Welcome to EliteBlog

Hi all

We all here at Elitementor.com are hoping you are enjoying the athletics so far in 2009.

I can’t believe the Aviva National trials are only a couple of weeks away when the athletes will battle it out for World Champs places.

Things have been busy for us all, in different ways!

Linford continues his coaching and only last weekend was pleased with his charges performances at the 1st European Team Championships. The likes of Laura Turner, Tim Benjamin and Conrad Williams put in good performances.

I really enjoyed seeing Tim back in his flow! So many problems over the last few years, how sweet was that victory in Portugal? Well done Tim.

Also seeing Mark Lewis Francis back competing is encouraging. Having suffered with achilles problems and operations myself,  it is great to see my fellow Birchfield Harrier with his spikes on again. The trials on his home track in Brum may come around a little too soon after his recent problems, but I know is enjoying his running and training with group. You are assured of many things when you train under Linford, good advice, coaching and a great laugh with plenty of banter!

So this weekend I will be in Bedford in my UKA Aviva mentoring role for the Aviva U20 and U23 Championships. Busy year as usual for all athletes, the U20 European Juniors in Serbia and the U23 Champs in Kaunas. Many junior athletes are in the top 3 rankings for this season.

Darren is still plastered up in his knee high cast after 95% tearing his achilles tendon playing in a charity football match a few weeks ago. He gets through his athletic career pretty well unscathed and after a couple of goals mid way through the 2nd half….pop…..he is down and out! I know his schedule has been thrown all over the place as he can’t drive, but does continue to support his teamsuperschools and only today was awaiting his lift to get home to Wales from London!

The day after the injury though he was in attendance at Ashia Hansen’s wedding, so there is dedication for you! BTW…it was a beautiful sunny day in Caverswall Castle that saw Ashia and Paul get married and announce their forthcoming child. To my bestest friend in athletics…well done, surely one of her best performances yet!

So until next time, I will continue my busy schedule with 5live, blogging and chatting for them, Darren will continue to count down the days until he gets his cast removed and Linford will keep the training and banter alive for some of his hopeful Berlin bound athletes!

Cheers

Katharine x

The indoors has flown by and all 3 of us and now in some heavy work loads!

Linford is currently working hard with his group in San Diego, getting some good training in.

Christian Malcolm, Mark Lewis Francis and Tim Benjamin have been slogging it out in the heat for 4 weeks now, and Linford tells me all is well, and all 3 guys are hungry and looking forward to the season. It’s great as I get to keep in touch more with Linford when is away than when he is here in the UK! The instant messaging on computers now a days keeps the world connected!

I spoke to my friend Anyika Onuora this morning just before she jumped on plane with her group to LA for 6 weeks. Coach Lloyd Cowan and training mate Christine Ohuruogo are really excited about getting a good block of training in before the season starts. Maybe a few races from them whilst over there as well, so hopefully they can return to the UK lean mean and ready in 6 weeks!

Darren is as busy as ever with his teamsuperschools. The team superschools challenge is to visit 2012 schools by the 2012 games. They are well ahead of there target already. Check out the website: www.teamsuperschools.co.uk

I continue to be busy with my media work, having now started a blog for the BBC. This is great and interesting. Next one coming soon!

I had great fun this week on the monthly BBC 5Live ‘London Calling’ programme. Our monthly programme in the lead up to London 2012 discussing all things Olympics.

Myself and Steve Parry, and host Arlo White were this month joined by Daley Thompson. Always good for a laugh, we did have a giggle with Chris Hoy and Jessica Ennis in between ribbing Steve about his weight. I must state though there is nothing wrong with Steves weight he has lost 1 1/2 stone since Xmas! He does like to nibble on alot of sandwiches though!

So lots of changes in the pipeline for UKA, but I continue with my UKA Aviva consulting role. The junior athletes had some good performances indoors and with major championships for them this year, we are all excited. Lets hope some of the good indoor performances can be taken outdoors. I still maintain of all the work I do now, working with the youngsters is the most rewarding.

 I hope all is well with all of you, best wishes are sent from Linford in San Diego and Darren from the M5!

 Katharine

 A belated Happy New Year to everyone.

Already, as we all know, the year is flying by and the Indoor athletics season is in full flow.

I am happy to say my group of athletes have been digging in and training hard this winter. A few of the guys have stepped on the track and recorded some good times so far, which gives them confidence early in the year.

Soon myself and the group are off overseas for a spell of warm weather training. It is great for the body and mind after the cold of the winter months. Waking up to sunshine and having warmth on your back really can set you up for the season.

Being competitive I still jump in with guys and do a bit of training, even with age, I can’t let the the youngsters have it all their own way!

I hope the year for you is going as you want.

Best wishes

Linford

WISHING YOU ALL A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

FROM ……  ELITEMENTOR.COM

Hi there

No doubt we are all doing the same thing…….rushing around getting ready for Christmas and wondering who will win the 2008 BBC Sports Personality of the Year on the 14th December in Liverpool!

I mentioned it in the last eliteblog and my top 3 haven’t changed of Adlington, Hoy and Hamilton, but the order moves around abit!! How about you?

I was at the Midland BBC SPOTY year on Sunday where Young Paralympian Ellie Simmons picked up the main award, and having chatted to many friends and fellow athletes the most vocal about “having an Olympian win” the big award next week was Kelly Sotherton. She is really wanting to see an Olympian like Hoy or Adlington lift the trophy. It would be nice to see, but will the votes go that way?

I am working with 5Live so am very much looking forward to the evening. It is the strongest line up I can ever remember. What is nice though is that every athlete knows what a great honour it is to be nominated and how cool is would be to win! Being voted for by the British public to be the winner would be a huge honour.

So the countdown continues and I am sure that literally this year every vote will count as it will be a close run thing.

Best wishes for continuing preparation for Christmas too!

Katharine

Hi all

Well it’s not as busy as the summer, but it is still a busy time of year!

The awards season it fully up and running and I am looking forward to hosting the UKA Awards Dinner in Birmingham again on the 29th November. It’s a great night when so many deserving people in T&F get rewarded. Come and join us at The National Motorcycle Museum in Brum for a cracking night supported by Heidsieck & Co Monopole Champagne. Check out the UKA website for details.

The BBC Sports Personality of the Year is also coming up in December, where this year I will be working on, and what a tough choice that is this year. Being a big Olympic fan, obviously, then the feats of Chris Hoy and Rebecca Addlington for instance can’t go unnoticed. Maybe TEAM GB will pick up the team award this year?

But as a big sports fan, and because he made me jump up and down on the sofa like a 5 year old, Lewis Hamilton winning the Formula One’s drivers title with so much excitement in Brazil has too be in with a big big shout.

Talking of awards season, it came to my attention this week that up north in Yorkshire Warburton’s, in association with Prostar, are looking for Yorkshire’s Favourite Coach.

Let’s get the word out for this award! Now, any coach from any sport can be nominated, so they want to hear from you about all those hard working coaches who do so much great work.

Prizes are up for grabs, so if you would like to nominate your favourite grassroots sports coach write to Lindsey Hanson at   Lindsey@greencomms.com   or ‘Search for Yorkshire’s favourite coach’, c/o GREEN Communications, 19 King Street, Wakefield, WF1 2SQ.   

Great stuff. So I will continue to dust down the party dresses and continue to enjoy this awards season. I’m off up to Gateshead this weekend to present The Gateshead International Cross Country event for Sky….last year I got soaked with rain and didn’t dry out for about a week! But I suspose that is what cross country running is all about hey!?

Best wishes

Katharine

 Hi all

Well as usual I am a busy, and I love it. I have alot going on that is keeping me busy, and in particular TEAM SUPERSCHOOLS.

Check out the website  www.teamsuperschools.co.uk to get all the information, but this is a great concept I run with former Olympic medalist Todd Bennett where we go into schools and take a sporting celebrity, do some simple exercises and raise money for the school. So simple, but very effective in raising money for the school and inspiring the kids.

We had our full launch a couple of weeks ago, when announcing The Paper Company was coming on board as a sponsor, and we had myself and Todd with Christine Ohuruogo, Ashia Hansen, Christian Malcolm and Katharine amongst others help launch our 2012 mission!

This is to take TSS into 2012 schools by the 2012 games in London……check out the above web address for more info. We could even come to your school!

All else is great as I dash around between media stuff, spending time with my family, and basically enjoying all I do.

Best wishes

Darren.

Well we are all back from the Far East after what was a superb Olympic Games.

China hosted a wonderful 29th Olympiad!

All 3 of us worked long hours but throughly enjoyed the experience of working in the media.

So what was our highlight of the Games.? We all agree that both Michael Phelps and Usian Bolt was great, and of course we are all biased to track and field, so being in the Birds Nest Stadium to see Mr Bolt win 3 golds medals and break 3 World Records was very special.

We all hope you enjoyed the Games as much as we did. Seeing TeamGB do so well and finish 4th in the medal table was exceptional. Well done eveyone who played their part.

So back to reality and for us the athletic season is nearly over, just a couple more things to do with athletics for 2008.

Best wishes

Kath, Darren and Linford

Hi there.

Well the Olympics have come around, and myself Linford and Darren are heading to the Far East for the Games.

We will all be working for the media, myself and Darren for BBC 5Live.

I am very much looking forward to the Games, as this will be my first one on the other side of the fence in the media world, having attended a couple as an athlete!

In my 5Live remit I am working on Athletics, Modern Penthatlon and Triathlon. I feel we have a great chance of TeamGB medals in all those events.

Please bear with us in regards of answering questions for the next 3 weeks, as the Olympics will take over all our time, but we will be on the case after the Games!

Enjoy the Games, and hopefully it will be a very good one for all concerned.

Katharine

 Hi all

As the Olympic Games race nearer and nearer the usual confidence boosting stories and frustrating stories come thick and fast.

With the athletic season now up and running I have been excited already by Usain Bolts fantastic new world record, but saddened by Jessica Ennis having to withdraw from the games due to injury.

As with life, when something good happens like Bolt’s 9.72s run, the good and bad balance in the world is kept by the bad news of Jessica Ennis withdrawing from the heptathlon.

I feel so much for Jess who was heading to her first games in great shape, and looking to build on her 4th place in last years World Champs.  It brings back memories for me of 2001 when I was number one in the World over 400m, and I had to make the sad decision to withdraw from the World Champs 3 weeks before it started due to injury. Argggghhhhhh…bad times!

There is nothing that anyone can say to Jess, she will cope with it in her own way. She knows how talented she is, and how wide open the event is this year with the defending champion Carolina Kluft out, but at 22 years old, she will be back and be able to fight for 2012 and 2016 gold.

She is an adorable girl, great athlete and hopefully the last British medal hope that we will lose. On that note, fingers crossed for Paula Radcliffe who is battling her own injuries to reach the Games. 1 sentence on Paula…” If anyone can, Paula can! ”

Back to the young Usain Bolt though, and a great round of applause for a truly great run. I have watched the race. He started well and was gone! I believe the new 6ft 5 inch world record holder can reduce the record further. He was simply outstanding. He is the not only the youngest ever world 100m record holder but also the tallest! Many say he could become the new Micheal Johnson….I believe he has the talent to become maybe the best combination sprinter EVER…over 100m,200m and 400m. He is that good.

It is nice as in recent times the sport of Athletics has had a great big black cloud over it with all the drugs issues, and how refreshing it is to see a young man of 21 continuing to improve. I remember when his name was first mentioned 6 years ago when he won the World Junior 200m title at 15 yrs old, then in 2004 smashed the World Junior 200m record becoming the first man under 20 years old to run under 20sec, 19.93s.

Many may dismiss this performance and raise the question about drugs….the sport has been hurt alot and the public question every great athletic performance, but as I said on BBC 1Xtra today….Look at where the athlete has come from, look at the development and his rise over the years. This leads us all in athletics to believe and shows that it can be done by talent and hard work. It has been done before, and will be done again.

I believe the likes of him have the opportunity to really get Athletics back on the map, and I am looking forward already to more clashes with him, former World record holder Asafa Powell and World Champion Tyson Gay. Gay must have thought he only had Powell to deal with over 100m this season, but running a personal best of 9.85s himself in New York over the weekend and still getting beat by Bolt, he now realises loud and clear that Jamaica has 2 forces for him to handle!

Personally I am enjoying the busy year, working with BBC 5Live is great fun. Our ‘Road to Beijing’ monthly shows are really enjoyable, we pack in so much to the couple of hours and its really firing up my excitement at going to Beijing and working.

Best wishes

Katharine