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MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL!

WISHING YOU ALL A VERY SUCCESSFUL AND ENJOYABLE 2010!

KATHARINE, LINFORD & DARREN

Hi all.

Well what a busy summer it has been.

One of our highlights, as always, is doing the STREET ATHLETICS.

On Saturday we had a great time at the National Final, which was in Manchester for the 5th year running.

Seeing so many kids having fun and getting the opportunity to be involved in racing on the streets is a pleasure for me and Darren to see. This was our dream when we set this up 5 years ago and every year we still get the same amount of enjoyment and pleasure doing it. Hard work, yes. Worth it, you bet!

The full results from the final are on the street athletics website, so a big well done to all those who took part in the Street Athletics this year. 20 regional heats and 11 cities and towns were represented in the final on Saturday.

Also if you went along and got involved in the Street Athletics Coaching Community Day’s with Katharine and Les, then well done too! We hoped you picked up some good tips!

Big up all the helpers, supporters and sponsors of the event including Sony and Nike, I think this year has to be our biggest and best yet.

Katharine MC’d the event and she was kept busy, but everyone had fun, so thanks again to all those involved. See you on the streets in 2010!

Best wishes

Linford & Darren

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