North Wales Athletes added to Welsh Academy

• Posted by Matthew Jones at 1:50 PM | add or read comments (0)

Two of North Wales finest young Athletes have been rewarded for their excellent perfomances over the last couple of years by being recruited to the 'Welsh Talent Development Academy'.
Christina Hughes, from Mold is a Pole Valult and Hurdles specialist, while Rachel Johncock, also based in Mold, is a talented Sprinter. (See Athlete profiles below)
The WTDA is a Welsh Athletics set up designed to help catapult talented athletes with developmental potential to the top. It is a new initiative, which is now made up of 14 athletes in total. The new apprentices are set to benefit from expert coaching, injury support as well as a performance managed budget which can help with the costs of training and competing in domestic and international fixtures. They join current member Faye Harding on the Academy books. Faye, who began her training at Wrexham AC is a World University Games 400m runner.
This successful Academy scheme has been heralded by Britain's top 400m man Tim Benjamin. The 2008 Beijing Olympic hopeful explained, “We have a vast array of talent in this country and the Talent Development Academy will assist youngsters coming through. It is vital that athletes gain access to top coaching and sports science so I’m glad to see that the future of Welsh athletics is receiving the necessary support.”
Below are Athlete profiles of the two new recruits to the Welsh Talent Development Academy.

NAME: CHRISTINA HUGHES
FROM: Mold, Flintshire
D.O.B: 14/12/91
DISCIPLINE: Pole vault and sprint hurdles
CLUB: Deeside Athletic AC
COACH: Denise Harris (Pole Vault) and Ivor Sayer (Hurdles)

Hughes was encouraged in primary school to take part in athletics through the Sports Council for Wales’ Dragon Sport programme. Having spotted her talent, she was invited to Deeside Athletics Club when she was 11.

She had always loved watching athletics on the television and, having represented North Wales in gymnastics, was spurred on by the fact that pole vaulters are very often ex-gymnasts.

Citing Yelena Isynbyaeva and Colin Jackson as her role models (“because they have achieved levels in their sport that have never been achieved by any other person”), her career highlights to date are representing Wales and finished second in the Celtic Games in 2007.

She would now like to pull on the Welsh vest at the Commonwealth Games and would love to compete in London 2012.

NAME: RACHEL JOHNCOCK
FROM: Dolwyddelan, Conwy
D.O.B: 04/10/93
DISCIPLINE: 100m and 200m
CLUB: Colwyn Bay AC
COACH: Phil Oliver / Simon Pendlebury

Rachel Johncock is a rock climber-turned-sprinter. Having competed on the cliff face, she turned her attentions to the track.

She is from a sporting family – in fact her grandfather ran the 220 yards for Scotland.

Her role model is Lance Armstrong for his ultimate determination and her sprinting technique was once compared to that of Michael Johnson.

Over three years, she has garnered eight gold medals. She is now dreaming of Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games.

When she is not competing or training, she likes to relax by cycling or hill-walking.

A great award for a truly great runner

• Posted by Matthew Jones at 10:48 AM | add or read comments (1)

I was delighted to hear today that former World record holder for the Marathon, Steve Jones, who is a friend of mine has been added to the newly created 'Welsh Hall of Fame'.
Im sure a lot of you will remember Steve, but for those who may not he broke the World record for the Marathon in 1984, in Chicago, where he ran an unbelievable time of 2hours, 8 minutes.
A year later he went onto win the London Marathon, and also run a career best time of 2 hours, 7 minutes, again on his favourite course in Chicago.
I met Steve a few years ago when I had the opportunity to train out in Colorado for a period of time. He lives, trains and coaches out there full time now, in the city of Boulder, near Denver. When Steve was at the peak of his training and racing career, he would make the jouney from Wales to Colorado twice a year to train at high altitudes. Having spent some time training with Steve in Colorado it was clear from the start why he made it to the top in the sport of running. His dedication, desire and work ethic was evident as soon as I met him. I was lucky to beable to train with his current crop of runners out in Boulder, and found out first hand the training routines that Steve himself did as an athlete, and also what he is coaching to some of Americas finest young athletes. A typical days training would begin at 6:30am, where the group would assemble for a 30 minute run. Following a period of warm up exercises, the main session of the day started promptly at 7:15am. This was usually an Interval session such as 4 by 5 minutes with 2 minutes recovery or 6 by 800m on the track with only 1 minute recovery.
The workout would be completed with another steady run of about 20 minutes. We would finish the morning training by about 8am and then meet again in the evening for the days second session. This would either be a light 5 mile run or a Weights session. All this training was done at high altitudes in Colorado, which you can imagine makes the work out twice as hard as training here in Wales at sea level. Steve talks fondly of his time racing up in North Wales in such events as the Welsh Cross Country Championships, so it is good that someone who is part of the history of Welsh athletics has been given this highly respected award.