refused to have anything to do with the London Olympics.
Q But we did well in 1908.
A Yes, but without a single medal in a field event.
Q Were there any ongoing developments in Europe?
A Yes. In 1911, the Swedes, who had done badly in London, appointed a Swedish-American athletics coach Hjertberg to train their coaches in preparation for the 1912 Stockholm Games. After a year, they realised that this would have no impact upon 1912 performance and directed him towards practical coaching in the 1911-12 period. This meant basing their Olympic athletes in the Stockholm stadium for over three months prior to the Games.
Q Didn’t this breach amateur rules -their athletes would have to leave their work?
A Of course it did, but the rules were rather like having a maiden aunt who was constantly getting pregnant-they were always ignored to suit convenience. The Swedes did excellently in Stockholm.
Q And what happened to us in in 1912, in Stockholm?
A There our overall medal- count was only around a third of the 1908 Olympics total. So in 1913, as a response to our Stockholm failure, we created the Duke of Westminster’s Fund, aimed at raising £100, 000 to fund the preparation of future Olympic teams, using professional coaches in cycling athletics and swimming.
Q Did it raise that sum?
A No, just short of £10,000, but enough to fund the appointment of coaches in swimming, cycling and athletics. Our first National Coach was the Scots-Canadian Highland Games athlete W. R. Knox, (who had achieved 7.m20 in long jump and 14m.in shot) and who was to be supported by nine regional coaches. Alas, his position lasted only from March 1914 to April 1914, and Knox departed to seek gold in the Yukon.
Q And that was the end of the development of athletics coaching in this country in that period?
A Not quite. For Webster kept ploughing his lonely furrow, Oxbridge employed “trainers” like Alec Nelson, while Sam Mussabini worked with London A.C. But our school and university culture in no way matched that of the USA, even in those early days. The American system reflected a competitive culture, a nation of dedicated to self-improvement.
In contrast, ours reflected a complacent middle class which saw Britain as the creator of modern sport and they and their kind as being naturally superior to other nations, whatever the evidence to the contrary. Even back in 1895, when London A.C. had been whipped 11-0 by New York A.C. the penny had not dropped. For a brief moment, the 1913 Duke of Westminster’s programme, (which was very advanced for its time), looked like being a way out, but it vanished after the Great War.
Q Were coaches deployed by us at the Olympics in that post-war period?
A Yes, but only once. In 1924 McLernan (Liddell’s coach) and Sgt. Starkey, a Highland Games athlete, were employed as “trainers” to our Paris team. After that, there was nothing until 1952.
Q Where did Sam Mussabini fit in?
A Nowhere, really. You see, we had no school or club competitive structure in track and field, an essential if coaching is to develop as a profession. There was no interest in coaching amongst our harriers, and a track and field set-up heavily-based on handicap running-events was not fertile ground for the development of coaching.
Q How good was Mussabini?
A In his time, Mussabini was exceptional, and Webster expressed great admiration for him, even deploying him as his coach in a failed attempt to make the 1924 team in javelin. But Sam, though clearly an excellent man-manager, had nothing much to offer in any technical sense-indeed his ideas on cross-arm action and forward lean in sprinting appear to have been quite rightly ignored by Abrahams.
Q And Webster?
A It is difficult, at this distance, to estimate how good a coach he was, since he had very little material of quality with which to work. Dick Webster was an athlete of limited ability but he finished equal 6^th in the 1936 Olympic vault with 4m. His father went on to coach him to vault 3m.80 in the 1948 Olympics, after Dick had spent six years in the Army.

HOW SIR ROGER BANISTER FOR AND RAN HIS SUB-FOUR-MINUTE MILE – The following article was published on the Athletics Weekly website

SIR ROGER BANNISTER’S iconic achievement 66 years ago is recalled by TIM BRENNAN and analysed by MATT LONG

Almost 2000 athletes will by now have paid their own tribute to the great man by lacing up their trainers to take part in the BMC’s Bannister Virtual Mile Time Trials which conclude today. In 2016, BMC chair TIM BRENNAN was fortunate enough to be part of ‘An Audience with SIR ROGER BANNISTER’. Four years later, it’s an evening in Reading that will live with him forever. Here he shares the late great man’s memories of that unforgettable day on May 6, 1954. On the day of the record attempt, SIR ROGER went into his hospital laboratory which had a grindstone. Back in the 1950s, spikes were fixed to the running shoe and the aim was to give a sharp finish. With attention to detail, SIR ROGER rubbed graphite into the spikes so that the cinders from the track would not stick to the shoe. His travel to Oxford was by train and at this stage he was still in doubt as to whether the attempt should go ahead as weather conditions were decidedly windy and the thought was that conserving energies for more favourable conditions could be the right choice.

His charismatic coach FRANZ STAMPFL was an exuberant character who implored him: “If you have a chance and don’t take it because of conditions you may never forgive yourself”. Eventually as he stared up from the changing room at the flag flying from the nearby church tower he felt that the wind was reducing and announced to his pacemakers that the attempt was on. The gun went and as they completed the first lap BANNISTER recalled feeling “so easy”, as he called “faster, faster” to CHRIS BRASHER who had the good sense to ignore him as they hit the quarter mile at 58 seconds. The pre-race target was sustained through the half mile at 1:58 before CHRIS CHATAWAY took up the running and hit the three-quarter mile mark in 3:01. Sensing the moment, with 260 yards to go BANNISTER strode out with the pain etched on his face as he forced himself through the remaining yards down the home straight feeling that the “tape was receding”. Once over the line, he had no idea if the attempt had been successful as he collapsed into the arms of his coach for what would be one of the sports’ most iconic and enduring images.
These were the days of pre-electronic timing and stopwatches had to be compared thus ensuring a wait ensued. The announcer, NORRIS MCWHIRTER, milked the moment as the anticipation in the Oxford air was tangible: “The result of event 10, the one mile.” … pause … “Is won by ROGER BANNISTER of Merton and Exeter colleges” … pause … “In a time which subject to ratification is” … pause … “A new track, British, Commonwealth, European and world record” … pause … “Of three…” The rest was lost in the noise and excitement of the crowd, but the important digit was known. At long last a mile had been won in three minutes-something.

When interviewed about the physiological underpinnings of his achievement, SIR ROGER would famously say: “It’s the ability to take more out of yourself than you’ve got”. Psychology aside, MATT LONG digs a little deeper into his training diaries: In terms of cumulative aerobic volume, in running three or four times a week, SIR ROGER averaged less than 30 miles per week in the winter phase of periodisation, regressing to just 15 miles per week during the competition phase of the macro-cycle, which seems staggering by today’s standards.
Bannister’s affiliation to the so-called ‘Paddington Lunchtime Club’ enabled him to fit training around his considerable commitments as a final year medical student at St Mary’s Hospital in London. This being said, the running contribution to his aerobic development was complemented by hiking and his strength endurance by mountain climbing. One of his favourite track sessions was 3 x 1.5 miles (at around 14:30 pace for 5km). Away from the track, AAA’s coach JIM ALFORD had been heavily influenced by the thinking of the great Swede, GOSTA HOLMER, and he signposted BANNISTER to the playing fields of Harrow School to effect fartlek based training in the winter months. Physiologist Dr HERBERT REINDEL laid the academic foundations for 1930s German coach Dr WOLDEMAR GERSCHLER to make developments in interval training. BANNISTER’S lynchpin session on the ash track near the Paddington hospital was 10 x 440 yards (effected with a rolling 440 yard jog recovery in approximately 2 minutes). Progressive overload was achieved not by increasing the number of repetitions, nor by reducing the recovery, but rather more simply by incrementally increasing the speed of the reps. Monthly progression through the winter towards the summer season would see his rep times get quicker by around one second, from 66 seconds in October to well below 60 seconds by May. BANNISTER’S approach was geared towards engendering race pace specificity and he regularly effected three-quarter mile time trials at Motspur Park in Surrey and is reputed to have beaten the unofficial world best for this distance, previously held by legendary Swede ARNE ANDERSSON.

Any decent coach will tell you that to look over your shoulder in a race is a cardinal sin of our sport. Those of you who ran in the BMC BANNISTER Virtual Time Trials had no need to do so for your nearest and indeed only rival would have been yourself. This being said, the Jamaican political activist MARCUS GARVEY once poignantly commented: “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” – so on this day of all days we are thus allowed more than a glance over the shoulder to those Iffley cinders, which burned 66 years ago today.

WORLD ATHLETICS SUSPEND OLYMPIC QUALIFICATION PERIOD – The following article was published on the Athletics Weekly website,
World Athletics has announced that the qualification period for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games has been suspended until the start of December, ruling out any results which might be recorded from April 6 2020 to November 30 2020. During that period, performances will also not be considered for world rankings purposes. Results will continue to be recorded for statistical purposes, including for world records, World Athletics added.

The global governing body also confirmed that athletes who have already met the entry standard since the start of the qualification period in 2019 remain qualified and will be eligible for selection, together with other athletes who qualify within the new qualification period. Subject to the global situation returning to normal following the coronavirus pandemic, the qualification period will resume on December 1, 2020, and will run until May 31, 2021, for 50km race walk and marathon events and until June 29, 2021, for all other events. “I am grateful for the detailed work and feedback from our Athletes’ Commission and Council who believe suspending Olympic qualification during this period gives more certainty for athlete planning and preparation and is the best way to address fairness in what is expected to be the uneven delivery of competition opportunities across the globe for athletes given the challenges of international travel and government border restrictions,” said World Athletics president SEB COE. Some rescheduled events are currently set to fall within the window of suspension, meaning that results recorded at races such as the Virgin Money London Marathon, which is now due to take place on October 4 rather than April 26, will not count for Olympic qualification purposes. There are still plans for the European Championships to take place in Paris in August too but should the event go ahead, performances achieved there would also not be considered as Olympic qualifying marks.

Britain’s DAI GREENE was among the athletes to give reaction to the news on social media, with the 2011 world 400m hurdles gold medallist describing it as an “excellent decision”. “Short term safety is more important than athletes having to make risky decisions to chase qualification marks later in the summer,” he added. “Takes a lot of pressure off during an already stressful time.” While Britain’s European indoor 3000m silver medallist CHRIS O’HARE wrote: “European athletes still have to hit standards to qualify for European champs. Potential situation – An athlete runs an Olympic standard in a European Championship or British Championship (both apparently still going ahead) but it doesn’t count?”

PARKRUN 5K RESULTS – Currently Suspended

The following fixtures have now been Cancelled
World U20 Championships due to take place from Tuesday 7 July to Sunday 12 July
English Schools Championships due to take place on Friday 10 July and Saturday 11 July
European U18 Championships due to take place from Thursday 16 July to Sunday 19 July
Olympic Games due to take place from Friday 31 July to Sunday 9 August

Virgin London Marathon and Mini Marathon due to take place on Sunday 26 April has been Postponed, and is rescheduled to take place on Sunday 4 October
UK Championships due to take place on Saturday 20 June and Sunday 21 June has been Postponed, and is rescheduled to take place on Saturday 8 August and Sunday 9 August

FACEBOOK – Photographs can be found on the SBH page.

ALLIANZ PARK – Main Switchboard telephone number is 0203 675 7250.

CHARGES FOR USING ALLIANZ PARK – Currently the stadium is closed for athletics until the 31 May.

ALAN

Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers Weekly Newsletter Thursday 7 May 2020

Posted on 05/05/202008/03/2022 by sbharriers

Happy Birthday from this Thursday 7 May to Scott Amir, Shimaala Elliott, Linda Elmore, Latifah Harris-Osman, Emily Hathaway, Alex Kramer, Harry Kyriacou, Tyriq Lafeuille, Scott Lincoln, Jason Nicholson, Trinity O’Connor, Naomi Palmer, Yasmin Palmer, Jenny Poll, Anne Ridley and Freya Stapleton,

ENGLAND ATHLETICS ANNOUNCE ATHLETIC COMPETITION SUSPENDED TO 30 JUNE – EA announced on Wednesday 29 April that the suspension period relating specifically to athletics competition has been extended until at least 30 June. Link to EA full statement – Announcement – EA – suspension of competition to end June 2020 – 29.04.2020 (003)

SHAFTESBURY BARNET HARRIERS CORONAVIRUS STATEMENT, UPDATED 24 MARCH – The following is a joint statement by SBH and Saracens SBH Coronavirus Statement 24.03.20 Rev A

CURRENT UPDATE ON UPCOMING FIXTURES – Can be found in the ‘Upcoming Fixtures’ further down.

PROFILE ON JADE LALLY – JADE, STORMY and nine-month-old daughter NYLA are currently living in Loughborough. The following highlights JADE’S career, which I believe that she is one of the most consistent and successful athlete that the club has. Photograph was taken last week on one of theire isolation walks.

JADE joined Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers in December 2007, in which she had just entered the U23 age-group. In 2007 her personal best in the Discus was (49.28m) in the England Athletics U23 & U20 Championships, winning the silver medal. JADE big breakthrough came in 2009 in which she was 2nd in the England U20/U23 Championships, 3rd in the National, then in the European U23 Championships in Lithuania won the bronze medal. 2010 was her first National title which was her first of eight titles, except in 2012 and 2014 where she finished 2nd.
Other Major Championships – European 2012 Q11th, 2016 7th, 2018 11th – Commonwealth Games 2010 6th, 2014 Bronze, 2018 7th – World 2017 Q8th – Olympic Games 2016 Q15th.
Progression – first 50m throw April 2009 (53.15m), first 55m throw May 2010 (56.17m), first 55m throw July 2011 (60.76m), current personal best (65.10m) on 27 February 2016, ranking her UK No.2 on the all-time list.
Towards the end of 2018 JADE announced she was pregnant, and NYLA was born on the 19 July 2019.
2020, first competition for 18 months on 27 February, JADE said “It felt good to be back! Wasn’t sure what to expect as throwing has been a bit hindered with weather recently. Also, I had no idea on how my nerves would be. Last time I competed was in Jersey, August 2018.”

Photograph taken at the New South Wales State Champs, 2016. This is when I threw my current personal best (65.10m) and beat DANI STEVENS– a World Champion and Commonwealth Games Champion.

This is JADE’S comments on what she is doing now and the future – Currently I’m doing pretty well with training. I’ve managed to buy all my own equipment and had a lot of stuff before the lockdown because of my job (as personal trainer). I also have a Discus circle Chris Scott leant me so I can drill in my garage, and I can lift almost as normal as before. Throwing is a little more challenging but I have managed to find some concrete and an open space to throw. I plan to compete this year whenever the bans are lifted. I am also planning on moving to Australia later this year with my boyfriend Stormy and of course little Nyla. So even if this season is out, the Australian season will be a real possibility to throw and compete before the year is over. Photograph of NYLA enjoying pesto pasta with our washing in the background!

Best moment in sport– Gaining automatic selection for the Rio Olympic Games.
Worst moment– Thinking I would be selected for the London 2012 Olympic Games, and learning I wouldn’t be going. Despite appealing the decision and costing £1000’s.
Favourite Country – UK, of course!! But I really like California too. I could definitely live there. It’s like Australia but only 1 flight away!
Favourite City – London, I’m bias. Culturally so vast. So many different foods available, music scenes, people. It’s so diverse. I’m yet to find anywhere like it and feel at ease there.
Favourite Food/Snack – Favourite food is steak, fillet when I can afford it, sirloin when I can’t! Snacks, naughty snacks, Krispy Kreme when I can afford it, any old cake will do when I can’t!
Music/Artist – I have a wide variety here. I’m a big fan of old school UK garage, dance, R’n’B and rap. That always gets me going. I also am a big fan of musicals and musical theatre, The Greatest Showman is my favourite. I also am a big fan of the 60’s!
Favourite Film – Not many have heard of it, but Monsters Ball. Closely followed by the Hunger Games.
Hobbies – I used to play a lot of golf before I had Nyla. I’m also a follower of the PDC darts. Not good at playing it but always have a go!
Dislikes – People that feel they’re entitled and owed something.
Likes – People that work hard encourage others to be the best version of themselves.

This was the second in the profile series, so Beware You Could Be Next. Coming up will include one of the following Athlete, Team Manager, Coach or Official.

TRAINING TECHNIQUE VIDEOS PRODUCED BY JADE LALLY – JADE has recently produced two videos relating to the basic fundamentals for Discus, this is the link to JADE’S first video on How To Hold A Discus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA9jyS4Wung&t=6s the second video is on Discus Basics: Foot Placement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8ahzDmrldk
For future videos, watch this space.

HUGH STARKEY MOVES THE PONT L’ABBE STORY ON – On the 16 April Newsletter there was an article relating to RAY VAREY, in which HUGH RICHARD’S mentioned the 1979 Pont l’Abbé race. Subsequently HUGH STARKEY contacted me, with additional information.

This was HUGH’S findings – I was intrigued that in the 16 April newsletter you were able to reference our participation in the Pont l’Abbé race in 1979 so I dived into my archives. Without wishing to be pedantic, I can perhaps add to the record.
I found the poster for the 1976 race, and a report of this race in the Shaftesbury Quarterly Magazine for March 1976 by RICHARD SAMUEL who was at that time the editor and highly influenced by the style of Private Eye.

RICHARD SAMUEL recalls – The Pont L’Abbé races were facilitated by the introduction of passenger services from Portsmouth to St Malo and Roscoff by Brittany Ferries in the earlier 1970s. At the beginning the passenger accommodation on the boats was very basic and on one memorable trip I remember sleeping in the medical room with the rest of our group. The races were organised by a brother and sister from a cafe on the harbour in Pont L’Abbé. I can’t remember what it was called then but I think it might now be the Restaurant De La Marine as that looks very familiar. Pont L’Abbé is not a large town so the race was run in multiple laps around the town usually in front of reasonably large crowds. What has to be remembered was in those days English runners in France were a rare breed as few made the trip across the channel so we were feted as heroes (steady on. Ed). Well, we were an interesting bunch always up for a bit of moules frites and lashings of any wine we could get our hands on. On race day, it was also traditional for the English (or Welsh) to eat all the bread in the restaurant before any food came and afterwards to eat all the cheese unlike the French who only had a few pieces each. The groups of us who made the trip soon named themselves the musketeers. This was not a conscious decision as prosaically the name came from the advertising symbol of the French supermarket, Intermarché, who at the time used a slightly raffish representation of a dashing musketeer to promote their stores. Somehow this appealed and was adopted by us.
The weekend races usually involved an extremely early start to dash down to Portsmouth and a return on Mondays usually feeling the worst for wear. As the races were held in April this often meant potentially very rough crossings across the channel. Usually this did not put the heartier souls off their food but I do remember one less than intrepid runner who I will not name having to rush to a plant pot as sea sickness overtook him.
Along with Vanves and later Nantes France in the 1970s and 80s was a happy hunting ground for those Shaftesbury boys at Pont l’Abbé and no doubt there is still talk in the town of those days and relief they are over…….or maybe not!

Nestled at the bottom of the estuary, Pont l’Abbé, with the “Little Town of Character” label, was described by MAUPASSANT as “the most Breton town” of Lower Brittany. The castle, the inhabited bridge that gave the town it’s name, the shipowners’ and merchants’ residences evoke its proud history. It was in the land of legends that the famous headdress gained its height, honouring the skill of the embroiderers.

Pont l’Abbé 1976 – Small but select, that is how I would like to think of the team that made the somewhat arduous journey to the small Breton town in the Bigeuden region of France on the weekend of the 7th/8th March 1976. In fact, the team of HUGH STARKEY, ROY STEVEN, and the musketeers HUGH RICHARD and RICHARD SAMUEL were not the only English runners to make the trip as we were accompanied by Portsmouth AC and Aldershot, strangely enough the first three Southern clubs in the National.
After a hairy journey down to Plymouth, and a few beers in the nearest bar we boarded the Armourique for what to be a very rough overnight crossing. On arrival at Roscoff we were whisked off to Pont l’Abbé by our hosts. Once there we were introduced to the organisers and after a quick run settled down to the start of several lengthy meals in our Hotel. The rest of Saturday afternoon was occupied by a guided tour around the area conducted in superb weather conditions, though this was still only March. Another lengthy meal and a few beers and the rest of the day had passed.
Inevitably the worst time was the waiting for the afternoon race, which was being held at 5pm. The route for the race was round a 1200m lap which circled the town and which had to be covered 7.5 times, giving a total distance of some 9k. The French opposition was very strong with three leading French distance runners in BOXBERGER (9th in International), PAUGAM (18th), and RAULT (32nd) all competing. In a fast start HUGH STARKEY and ROY STEVEN were soon to the front with RICHARD SAMUEL and HUGH RICHARDS close behind. At 3000m ROY and BARTON were dropped, and BOXBERGER split up the rest with a long drive from 5000m out, to score an easy win. HUGH hung on to place an excellent 4th, with ROY holding 6th after his fast start. RICHARD moved through over the final 3k to place 8th, whilst HUGH found himself out of the scorers for the first time in quite a while, despite beating LES PRESLAND.
Result 1st BOXBERGER (26.54), 4th HUGH STARKEY (27.26), 6th ROY STEVEN (28.00), 8th RICHARD SAMUEL (28.12), 11th HUGH RICHARDS (28.22). Teams 1st SHAFTESBURY (18 points), 2nd ALDERSHOT, FARNHAM & DISTRICT (36).

Photograph of the 1976 poster.

Pont l’Abbé 1977 – After last year’s success in winning the Le juene Gnome de Bigonden, the squad were strengthened by the addition of DAVE BEDFORD and JOHN DRYDEN although ROY STEVEN was missing.
After an eventful journey to Portsmouth in DAVE’S car, where only a minimum of traffic laws were not broken. JOHN DRYDEN was not sick on the boat going over, and no-people approached the party for their autographs. In France though it was a different story as DAVE did not begin to drive as badly as we all knew he could. He did not knock anyone over and no ambulances or gendarmes we needed at any stage of the journey although there were some Pink Floyd.
Once at Pont l’Abbé, the boys decided to find out the old Breton customs of eating seafood, and also about Oliver Cromwell who used to own a brewery in Ely, or was it Ealing. After training later in the afternoon when HUGH STARKEY did not run faster than anyone else, and did not look at the view from the world’s highest bridge – almost, DAVE BEDFORD did not do a lot of strides, and was completely knackered, JOHN DRYDEN and HUGH RICHARDS remained non-plussed and RICHARD SAMUEL was already to make a name for himself.
The route for the race was the same as last year, which is a distance of 9k. The French opposition was very strong with leading French distance runners in BOXBERGER, PAUGAM, CARABY and RAULT. Suicidal sees DAVE, BOXBERGER, PAUGAM, RICHARD and CARABY clear after 800m, RICHARD is dropped after the 2nd lap but remain in contact 10m behind. After 3 laps DAVE and PAUGAM are 80m up on RICHARD and CARABY remain together. After 4 laps DAVE drops PAUGAM and not long after BOXBERGER passes PAUGAM, during the 6th lap BOXBERGER closes on DAVE, who responded and then started to pull away. Towards the end of the 7th lap DAVE was 100m clear and the race was won.
Result 1st DAVE BEDFORD (28.04), 2nd BOXBERGER (28.15), 4th RICHARD SAMUEL (29.04), 7th HUGH STARKEY (29.41), 14th HUGH RICHARDS (30.30), 15th JOHN DRYDEN (30.33).

JOHN DRYDEN recalls –However,DAVE was coming back from an injury but wasn’t too unfit, having come 45th in World cross the previous weekend. Reading the race report, one could ask why DAVE flogged the last lap to open a 100m gap when he could have beaten BOXBERGER by just cruising around? Well, M MEHU had bet him that if he was first past the post he’d buy DAVE a beer for every metre he won by. To be fair, when DAVE got back to the Café de la Marine he found plenty of volunteers to help him get through them.

Photograph of the 1977 poster, followed by DAVE BEDFORD on his way in wiining the race, finally RICHARD SAMUEL holding off the opposition for 4th place.

Pont l’Abbé 1978 – Unfortunately I cannot find a report of full results.
Result 4th RICHARD SAMUEL, 17th ROY STEVEN, 17th JOHN DRYDEN, 20th MARTIN MCEVILLY, 39th HUGH RICHARDS, 40th DAVE BEDFORD cracked ribs.

Pont l’Abbé 1979 – The evening of the Southern Road Relay, five of our lads packed their bags and set off is search of another memorable and enjoyable weekend in Pont l’Abbé. After coffee at “Chez RICHARD et JULIE” in Richmond we piled into HUGH RICHARD’S car and travelled down to Portsmouth where we partook of dinner at the celebrated “l’oeuf d’Or”. We made the boat with the customary 10 minutes to spare, checked into our cabins and after an incident free journey were able to breakfast on coffee and croissants at St Malo, and arrived in one piece in Pont l’Abbé about mid-day.
The route for the race again around the town and the distance was 10k. The main trouble came from the top Breton Club, Stade Brestois who provided the winner JEAN-LUC PANGAM. Shaftesbury win the “Jeune gnome de Bigonden” for the fourth consecutive year.
Result 10th RICHARD SAMUEL, 12th JOHN DRYDEN, 18th MARTIN MCEVILLY, 28th HUGH RICHARDS.
And so back to “Dom et Maries” for the evening celebrations, enlivened by various musical entertainment, the appearance of “la lune du Pays de Galles” and M MEHU doing the palais glide with the wife of one the Irish team.
Up early the next day for a relaxed 10 along the riverbank, after a shower, check out of our hotel. The manager, it seems, wishes to have a word with us. The lads want to run for it at once, and it takes some time to convince them that he does not wish to call the gendarmes or impound our luggage, he is, in fact inviting the team to join him for cocktails, on the house, before lunch. Is this a first for Shaftesbury?
A delightful cider and pancakes at (where else?) the creperie, then off to M MEHU’S wine cellars to purchase a few cases of his cuvee Maison (at a generous discount). We then set off for a leisurely drive to Roscoff, and the overnight ferry to Plymouth. The weekend ended about lunchtime on Tuesday as usual.

HUGH RICHARDS recalls – I remember well the Bigouden Boy now residing permanently with HUGH STARKEY (and of course PHYLLIS). Those were the days when we had a Customs grilling when re-entering the UK. The Bigouden Boy is quite a valuable piece of Breton porcelain – even more so some 40 or more years on. It might have been on that occasion (although there were many) when the Custom Officer, having scratched his head a few times, said words to the effect ‘thank goodness a British team has won something abroad….’ Photograph of the Trophy.

ODDS-N-ENDS – The following was published in the 1977 April edition of the Shaftesbury Harriers Quarterly magazine.
Congratulations to LINDA and GERRY ELMORE of the birth of a son LEE on 19 March.
There is no truth in the rumour that the only reason we are not doing the National Road Relay on 23 April is because JULIAN GOATER is getting married that day.
The storey goes that the Club track captain, GEOFF MORPHITIS, obtained a broken nose and two lovely black eyes while playing rugby. But we have not heard anything from MARGARET, GEOFF’S wife.
RICHARD SAMUEL says he is not bringing a girl to the Club dinner because he wants to enjoy himself.
DAVE BEDFORD says he is not bringing a girl to the Club dinner because his fiancé won’t let him.
Those who knew KEN PEASNELL may like to know that he has just been appointed Professor of Lancaster University.

STEVE SOLOMON AN AUSTRALIAN’S VIEW ON THE LOCKDOWN/OLYMPICS – Written by ROSALIND ZEFFERRT. London 2012 400m finalist at just 19, had it all mapped out in the build up to Tokyo. “My qualification for these Olympics started last May. Every competition I did was to set me up for 2020,” said Solomon, Australia’s team captain at last summer’s World Championships. “I was really looking forward to a successful year. The season’s best I got in my last competition in February, 45.37 seconds (down from 45.54 in 2019 and seeking 44.90 to qualify), showed what a good place I was in; I was really strong and in great shape.”

Then, a few short weeks later, on the day both Australia and the UK went into lockdown, those plans were turned upside down, when the IOC postponed the Games. It hit hard. “Even though it was kind of a relief when the announcement came, at first I found myself stressed in a way I hadn’t been for years,” said SOLOMON. “Getting into the Olympics is a challenge anyway and the months going into the Games are so intense, not just for the athletes but for their families. Everything is amplified. We’d been due to hold our national trials the following week and were expecting some selections soon after.”
There was more to waiting another year than the simple passage of time and a later qualification deadline. “It may not sound that disruptive, but for athletes it’s quite a significant push for us to change to 2021. Our health, form and performance now is no guarantee of what it’ll be next year. For a lot of athletes it means a new approach to the Games.”
SOLOMON’S disappointment also reflects his personal sacrifices over the past two years. “I’d made some huge decisions to help me to reach Tokyo this year, not next, in terms of relationships, where I train and where I work. I also had plans for after the Games and that’s all in the air now.” He added, “I feel deflated, too. Even though the Games are still going to take place, it almost feels as though they’ve been taken away entirely, because the Olympics won’t be exactly the same as they were going to be in 2020.”
Nevertheless, he is satisfied with how the decision-making was handled. “It was better for us that the Games were going ahead right until the moment they were postponed, because what we do is too hard for uncertainty,” he explained. “People see us as machines, but we’re human. If the IOC had wavered, athletes would have started making poor training choices. Also, Tokyo made the announcement two months earlier than they’d originally said and we appreciated that. Otherwise it would have been very difficult for us, especially as people are on different lockdown measures in different parts of the world.” Another issue would have been managing anti-doping testing, due to the current restrictions on entering people’s homes.
SOLOMON also believes it is fortunate, given the circumstances, that the host city is Tokyo. “Had it been Rio, I think they would have struggled both financially and organisationally to keep everything ready for another year, so the Games would probably have been cancelled altogether.”
Focused though he is on his own Olympics preparations, one of the first things he did following the announcement was to message each of his fellow athletes to offer support. ”Everyone is still processing the news,” he said. “The real time to talk is early next year when the stress and anxiety will ramp up again, but I wanted them to know that I understood how they were feeling.”
Like most of Australia’s athletes in lockdown, SOLOMON is adjusting to a new routine. “Typically I’d go into unstructured training at the end of the international season, to give the body a rest, but with no official season this year, I need to start preparing for 2021 straight away,” he said. “So I’m taking that break now and I’ll have an extended season from later this month right through to next summer.” Current at-home training involves two short sessions daily with a combination of swimming, exercise bike and rowing machine, supplemented by “fun” core circuits via Zoom with work colleagues at Uber Eats, where he is a partnership manager.
When not training, SOLOMON finds he is working harder than ever, despite freeing up time by not having to make the usual two-hour round trip to the west Sydney track where his coach, former Olympic 100m hurdler Penny Gillies, is based. “I find it hard to stop working, because I’m at home and it’s around me the whole time,” he said. “I’m consumed by work. I haven’t got round to thinking about how I’ll go back to training normally within the constraints of lockdown.”
When he does, he is determined to put everything in place to give himself the best possible chance of a place in the Olympic squad. “I’ll continue to prepare at all times with the information I have,“ he said. “The Tokyo 2020 CEO has now said that even the 2021 dates can’t be guaranteed while the virus is still spreading. I understand it is a complicated situation to predict, but I trust that those tasked with making any revision of the decision are fully aware of the gravity and the responsibility they carry.”

WHEN THIS IS ALL OVER – It has just been announced that as the World Cross Country Championships is in Australia are on 20 March 2021, the Inter Counties in Loughborough will be on 20 February and the National Cross Country Championships will be at Parliament Hill on 6 March. Elsewhere the National Cross Country Relay Championships in Mansfield are on 31 October 2020, European Trials are on 28 November and the European Championships in Dublin on 13 December.

MULLER BRITISH ATHLETIC CHAMPIONSHIPS – Since the current pandemic resulted in significant changes to the competition calendar, British Athletics have been in constant communication with our partners at European Athletics, World Athletics and the Wanda Diamond League to coordinate the remaining schedule of athletics events in 2020, prioritising the safety and health of our sport and spectators at all times.

At this moment in time, we are still working on the basis that all British Athletics events – Müller British Athletics Championships Manchester, Müller Anniversary Games London & Müller Grand Prix Gateshead – will be going ahead although we will continue to adhere to all government advice and guidelines to ensure the safety of those involved.

PARKRUN 5K RESULTS – Currently Suspended

FACEBOOK – Photographs can be found on the SBH page.

ALLIANZ PARK – Main Switchboard telephone number is 0203 675 7250.

CHARGES FOR USING ALLIANZ PARK – Currently the stadium is closed for athletics until the 31 May.

ALAN