posted Sep 1, 2008

I dont agree.In events where we dominated the world ie middle distance the strength in depth was awesome. 3 0f the top 4 in the 79 world rankings at 1500, right through the age groups there was massive depth, boys running times then that would place them further up the rankings in the age groups now than then.

GB simultaneously held the world records for 800m, 1000m, 1500m, 2000m, 2miles 5000m and just to show strength in depth 4x800m relay. We also regularly finished second to the USA at 4x400m etc

We had longer distance runners medaling....It comes to something when you get to the games running 2hrs 15 for a marathon! like today.

We had Olympic finalists in the sprints at this time too. Technical events are where we struggled then although we still had Otley and Sanderson, oh yeah and Connor and we're hardly displaying world beaters now are we.

Frankly it would be interesting to do comparrisons on where our best 5 performers in any event ranked now in the world and how they ranked then ,.... I think there may be a few red faces on that one.

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posted Sep 1, 2008

A change of attitude is needed by the athletes just as much as a change of "leader"
Phillips Idowu is a good example- he clearly wasn't interested in performing yesterday but collected his money for appearing did 4 jumps and quit the competition early. No thought for the fans who tuned up to see him, no loyalty to the sport, no repaying some of the funding he had been given through all those years when he couldn't even hit the board in big events.
Asafa Powell managed to give the crowd a big committed performance in the rain. Pity Phillips couldn't do the same. Instead his was just the self centred approach that is so typical of many of our so called stars- contrast that with the cyclsts and rowers and you start to see the difference between a profesional "professional" and an amateur "professional.

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posted Sep 1, 2008

Mancspur said: "Good call to 'sign' Mason though - taking a lesson from Bahrain and Qatar clearly!"

If only we were willing to learn lessons from the likes of Qatar! Their policy of 'signing' big names is not short term thinking nor (as in UKA's case) is it fortunate coincidence.

Qatar are very serious about becoming one of Asia's athletics powers and underneath the 'shop window' they now have they have created a proper development structure which includes a taste of athletics for every school child in the country and dedicated talent id at two ages.

They have focused on building a system which is planned from bottom to top and top to bottom. UKA please take note.

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posted Sep 1, 2008

If 2012 goal is about medals, then import some Jamicans.

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posted Sep 2, 2008

I agree about Idowu, should be thouroughly ashamed of himself at Gateshead. Symptomatic of his whole attitude to the sport - if it's not going well dont try harder just sulk and give up. Saw him being interviewed in Beijing and Colin Jackson was trying to help him and give him advice - he turned round and said "its going in 1 ear and out the other"- another reasn why he wont win anything of importance.

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posted Sep 3, 2008

We need a head coach with the means, resources and desire to respect, listen to and support volunteer professional coaches. Somebody who will consult with us coaches, face to face, and keep up the support for years.(it takes me approx' 7 years to raise a young Pole Vaulter from Yr 7 to national standards). Coaches who have a number of athletes improving up the Power of 10 UK Rankings and a proven record of achieving results over past and present years should be meaningfully asked for a requisition list for help with apparatus and equipment and tangible rewards for their athletes. Put resources our way,within weeks of requesting them instead of nothing happening at all. Don't take ages until we all get fed up!.

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posted Sep 3, 2008

mikesiva (U2435266)
Germaine Mason got his silver medal for the UK by training with MVP, the Jamaican-based training squad run by Stephen Francis. He was prepared to give up Lottery funding to increase his chances of getting a medal.
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He may be in Jamaica now(?) but I only find references to his being coached by Sue Humphrey in Texas, and that's going back at least a couple of years. He retained lottery funding, wherever he's been spending his time.
http://www.usatf.org/events/2004/OlympicGames/staff/Humphrey_Sue.asp

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posted Sep 4, 2008

Here's the story....

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/athletics/article4640658.ece

'Mason is coached in Kingston at the MVP (Maximising Velocity and Power) centre by Stephen Francis, whose routine is so demanding and successful that this athlete with a thick Jamaican accent chuckles when he describes the end of a day’s session. “After that, you are knackered,” he says. “That’s a British term.” '

And....

"A lot of other coaches can learn from what he has done. Not all athletes can adjust to that type of training but he has done a great job. Not being on lottery funding hurt me a bit but that is part of the sport. I made that sacrifice to train with Stephen Francis and it paid off big time."

Now, the Guardian reports that they may do a deal with Usain Bolt's coach, Glen Mills, to send prospective British athletes to Jamaica to train....

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posted Sep 14, 2008

UK Athletics (UKA) claimed a telling hand in Mason's success, but the truth is that Mason owes most to Stephen Francis, one of Jamaica's pre-eminent coaches, and he was shorn of his lottery funding last year. Mason spends half the year in Kingston and, while Fuzz Ahmed has polished him in London, his is a Jamaican story.
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I was willing to sacrifice the money to go to Jamaica. I'm not bitter they cut me. I was grateful to have had the lottery money in the first place.”

UKA wants to use Jamaican coaches such as Francis and Glen Mills, Bolt's guru, and Mason is their spy in the camp. “Stephen is like a dictator. I do the same conditioning as the sprinters and I've been throwing up while he's there saying, 'Get up!' He pushes us to the limit and beyond. People may be suspicious of Jamaica, but Stephen told us there are two ways, 'You can do it through hard work and beat the athletes on drugs or you can take the drugs.' Stephen does not give his athletes drugs and Jamaicans believe in hard work.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/athletics/article4743801.ece

Traditionally, agents for the American colleges have swarmed round The Champs, offering sports scholarships to their favourites. However, in 1999, Stephen Francis, a coach at one of the leading Kingston high schools, felt that Jamaicans were not maximising their potential abroad, so he decided to try to develop them at home.

Thus he began MVP – “maximising velocity and power” - although the against-the-odds nature of the project was twisted further by the apparent antipathy of the Jamaican athletics federation. “The view was that Jamaican coaches and management could not take athletes beyond high school,” James said. “We were told that we would not succeed.” So MVP was denied access to the cream of The Champs and had to work instead with the likes of Powell – he reached a Champs final only once, and false-started – and Sherone Simpson, who also failed to win the Champs, but did claim an Olympic silver medal in the 100 metres in Beijing.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/athletics/article4736063.ece

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posted Sep 14, 2008

Note: the wikipedia link is out-dated.
It's actually first Stephen Francis and MVP in Jamaica. Then Sue Humphrey in Texas. Now back to Stephen Francis and MVP in Jamaica.
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"I spend six months of the year in Jamaica, training with Stephen Francis, and I come back to Europe to do the European circuit," he said. Twelve months ago his form was so disappointing because of injury that he was taken off the UK Athletics world-class lottery funding. It was one of the driving forces he needed to produce the best performance of his career here last night. "It made a big difference," said Mason. "That [no funding] is one of the things that motivated me to come out here and do my best. Track and field is not a sport that pays a lot. It was very tough. But I am here, a silver medallist."
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A year before that he was in the Jamaican team at the world junior championships in Kingston, where Bolt burst on to the international scene when he became the youngest winner of the 200m. Mason jumped to bronze on that occasion and he recalled:

"Usain and I competed at a lot of Games together when I was competing for Jamaica. We are good friends. He gave me a pat on the back [tonight] and he told me well done."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/aug/20/olympics2008.olympicsathletics2


“I grew up in a middle-class part of Kingston, but you are still exposed to the violence,” Mason, 25, said. “I was a teenager when a friend was robbed and killed. Another good friend got into a fight and accidentally killed a guy. He went to jail and I write him letters. When I went to the world juniors in 2000, I realised I wanted to be part of that and I stopped hanging out with the gangs.”

With his parents separated, Mason was brought up by his grandmother and joined Francis's now fabled MVP club in Kingston. He won a bronze medal at the World Indoor Championships in 2004, became close friends with Asafa Powell, the former
100metres world record-holder, and the future seemed bright. Then he ruptured his patella tendon, fell out with Francis and was forced to pay close to $20,000 (about £11,400) for a career-saving operation in Miami. “Stephen Francis was not giving me the attention I needed because Asafa had just broken the record,” Mason said. “I looked on the internet and found out 90 per cent of people never come back from this injury. Some can't even walk right. I could not walk for months, but had the surgery and started training with Sue Humphrey in Texas.”

It was the break with Francis that convinced him to compete for Great Britain. His father is from Tottenham, his Jamaican mother lives in Acton and his brother holds the Ealing schools 100metres record. Humphrey sent him his training schedules, but injuries dogged him and you sense he is being diplomatic about his treatment by UKA. Having returned to Francis, he said: “I had a real bad injury, my hamstring and lower back, and they [UKA] said I should stay in Britain. I said I would not make that decision in Olympic year. I was willing to sacrifice the money to go to Jamaica. I'm not bitter they cut me. I was grateful to have had the lottery money in the first place.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/athletics/article4743801.ece

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