Happy Birthday this week to Dominic Bannister, Douglas Curwen-Reed, Richard Goodman, Jade Lally, Alfredo Melao, Patrick Pearce, Luisa Rojas, Paul Simons, Claire Spurway and Amelia Wills
BAD NEWS – NEVILLE THOMPSON diagnosed with Coronavirus, GOOD NEWS – He’s now out of hospital on his 65th birthday.
As most of you know, NEVILLE is our senior throws coach based at Allianz Park. A former GB Discus International and our top points scorer in the BAL. He’s had 48 years of uninterrupted Club membership. He reported in unwell on Wednesday 11 March and said he was unable to cover his Thursday night session. He told us not to worry and that he would be back the next week. Unfortunately, this was not the case, as during the following 10 days his condition deteriorated substantially to the point where he was showing virtually all the symptoms of Covid-19.
He eventually managed to get a home visit on Sunday 22 March from 2 Paramedics who instantly arranged an appointment for Neville to attend a local hospital at 20.30 that evening. He was taken to hospital by his youngest son, Dominic, where he was tested and was told that he had Covid-19. He spent the next 6 days in intensive care using a constant oxygen supply. He was in a ward of 6 fellow Covid-19 patients with various levels of the disease. NEVILLE said the staff were very good but were worked off their feet.
By Saturday 28 March, he had improved and was able to breathe without the use of the oxygen supply. The pressure on IC beds was such that he was taken home and now faces 14 days of self-isolation.
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 – The following fixtures have now been Cancelled
National Road Relays due to take place on Saturday 4 April
London Inter Club Challenge due to take place on Saturday 18 April
Middlesex Young Athletes League due to take place on Saturday 18 April and Saturday 23 May
UK Youth Development League due to take place on Sunday 19 April, Sunday 24 May, Sunday 21 June, Sunday 26 July and Sunday 6 September
National Athletic League due to take place on Sunday 3 May and 14 June
Eastern Young Athletics League due to take place on Sunday 3 May and Sunday 31 May
Veterans League due to take place on Monday 4 May
BUCS due to take place on Friday 8 May to Sunday 10 May
Hertfordshire County Championships due to take place on Saturday 9 May and Sunday 10 May
Loughborough International due to take place on Sunday 17 May
Middlesex County Championships due to take place on Saturday 30 May and Sunday 31 May
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
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 17-03-20 Showing Cancelled & Postponed Fixtures – Summer 2020 Fixture Card – Updated 17-03-20 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.
CONGRATULATIONS – To TONY and JEAN SMITH who have just celebrated their 65th Wedding Anniversary on the 19 March. I believe we should award JEAN the SBH long service award, for putting up with him.
UK CROSS COUNTRY RANKINGS 2019-2020 – These were published in Athletics Weekly recently.
The Under 20 Rankings include 3 SBH athletes CHARLIE HICKS, HENRY MCLUCKIE and JEREMY DEMPSEY – CHARLIE has recently joined us and is currently studying at Stanford University in the USA, last month he ran (8:08.81) indoors in the 3000m, ranking him UK No.1 U20 in 2020.
Athletes who achieved the following were considered for the rankings – Top 12 National, Liverpool, CAU Inter Counties – Top 10 ESSA, Stirling, Cardiff – Top 6 North, Milton Keynes – Top 5 South – Top 3 Midlands, Scottish.
Under 20 Men – 4th CHARLIE HICKS 2 Liv 25.31, 5 EC 19.05, 9th HENRY MCLUCKIE 3 CAU 31.51, 3 Santi 24.01, 15 ESSB 21.38, 15 Card 20.47, ECR 9.11, 2 Hants 13.38, 19th JEREMY DEMPSEY 4 Nat 37.02, 56 BUCS 34.55, 3 RAF v EC 31.46, ECR 9.01, 4 Met L 24.37.
UK INDOOR RANKINGS 2020 – These were published in Athletics Weekly recently. They identified the top 6 performances in the World, and the top 3 British athletes.
Senior Men – High Jump 3rd DAVID SMITH (2.24m), Long Jump 2nd DAN BRAMBLE (7.81m), Shot Put 1st SCOTT LINCOLN (19.85m)
Senior Women – 800m 5th ELLIE BAKER (2:03.31)
MANY THANKS TO – SIMON KEENE, ROSALIND ZEFFERTT and TOM MCNAB for their contribution to this week’s Newsletter.
THIS IS THE FIRST IN THE SERIES OF ARTICLES, LOOKING BACK AT VARIOUS CHAPTERS IN THE HISTORY OF SHAFTESBURY BARNET HARRIERS.
SIMON KEENE – You are all aware that SIMON is currently our Cross Country Under 20 and Senior Women, Senior Men and Road Relay Under 20 and Senior Women Team Manager. But many of you will not be aware that he started his first team manager’s role with the Senior Men in 1990/91, adding the Senior Women in 1995/96.
During these periods SIMON was working for British Telecom, initially preparing bids for Global contracts, then being a cost transformation expert with a Global remit, that’s reducing costs, and in his final years before retiring, being a Senior Business Director for a major Swiss customer. He spent most weeks working ‘somewhere in Europe’, often three countries per week. As a result a lot of time was spent organising teams on the phone in the evenings. This all stopped when his boss went mad as his mobile bill was £6k one year. Since then he has used email!
THAT 5 YEAR PERIOD – There are many outstanding chapters in the past history of the Club, but I have chosen the period when the Club closed out the 20th Century and started the 21st Century in style. The following covers the period between 1998 to 2002 when our Senior Women’s squad were arguably the dominant team over the Cross Country and Road Relay disciplines, also during this period our Young Athletes and Senior Men were also successful and their results and details will be published at a later date.
In those years’ the Senior Women’s team won the following titles;
Cross Country Championships – Southern 1999, 2000 & 2001 – National 1998, 1999, 2000 & 2002 also 3rd in 2001 – National Relays1998 Spring & Autumn, 2000 & 2001.
Road Relay Championships – Southern 4 Stage 1998, 1999 & 2000 – Southern 6 Stage 2000, 2001 & 2002 – National 4 Stage 1999 & 3rd in 2000 – National 6 Stage 2000 & 2nd in 2002 also 3rd in 2001.
When champions SBH represented England in the European Club Cross Country Championships, the best result being a 4th at Lanciano Italy in 1999, with Lucy Elliott 5th, Caroline Walsh 20th, Lisa Hollick 28th, Emma Brooker 44th and Hazel Sutherland 52nd. The squad had many outstanding athletes, also our U20s were stepping up and became integral members of the squad.
Another major part of our success was that many of our athletes were coached by many of our own club members. Which were as follows;
BRYAN SMITH, our only Nationally acclaimed Coach at the time, coached the vast majority of the athletes, so much of the success is attributable to him. Many athletes joined the Club as they wanted him to coach them, which further strengthened the squad. It’s easier to say who Bryan didn’t coach.
SIMON, despite work commitments, still managed to remotely coach LUCY ELLIOTT & ANGELA JOINER, and advise CHRISTINE RADON out of term time, as she was studying in Birmingham, ironically sharing a house with HUGH RICHARDS daughter. LUCY ran in the 1997 World X/C Championships finishing 18th, and in 2002 finishing 35th. She finished 2nd in the 1998 National X/C Championships. She also won the Inter Counties twice. ANGELA ran in the 1998 World X/C Championships in Morocco finishing 59th with the GB team taking the Bronze Medals, and the 10000m in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in which she finished 8th. She was also 40th in the World Half Marathon Championships in 1997.
GEORGE HARRISON coached EMMA MURRAY, and in 2014 was awarded the MBE for services to athletics, and in recent years has coached KYLE LANGFORD, and currently coaches LIZZIE BIRD who is the current SBH 3000m Steeplechase Club Record holder.
RAY TUCKER coached KATE ARMSTONG and LEE AVERY, as well as competing. Around this time, I was the Veterans Team Manager, and RAY along with his training partner TREFOR MORGAN were ever present in most competitions. In recent years’ RAY, has been unwell, but I am led to believe he has taken up cycling, which has helped him.
SALLY-ANN COX joined us in 2002 from one of the most successful clubs of the 1990’s, Parkside of Harrow. Parkside was formed by Shaftesbury stalwart BOB PARKER and, along with his wife SYLVIA, had produced a women’s team that had dominated the 1990’s over the Country. BOB during this period was coaching no less than 5 GB and 1 American Internationals.
JOHN SHERBAN coached HAZEL SUTHERLAND who was one of Shaftesbury’s most talented road runner, and is remembered mainly for his outstanding leg in the 1993 National 12 Stage Road Relay. With the situation not looking too good, JOHN took over on Leg 11 (5 Miles 706 Yards) in 5th place some 91 seconds behind. The majority of us were watching at Keepers Pool which is approximately 1 mile from the handover, and it had filtered through that John had moved into 3rd place going out on the 2 mile out and back loop, after what seemed an eternity the silence was broken with shouts of come on JOHN, he passed by us leading by some 15 seconds, and handed over to STEVE GOSS a 46 second lead. He eventually crossed the finishing line with a 36 second margin.
SIMON retired from being Women’s team manager following the National 2002 6 Stage Road Relays. Little did he know that it would be coming back to him in the 2006/7 season!
This is the link which shows the full Senior Women SBH results for the 1998 to 2002 Cross Country and Road Relays. In those years the team competed in 26 Southern or National Championships, of those they won 14 Championships, were 2nd in 5 and 3rd in 5 others. Of those LUCY ELIOTT competed in 16 of the 26 Championships, amazing – 04A Senior Women Southern & National Championships 1998 to 2002
ROSALIND ZEFFERTT – ROSALIND lives in Mill Hill, and joined Shaftesbury in 2014. Her son BENJY joined SBH in 2015 in an officiating capacity and his elder brother SIMON is a former member. ROSALIND is an active athlete as well as the Club’s Officials Co-Ordinator working alongside GERALD ALTERMAN and she currently holds V50 & V55 Club Records inc the V55 60m Indoors (9.52) and Long Jump Outdoors (3.90m). Just over 12 months age she started traing for the Pole Vault, and in January this year cleared (2.17m) ranking her UK No.1 V55.
COLIN GODFREY TRAINING STRATEGY DURING THE COVID-19 PERIOD – Many thanks to ROSALIND for writing this article, which was also published in the Jewish Chronicle recently.
Just days after the cancellation of the 2020 London Marathon, England Athletics announced the inevitable: all athletics training sessions and competitions were to be suspended. But Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers coach Colin Godfrey has devised innovative ways to keep his athletes positive and motivated during the enforced break – and without any let up. “If they think that having to stay away from the club means they’ll get out of training, they’ve got another thing coming,” he said. “I tell them it’ll be hard but that they’ll love me for it!”
COLIN normally coaches his 20-strong middle distance and endurance group—which includes Jewish athletes SAMUEL and DANIEL GREENSTEIN, BINY BLOOM, DOVI LEVIN, RACHEL and JORDAN PEARLMAN, SOPHIA and LUISA STAAB — every Tuesday and Thursday evening at Shaftesbury’s North London stadium, with a park session on Sundays. The age range is 11 to 18 and the group is split into junior and senior sections. When group training had to end, he acted quickly to ensure that training would continue seamlessly, just in a different format.
“I’ve set up various WhatsApp groups so that everyone can still train both outdoors and indoors, always in accordance with the government guidelines,” said COLIN, himself a former middle distance runner who in his early teens won an 800m silver medal at the Maccabiah Games. “I’ve been very clear about social distancing and I’ve told them that if they or their immediate family have symptoms, they must stay at home. But being outside is essential for health and wellbeing so I encourage them to do that if they possibly can.”
The training sessions are hard work but are also designed to be fun, competitive and interactive. “I run weekly running sessions and ask everyone for their feedback,” said COLIN. “For one of those sessions they have to go all out and then they give me their times. We also do Q&A once a week.”
In addition to the running WhatsApp group there is one for circuit training. “The kids do circuits every day, plus a challenge which I change every week,” explained COLIN. “A challenge might be doing press ups as fast and as hard as they can for 30 seconds, recovery for one minute, then another 30 seconds of press ups.”
COLIN knows that options for training at home will vary, so he provides individual guidance for each athlete. “For the general circuits, I know people often don’t have weights they can use, so instead they can do front lunges holding two bags of sugar, for example. If they’ve got a garden they can do bounding and inside or outside they can do on/off step hops. They can do press-up dips off the back of a chair or a settee. I find out what they’ve got at home and make a tailored circuit for them. Whatever their situation, I make it competitive. It’s a way to keep the kids invigorated and for them to interact with each other and with me.”
COLIN’S advice and support for his group is as much about mental positivity as it is about physical fitness. “I do everything I can to get them to put what’s happening into perspective,” he said. “They’re highly unlikely to be affected by coronavirus. For them, this is just a blip. For others, it’s their livelihoods and it could be their lives. At a less serious level, I also remind them that most athletes in their career will have an injury that lasts a whole season, whereas at least they can keep training.”
One issue uppermost in the minds of many of COLIN’S senior athletes is exams. “There’s a lot of talk right now about what’s going to happen with GCSEs and A Levels. It can be the first time the kids are confronted with something like this,” said COLIN. “There’ll be some winners and there’ll be some losers and that is the reality. But through athletics, they learn how to manage disappointment. They go to a race and maybe they don’t win or they don’t get a PB. So, they learn how to put that right—how to make it better. That’s what they can do with exam results. The stories that inspire the most are the ones where people have got themselves through a tough period.”
Ultimately, COLIN is confident in his athletes’ ability to cope. “I understand why parents are worried, but children contextualise things differently,” he said. “They’re very resilient. Even if we have to go into lockdown, I will help them and we will come through this. It’s a defining moment for them and the only thing they can do is to train hard, because that will give them some release during what is a very difficult time. It’s the same for all of us—we have no alternative but to keep going. That’s the reality of it.”
TOM MCNAB – TOM has sent me a variety of articles and the first one titled ‘1906 Intercalated Olympics Games’ follows. TOM, a physical educationist, was National Athletics Coach from 1963 to 1978. His 5 Star Award Scheme reached 60 million children.
In 1981, he was Technical Director of the Oscar winning film, “Chariots of Fire” and a year later his first novel “Flanagan’s Run” reached number one in the best-seller lists.
During his long athletics career he has coached many of the UK’s top-class athletes such as GREG RUTHERFORD (GB Long Jump Record Holder) and SBH’s own CLAIRE SPURWAY (W35 2018 European Indoor Champion at 60m and 200m and W40 2019 World Indoor Champion at 60m), he has never lost his passion for teaching children and until recently was putting his ideas into action weekly at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre.
Tom lives in St Albans and is often seen at Allianz Park still coaching a range of athletes.
1906 THE INTERCALATED OLYMPIC GAMES – Many thanks to TOM for writing this article.
The Games Logo and Photographs were published on Wikipedia. The 3 images are 1 the Olympic Emblem, 2 the Panathinaiko Stadium and 3 the finish of the Marathon. The Games took place from 22 April to 2 May and was opened by King George 1st. There were 20 countries that participated, with 854 athletes of which 6 were Women. There were 12 sports and the Athletics featured 21 events, The Unites States topped the table with 21 medals and Great Britain were second with 8 medals. Some of winning results included 100m (11.2), 5 Mile Henry Hawtrey of GB (26:11.8), Marathon (2:51, 23.6), High Jump (1.775m), Shot (12.325m) and Discus (41.460m World Record).
There is ample precedent for the holding of the Summer Olympics outside the four year cycle. It occurred in 1906, the Intercalated Games.
Even as Baron Pierre de Coubertin was departing the stadium at the close of the 1896 Olympics, he was advised by the king of Greece that all future Olympics should be held in Athens. The story is that de Coubertin pretended that he had not heard what the king had said, and he set about preparing for the Paris Games of 1900.
But the Greeks were remorseless. And two dismal Olympics in Paris and St. Louis provided them with the momentum to propose to hold another Athens Games in 1906.
De Coubertin was helpless. The IOC did not own the Olympic Games, and indeed he had attended neither of the 1900 and 1904 celebrations. So the 1906 festival went ahead, in the same 1896 Averoff stadium, with its long straights and tight curves, where athletes ran clockwise round the soft cinder track.
This being said, in the Intercalated Games, featuring twenty nations, there was no longer any need to trawl the ships in Piraeus Harbour to seek competitors to fill lanes, and standards were much higher. For the first time athletes were registered by nation, there was an Athletes Village, and an opening march-past. And to conclude, there was an impressive closing ceremony, attended by six thousand Greek children. It looked as if Athens, for all its limitations, might well be the future home of the Games.
But the future of the Olympic Games was instead to lie in the capable hands of the man who had carried the Union Jack at the head of the British team, the fencer, Lord Grenfell Desborough. The next Olympics were scheduled for Rome, but the eruption of Vesuvius and its consequences caused Italy to withdraw. Desborough, based in his yacht the Branwen in Piraeus harbor, saw his chance and took it. He offered London to de Coubertin London as the venue for the 1908 Olympics, and the Baron gratefully accepted.
What the Baron could not possibly know was that Desborough’s presence at the Intercalated Games was to result in the transformation of the Olympic movement.
The three prior official Games and their Intercalated version had in no way represented an accurate expression of international sport. Desborough was absolutely determined that London would display the world of sport at its very best. He therefore went about badgering his aristocratic Masonic buddies for contributions, and even managed to get the Franco-British Exhibition to delay its London opening till 1908. And our MPs pitched in, to the tune of £30.
This resulted in the White City Stadium, capable of holding sixty thousand spectators. Why White City? Because the eccentric Hungarian architect Imre Kiralfi had insisted that every building in his Exhibition was white. Thankfully, this dictum was not applied to the Olympic stadium just down the road. This featured a three laps to the mile track, a 600 metre cycle track and a 100 metre swimming pool, but it was nevertheless called White City.
The 1908 Olympics was memorable, not simply because it lasted for 187 days, but because of the quality of the competition, and the intense sporting environment within which it was expressed. And because of incidents which would remain forever in the memory. Such as the little Italian marathon-runner Dorando Pietri, staggering into the boiling stadium in the lead, falling four times, and being carried by officials through the tape. The race had been scheduled for 26 miles, but another 385 yards had somehow appeared, and it was those few extra yards that finished poor Pietri, who was disqualified.
The drama of that race ensured that the 26 miles 385 yard distance would forever remain the official marathon-distance. But the 1908 Olympic Report has the distance as twenty six miles, so the mystery of the extra three hundred and eighty five yards remains. It is said that the race-start at Windsor Great Park, was moved back by this distance to enable the Royal children to witness the start, but the true explanation may well be more mundane. It is that officials had simply measured the twenty six miles to the stadium entry-gate, and the extra 385 yards took the athletes round the track to finish at the Royal Box. We will never really know.
The 1908 London Olympics were dramatic in a host of other ways, but unique in featuring a final in which there was only one runner, the Scot Lieut. William Halswelle. This was in the 400 metres, with no lanes, and Halswelle faced three Americans. One of them, Carpenter, was deemed to have blocked him in the home straight, and the race was declared void . The Americans refused a re-run, and Halswelle went on to clock fifty seconds , on his own.
The counterfactual. Without the Intercalated Games, the Vesuvius eruption and Lord Desborough, there would have been no 1908 London Olympics, and the Olympic movement might well have foundered. We will never know. As it was, the London Olympics, a chance product of the Intercalated Games, created the model for all future Olympic Games.
IMPROVISATION IS THE WAY FORWARD – With athletics confined to their homes around the world in a coronavirus lockdown, one French runner managed to run a full Marathon back and forth on his balcony despite it being only seven metres long.
ELISHA NOCHOMOVITZ wanted to show it’s possible to stay fit as the coronavirus containment measures kicked in and he also wanted to lighten the mood.
The 26.2 miles effort took him six hours and 48 minutes despite feeling nauseous and being worried about the stamping noise he was making above his neighbours rooms.
WHEN THIS IS ALL OVER – It has just been announced that as the World Cross Country Chamionships 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 Ocober 2020, European Trials are on 28 November and the European Championships in Dublin on 13 December.
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).
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
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 500 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