Today I visited an athletics camp for promising young endurance athletes at St Mary’s College in Twickenham. The camp is organised by UK Athletics and funded by the London Marathon.
It was set up in 2004 with the aim of providing the opportunity to enjoy the experience of a training camp whilst gaining a valuable insight into what is required to progress to World Class Performance.
It was really nice to spend a bit of time at the sharp end of Olympic project management and to remind myself what the project is really all about - young sporting talent. And a more eager group of aspiring endurance athletes I could not have hoped to have met than the group today.
They were motivated, excited by a Games in their back yard, lively and hungry for knowledge – all asking very good questions. And their coaches were of the highest calibre.
They had all been there for a few days and had participated in a number of lectures and seminars dealing with a wide range of issues, including lifestyle, injury prevention, training volumes and workloads and nutritional advice, in addition to their normal training sessions.
Many of the group were recent competitors in the English School Championships in Birmingham - such an important first step in the process of identifying tomorrow’s champions. If I ever needed reminding why we went to Singapore, it is days like this.
