Micky Kelly, who competed in the Peel Road Races last Summer is one of three Manx rowers in the British team at the World Indoor Championships in Boston this weekend. They are sponsored by AXA PPP healthcare.

Athletics team manager for the Island Games, Martin Bullock, has arranged a meeting for all athletes who wish to be considered for the Island Games. They should go to the Cronkbourne Cricket Club at 8 pm on Monday 24 February. Initial arrangements for Guernsey will be discussed together with the selection policy, funding and other matters.

Rachel Kelly, Michelle Greaves and Sarah Dowling travel to the Birmingham Indoor Games this weekend with Di and Bernie Shimell. Sarah, 22 will be competing in the 60 and 200 metres; 17 year old Rachel will be in action in the 400 metres and 800 metres; while 16 year old Michelle will be competing in the 60 metres hurdles and 300 metres.

Additional competitors in the Steam Packet walks are 10 top ranked Jill Hesketh and London based South African Estelle Viljoen.

There was a very small entry at last Sunday's Ramsey Bakery sponsored cross country league. Lawrence Dyer was the only senior man although there were six veterans headed by Allan Corran. Rose Hooton continued her winning ways ahead of Christine Barwell in the women's race.

When he takes up his new appointment as second Deemster next moth he will have the address "Deemsters Walk". As one of our senior enforcers of the law then surely he cannot go against such an instruction and do anymore running can he?

Peter Kaneen ran an amusing series of stories on the forum last year about things that happen at inappropriate times. Well here is one from me (it turned into two by the time I finished).

I've lost count of the number of times I've written about athletes during the past year who are recovering from one cold or virus after another and I've gone a whole year without one.

On Tuesday, 50 days and 13 or so physio sessions after having an accident that put me out of action, my physio agreed that I could start doing some very gentle exercise, although my knee is still not completely better.  On the same day I developed a sore throat and needless to say I've been dosing myself with Lemsip (please don't drug test me!!) ever since and not been fit to jog.

Actually I'll extend my Kaneen's law a bit further to another theme that will be familiar with all athletes -its always just when things seem to being going well that you come down to earth with a bang.

Throughout the whole of last year I went from my injury to another. It wrecked my marathon and then I raced my way through the early Summer only to miss another six weeks with an achilles injury. But then I managed to train at least twice a week (Saturday and Wednesday) for 14 weeks in a row and my form was coming on. My average mileage per week had reached the dizzy heights of 17 per week and the 34 and 46 in the last two weeks of December were my highest for about 18 months. I missed the Millennium Way Relay and thought I would be reaching a mini peak for the Lancs Cross Country.  And then one stupid mistake!!

More Lemsip coming up!

Just time to mention an outstanding exercise Steve Taylor has completed to bring all the Island's walking records up to date. Watch this space.  I'll shortly be publishing Caroline Brand masterpiece as well. She has brought the rest of the athletics records up to date.

Just to let you know that I'm also off to Glasgow this weekend where I will be competing in the Long and Triple Jumps, and have given up on the hurdles experiment as it will be too much. I was disappointed to not achieve the Island Games standard last season for the Long Jump so i hope to be sailing well over 6.50m on the Saturday to put me in good shape for a big outdoor season. Also hope to compete in Manchester at the end of March depending on commitments.

Also could you ask anyone on the site (here goes) if they know much about lactose/lactate levels after performance? I've been helping a student with her sports science dissertation recently which involves 4x15 minutes of running based on differing VO2 max percentages with 3minutes between, following another run until exhausted. I was informed my lactate levels were abnormally high at around 9 following the last run, does anyone know if levels such as these are dangerous. Still, its getting me a hell of a lot fitter at least!

A big congratulations to all those pre-selected for the Games, i hope to be booking my place by early May at the very latest!

kanu_24@hotmail.com

With effect from Friday 21st February 2003, the new address for

david.griffiths@manx.net

Word version

Pdf version

"You ought to get out more" is a saying that has been thrown at me more than at some.  The saddest thing is that when I do I always seem to be thinking about who I can write about on the website!

So when I attended Deloitte & Touche's breakfast budget briefing at the Mount Murray Hotel this morning I felt sure I would come back with a few stories.

D & T's partner, Peter Vanderpump has taken part in both the Parish Walk and the London Marathon so inevitably I started my conversation with him with "are you running in London this year". He is not but his daughter Kathryn (sorry I've not checked spelling) is running it for the fourth time and his son William is joining her this year. They both live in London but were brought up in the Isle of Man.

I got a chance to congratulate twice Parish Walk finisher David Doyle on his appointment as Second Deemster but failed with my attempt to wind him up by telling him that the Parish Walk was being switched to Tynwald Day (he wouldn't be able to take part if that was the case!).

Colin Bowen was as enthusiastic as ever about his running although he says that at the age of 59 he has no desire to run marathons anymore. Half marathons are long enough now he says. I didn't realise that he has done quite a bit of karate although he has given this up now as well.

The most tenuous link to athletics is with another man I took the opportunity to congratulate on his fairly recent promotion to chief financial officer with the government. Mark Shimmin was a good friend of mine at school and we both had some ambition (as did many of our mates) to be rock musicians. On a few occasions during the summer when we were in the 6th form and I had passed my test I used to double my trip from Kirk Michael to run in Manx AC's Track & Field meetings at Ballakermeen with some guitar practice at Mark's house just a stone's throw away from where I am now, in Tennis Road. Even though I finished well behind Dave Newton and Paul Bawden in the 1500 metres that Summer at least I wasn't a total no hoper as I was playing and singing from the Lindisfarne songbook with Mark. So perhaps if we had been better musicians I wouldn't have stayed involved with athletics for all these years and be writing this website tonight. Mind you this story has just prompted to play a Lindisfarne CD recorded 30 years ago at the BBC.

Mark is a brother of Minster for Transport (John) while their other brother (Paul) runs an accountancy firm (Shimmin Wilson) who sponsor the Manx Hockey League.

I know that a lot of people (like me) check the forum regularly even if they don't write much. No doubt they will have noticed that it is playing up today. I've had problems in the past and it has usually come back so I won't do anything about it just yet.

A party of 8 Manx Harriers athletes travel to London this weekend to compete in the English National Cross-Country championships. The championships return to what for many is the premier cross country course in Britain – Parliament Hill Fields which forms part of Hampstead Heath.

The course is renowned as being muddy and undulating so should be a real test. The first 400m or so are uphill with Central London forming a spectacular backdrop.

"The National" really is a race like no other. Whilst the numbers are not what they were at their peaks in the late 1980s, it is still a unique event which everyone should try at least once in their career.

Whilst big road races like the London Marathon and Great North Run attract much bigger fields, the National is distinguished by the vast majority of the runners being of at least a good club standard. This tends to make it highly competitive whatever position you are in the race. Add in the team race and this gives everyone an even sharper edge. At its peak there should be well over one hundred finishers per minute!

First in action on Saturday, hoping to improve on his 21^st place in the recent Inter-Counties race, will be Keith Gerrard in the under 17s class. Hopefully, he will have benefited from that experience and will be keen to make amends for what he saw as a disappointing run. The muddier conditions may well suit Keith’s slight frame.

With some 2000 runners contesting the senior men’s race, Ken Livingstone might want to think about extending his congestion charge to Parliament Hill Fields on Saturday! Expect a real charge up the first hill as the course narrows from about 300m to 30m in the first 400 metres or so.

Those intending to start are:

Paul Clarke

Gianni Epifani

Andy Fox

Chris Quine

Mark Preston

Darren Gray

Glenn Butterworth.

It should be a real battle between Paul Clarke and Gianni Epifani for the honour of being first Manxman home. In a quality field, however, they will do well to finish in the first 150 home.

Graham Davies has admitted that Paul Clarke was missed from the pre-selection list and has now been added. He achieved the qualifying time in the Half Marathon at Ramsey last year.

Congratulations to Paul. Although he has not been to every Island Games, he competed as far back as 1985. Doesn't that make you feel old Paul?!

Chris would like to publicly thank Alistair Audsley at Solus Stategic for assisting him with his travel costs to the northern indoors and the BUSA champs.

W/c 27th January 2003 – 22weeks

W/c 3rd February 2003 – 21 weeks

W/c 10th February 2003 – 20 weeks

I’ve had three really good weeks, which have largely been coincidental with a good run of weather. I’m feeling a lot stronger on the longer reps sessions of 800m and more. I may venture back down the Prom in the near future to do a hard effort of 6x 3min on / 1min off which is a really good test session.

At this time of year I’m trying to build up my aerobic capacity. The aerobic capacity works best if I focus on intervals rather than pounding out miles and miles. I seem to get the most benefit from 4-6 reps of between 800m and 1200m at something near 3k race pace. As with 2001, the Easter Festival road races will prove a useful test to see how I’ve wintered. My gym work has also been going well and I’ve been doing a lot of abdominal / core stability work and trying to strengthen the lower back area which gave me problems last year. I may go to see an osteopath just to check everything is OK there.

Based on how my few speedwork sessions have been going, I’m thinking about having a run at the Manchester indoor meeting at the end of March. I’ve introduced a bit more speedwork over the last few weeks and will try and do at least a session a week until the end of May. I’ll then go onto the trusted June routine of two speed sessions / races / time trials, two speed endurance / lactic sessions and two recovery runs.

Finally, I’m pleased to have been pre-selected for the Manx team for Guernsey despite the disappointment of last year. I’m looking forward to the challenge more than ever and I really want to keep hold of my titles, although I think I’ll have to run close to 48 flat and 1:52 to do the double again.  One of the things that has most definitely changed about the Games is the availability of other Islands’ race results (and diaries like this), which lets everyone know who is doing what. Mind you, last time my SB’s going into the Games were 50.6 and 1:57.5 so don’t believe all you read…..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/talent/borntowin/index.shtml

A second training run will take place next Sunday 23rd Feb. over the Snaefell course. Ten turned up last Sunday including a few newcomers who were able to have a look over the 5 miles course at a easy pace ( although by crikey it was cold ). Same arrangements next week, either start from Windy Corner at 9.00am or 9.15 at the Bungalow.

Completing a bumper 24 hours of contributions (gosh it would be easy if it was like this all the time!), Steve Parkinson has emailed the results of the above to add to the 20 Mile database I compiled last year but which was left with a few gaps. I'll get back to this task in a day or two.

I've still a few contributions in my inbox including a few comments about the Island Games team which I'll save for tomorrow.

I'm sure I speak for everyone associated with this site when I congratulate those already warming the plane seats for Guernsey.

I'd already finished the site for the day when I received Graham's email last night so although I gave the announcement full prominence on the front page, I didn't comment in any way.

I've always been in favour of pre-selection provided those chosen are head and shoulders above the rest and are not locking others of equal ability out of the team.

I really don't know enough about the current set up but I'm sure, given that the athletes are expected to pay a fair chunk of their own expenses, that no one will unfairly take advantage of this privilege. As Graham says, they actually have a chance to prepare well and peak for the big week.

I'd welcome any further news on the team front either from Graham or anyone else.

Still training hard in Southend for some upcoming indoor competitions. Was pretty rusty in the northern indoors champs and have a niggling toe injury too.

Feeling confident for the upcoming season and as long as the remainder of the winter goes to plan then I'm looking forward to racing and improving again this year. Got the BUSA indoor champs at the weekend,in which im competing for Bath. Hopefully i will go under 7 seconds-which if feel has been long overdue.

Training as much as i can but spending an entire winter running on your own and with a full time job took a bit of getting used to. Can't wait to get back to university!!

Steve Taylor and Bridget Kaneen both emailed to explain the "phantom walkers".

Irish Indoors, Belfast, Saturday

Senior Men's 5km Walk

Place, Name, Club, Time

Final

1 Heffernan, Robert  Togher A.C. 19.16.95

2 Griffin, Colín  Ballinamore A.C. 19.51.15

3 Costin, Jamie  West Waterford A.C. 20.09.03

4 Ryan, Pat  Mullingar Harriers A.C. 20.45.16

5 Kidd, David  St. L. O'Toole A.C. 21.02.57

6 Cassin, Jeff  Finn Valley A.C. 21.09.93

7 Gibbons, James  Finn Valley A.C.

8 Griffin, Ronan  Ballinamore A.C.  23.09.40

9 Tansey, Fergal  U.C.D. A.C. 24.21.88

10  Pender, Sean Kilmurray/Ibrickane A.C. 29.04.50

Junior Men's 5km Walk

1  Fitzpatrick, Hugh  Shercock A.C. 25.26.43

2  Durcan, Joseph  Ballina A.C.  26.09.61

3 Moran, Patrick Claremorris A.C.  26.45.99

Senior Women's 3 km Walk

1  O'Sullivan, Gillian  Farranfore Maine Valley A.C.  11.35.34 WR

2  Loughnane, Olive  Loughrea A.C.  12.32.51

3 Cassin, Yvonne  Finn Valley A.C.  13.51.01

4  Mc Gill, Anne  Finn Valley A.C.  16.23.83

Junior Women's 3 km Walk

 Loughnane, Ann  Craughwell A.C.  14.09.45

 Mc Mahon, Catriona   St. Marys A.C.  14.21.41

Burtenshaw, Carol  Monasterevin A.C. 16.10.45

Mc Corry, Claire  Abbey A.C.  19.18.55

Fell runnners training continues every Tuesday evening at 6.30pm from the TT Grandstand under the guidance of Margaret Lockley. Last week there were 16 or so turned up for a hard but enjoyable session catering for all standards.

The take up from the English side of the Irish sea is limited to Sharon Tonks who will compete in the 20k walk. Sharon had her best year ever last year, representing England in the Commonwealth Games and G.B in the World Cup.

Steve Hollier a regular in the last few years, has just changed his job is unable to come over as he is in the process of retraining as a policeman. (well he is certainly tall enough!)

The Irish take up has been more positive.

We believe that Jamie Costin and David Kidd are also hoping to make the trip over here.

Gillian O Sullivan who has put on many a good show at this meeting in the past is unable to make the trip as she is  altitude training along with Rob Heffernan in Mexico.

Lionel Cowin, Managing Editor of Isle of Man Newspapers has pointed out that former Isle of Man and Australian Commonwealth Games walker has the following message on the newspaper's reunions page.

Like to hear from anyone I knew starting Ballakermeen in Nineteen fifty nine
Ian Hodgkinson <mailto:hodgi@jlta.co.au>

Although I'm committed to keeping this site football free and avoiding all this "my team is better than your team" stuff that I enjoy as much as anyone, I have to get one thing off my chest.

Why do TV commentators always refer to Saturday morning matches when they are played early. You know, the ones that start at 12.15 or 12.30. Surely anything played after 12 is by definition AFTER NOON.

Bridget Kaneen has kindly provided details of the guest line up and this will be published tomorrow.

So after you've read the fascinating article about Colin Moore (thanks to Graham Davies) you'll have to find something else to read today cos I ain't got much to say today. Mind you, you can always have your say on the forum!

It was good to bump into Keith Gerrard today and I get the impression he is so mature for his age, or particularly his height!

He's still smiling, after all its not a matter of life and death, after finishing a little lower than he expected in last week's Inter Counties Cross Country. But he is convinced he should have finished higher and thinks that part of the reason why he didn't was because he used too much energy catching the leaders after being held up (by his starting position) in the early stages.

The runners who finished so far behind him in the Lancashire Championships and the Merseyside Schools Championships finished ahead of him this time.

He is certainly well looked after. Besides his parental support, his much praised coach (Andy Fox) and Graham Davies to look after him on his travels, today he had Chris Quine quickly on the scene to interrupt our conversation advising Keith not to answer my intrusive questions!

Just one thing about Graham's report in the paper - sorry Graham.  His enthusiasm got the better of him again with his description of millions of people watching the race on TV. Sky barely get a million for most of their live Premiership football matches so I would be very surprised if there was a six figure audience. Its quality that counts though and most of the visitors to this website seemed to be watching!

Has anyone noticed that Richard Creer and Paul Kelly are listed in Steve Taylor's list of competitors in the Bank of Scotland Winter League walks on the front page today without actually taking part?

Perhaps the old saying that all publicity is good publicity will be true as I'm going to give an extra mention to the quiz night at Glen Helen in three weeks time.

Apologies to anyone with download speed problems as I published Paul Jackson's scanned copy of the ticket in bitmap form in good faith without realising that it was over 500kb in size.  I've now republished in jpg form in only 8% of the size.

Besides chatting to Keith Gerrard today I had a good chinwag with hard working IOMAA official Anthony Brand.

Ant is recovering well after a major knee operation on Christmas Eve - remember the picture?

Well my knee still seizes up after being inactive for too long and after we completed our conversation in one of the coldest spots in Douglas he hobbled off in one direction and I reverted to a limp in the other! Good advert for athletics!

Every time I visit the physiotherapist I seem to be following Gianni Epifani.

Gianni is heading for the National Cross Country next week but, although still running, has been having treatment during the past few weeks for his shins.

Its the old story, he tells me, that as soon as his commits to a major race he seems to have injury problems.

Gianni has been very evenly matched with Paul Clarke at cross country this winter so lets hope he is fit and well to run next week in London.

Isn't it typical that I can't even get ahead of Gianni to see the physiotherapist.

Former Olympic cyclist, and 2001 Island Games Half Marathon Champion, Marie Noon, has been injured since Boxing Day.

She came off her bike and badly damaged her ribs and it was only when she started running again that she realised that her knee had been damaged as well.

She has just started again now, much to her relief. She also got the Lambden questioning on the streets of Douglas this week.

There will be a group training run on Sunday 16th Feb.for anyone interested. It must be stressed that the main purpose is to learn the course and so everyone will be expected to go at the pace of the slowest person. The run will start from the Bungalow at 9.15am. Anyone who wishes to go a bit further than the 5 miles can start at Windy Corner at 9.00am and then proceed up to the Bungalow to meet the others.

I met Elaine Parkinson yesterday. She manages the Supercards store in Strand Street who have been a long term sponsor of the St Johns Fell Race on New Year's Day.

She told me that since she had discovered this site she had little chance to visit any other sites on the internet. I'm not sure if this is criticism or praise but I took it as the latter!

Elaine's husband Steve (Sparky/Parky) was a pretty handy runner back in the 80s. He ran 1:04:09 for the Peel to Douglas in 1985 and (in case you think he had a gale force tailwind) I can assure you it was well backed up with a 1:05:52 the previous year.

Sorry I haven't got any pictures of our friendly postman but I'm sure Elaine can supply me with a "now and then" selection sometime.

Well, I am back in Birmingham again after my "Surprise" appearance in Sunday's race. Murray commented that he was not expecting to see me on Sunday morning, wondering whether he had read my emails wrong.

I had planned a very long time ago to race on Sunday, but race the 10km, and had mentioned it in passing in afew emails. But although I was planning on still coming home for the weekend, my plans for racing were put aside due to an illness. But with a quick recovery, I decided that a 5km would do me some good and give me a chance to be videod and judged at full speed. Although I have put the Indoors race down to a bad day, I am still very conscious of my technique and am always looking for hints on how I can grab a few seconds here or there. Every little helps.

So anyways. I am now back in Birmingham and into two very hard weeks of  training prior to the Manx Steam Packet, where I will be doing my last major race prior to the trials.

Friday night (valentines day) takes both me and coach Alan Callow off for a romantic weekend at a GB squad weekend in Bath. Where I am hoping to get some more good training in, as well as chance to get a lot of advice from various coaches etc.

After that I am back in Birmingham getting ready for the Steam Packet.

After the Steam Packet (8 weeks before Leamington) I will be in full training in Birmingham for four weeks, and then finishing off my build up to the trials on the Isle of Man as part of my Easter Break.

I am still very realistic about the trials and the possibility of selection. Although it is the main aim for this year. It is not my main aim in life. And if I sacrifice a GB selection for a few better races and chances of getting a quicker time, then that is all that counts.

Some news from a non training point of view. On my return to the Isle of Man on Friday night, I was very happy to open my post, and recieve some financial backing from the Ron Pickering Memorial Fund. This money I am going to put towards getting myself a Cam Corder so I can monitor my training while away from coaches. I have always thought highly of the fund, and am very grateful to have recieved recognition of what I have done.

Also I would like to say thank you on behalf of my parents to every one who has passed on their congratulations and kind thoughts after their move. As you have heard they are very happy with their move and Dad is looking forward to starting his new job and challenge on 1st March.

See you all in just under 3weeks.

As soon as Neil told me that he had won the Ron Pickering memorial prize it brought back memories of the dinner in 1990 at which he attended.

I scanned in my speech from that night at which I welcomed him.

He was booked to return (at much more reasonable rates) for another function the following year but sadly died beforehand.

MY SPEECH

Paul Jackson who has not reached the veteran status but he was amused to be listed in the over 50s category. "I thought the age groups were supposed to represent your age at the start of the race not how old you looked at the end" he said.

Peter Cooper has just emailed to say that the entry forms will be available at  the weekend. They will be published at the IOMVAC website but I will also link from www.manxathletics.com

Taken from your site yesterday. What does the author mean by this? That Keith's run in the Inter Counties under 17 boys cross country championships is the best athletic performance ever produced by someone from the Isle of Man!

Those of you who visit the site regularly will often hear me carp that we don't do enough to open the doors of our sport to the wider population, or perhaps to the wider athletics world.

Those of you who have known me for a long time will know that my words haven't changed very much over the years as I am on record (many times) of making the same statements many years ago. Since running this website however I've become even more aware that all too often we assume that people already know the information they are looking for. I've received hundreds of emails from people trying to find information about events.

Its therefore very pleasing when someone is prepared to do something to change this.  I asked Chris Quine if he would write a little more about the Easter Festival than we have traditionally supplied and he responded quite swiftly. The front page feature really does give an insight, together with useful websites, for people considering visiting the island.

Thanks Chris.

There are,of course, a number of other people who excel in this area, eg Steve Partington, Richie Stevenson and Paul Jackson but there are lots of gaps. Sometimes the return for the time taken to promote an event seems quite small but one only has to see what has happened with the Manx Gas Island Cross Country league this winter to see what can be done - have you got next year's entry forms ready yet Graham?!!

This site is here to promote athletics to the widest possible market - if you will let it.

Now that reminds me, are there any half marathons this spring?

Just to let you know i've got a very interesting picture to send you within the next few days. I was in australia for xmas and new year and went to the first and last days of the sydney test match. took a massive manx flag with me on the last day, and who should spot it moments after we won? None other that Island Games medallist Carly Noon! It was one hell of a surreal experience, meeting someone from the island about 12,000 miles from home but the weird thing was another manxie had approached me moments before! Will send you the picture as soon as i get a spare second.

Training hard, off to the BUSA university indoor champs a week on saturday where i'm hoping for a couple of solid performances in the long jump, triple jump and an experiment over 60m hurdles.

The date is Saturday 8th March at 7.30pm at Glen Helen Lodge

The quiz which is being hosted by Roy Moore and should be a great social night out and a chance for all in the sport to get together.

David Griffiths, who smashed his personal best for 10km, is the latest entrant for the Manx Harriers promoted event on 1 March.

  DOWNLOAD STEAM PACKET WALKS NEW ENTRY FORM (pdf)

Under 13 boys.

February’s Ramsey Bakery Fire services road races saw a good turnout of 40 athletes on a mild and humid night and a slight breeze. New comers won both the one lap and three lap races. In the one lap Cliff Keyes won by 41 seconds from a fast improving June Collister who knocked 25 seconds off her seasons PB with Peter Whiteway coming in third. The only other to improve her PB on the night was Sue Firth who came in fourth. Fastest on the night by a full minute was Kevin Vondy in 9.50 from Alan Corkill 10.50 and Matthew Kelly 11.12 who I belive is to get his hair cut to reduce resistance for the final race of the season.  

In the three lap race the winner was newcomer Cliff Keyes, 26 seconds ahead of the returning to form Alan Posstlethwaite who took 2mins 34 sec of his January outing. Third was Peter Simpson, also on his first outing of the season. Fourth was Philip Mackie who has been improving his PB on each outing and once again reduced his time by  1min 47 sec. Fastest on the night was Richard Jamieson 27.24 from Keiron Murray 28.59 and Cliff keyes 29.32  Missing the nights race due to illness and a spell in hospital was NACs Bernard Cannan, all wish him a speedy recovery.

The final race of the winter series will be on Thursday 6th March when there will be a straight scratch race with no handicaps. The presentation will follow at a local hostelry.

This years winter leagues have so far been blessed with good weather and that continues at the Access Road on Sunday.

Copy of  the Guernsey Press today. Couple of stories that might interest you. First confirmation of what manxathletics.com a week ago! re Terry Bates.

He was treasurer of the Isle of Man AAA for four years and was involved in the most recent Island Games. He arrived in Guernsey at the end of last year to join his wife who works in trust fund management. He will have specific responsibility for the strategic development of athletics in the island.

This will involve organising coaching courses, overseeing training sessions as appropriate and co-ordinating the participation of members in competition with overseas athletes in consultation with key agencies, partners and schools.
Bates has been a keen marathon runner for many years.

My enjoyment of the sport led me to develop my interest in athletics and coaching was a way of giving something back to the sport.

I am looking forward to the new challenge of being Guernsey’s athletics development officer. I see myself helping build on the success and standard of local athletics by assisting athlete, coach and official reach their full potential.

‘I am not here to take over but to supplement the already excellent work that is going on.
‘The GIAAC has given me specific tasks to carry out and I have a few ideas of my own.
‘I realise I have a steep learning curve getting to know people and places but I have already made a start by training and racing on the island.

‘This is a very exciting project and I hope to bring experience and enthusiasm to the role.’

GIAAC president Charlie Cottam said: ‘We are delighted and excited by the appointment of an athletics development officer, especially as it will virtually coincide with the opening of the Garenne Stand at Foote’s Lane.

‘This post would not have been possible without the generous sponsorship of Healthspan, in addition to their existing sponsorship of the club, and the support of the Recreation Committee.

‘We are confident that we have an excellent appointment and look forward to working with Terry over the coming three years.’

Bates will take up his appointment in March.

Dale storms it

DECATHLETE Dale Garland was last night crowned as the inaugural CI Sports Personality of the Year.

He captured 35 per cent of the phone vote.

On live television from Springfield, Garland collected his trophy from Paul Mees, director of Total (CI) in front of a 220-plus audience, including the Bailiffs of Jersey and Guernsey and the guest speaker, round-the-world yachtsman Pete Goss MBE.

Garland, whose decathlon exploits at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester thrilled watching Channel Islanders, beat off the challenge of runner-up Lyndsey Greechan (bowls), motor racing driver Andy Priaulx, swimmer Simon Militis and powerboater Roy Smith.

Channel Television reported a record phone-vote with more than 4,000 calls being made in support of the five main nominees.

Garland received a massive cheer from the capacity audience when the announcement was made by special guest, Pete Goss MBE.

Typically, Garland was quick to praise those people who had helped him get where he is today.

‘There are so many people in the background I need to thank, people like Charlie Cottam and Gordon Miller, and my coach at Bath, Darcy Cummings.’
He said he was surprised to win ahead of a quality field, particularly the likes of Greechan and Smith.

‘World champions... you can’t get better than that.’
On a hugely-successful night for track and field, Garland’s club - Channel Islands AC - also walked off with two major trophies.

CIAC won team-of-the-year and their hard-working coach, Andrew Winnie, the coach-of-the-year award.

The Rising Star of 2002 award was won jointly by Jersey’s England international hockey player Becky Herbert, and Guernsey’s national age-group squash champion, Chris Simpson.

Pete Goss enthralled the audience with tales from his ocean sailing experiences and finished his spot by making a special presentation to a local sporting hero, rower Colin Fallaize, the man behind Fitness Factory’s series of MS Society charity rows.
Fallaize was beside himself with emotion and wiped tears from eyes as he received his award from Goss, who he had met briefly two months ago.

by Rob Batiste

Commonwealth Games High Jump finalist Martin Aram continued his indoor competition season this afternoon (Saturday 8th February) with another good performance at the Scottish Senior Indoor Championships at Kelvin Hall in Glasgow.

He travelled to Scotland as the reigning champion and retained his title with a clearance of 2.10 metres, again equalling his Manx indoor record and two centimetres short of his outdoor best.

Sorry I have little to report as yet.  I haven't been able to find the results online - I can only find the senior results.  I'm signing off shortly (11 pm) but if anyone can send me a link I'll publish the results in the morning.

The only news I have is from what I saw of Keith Gerrard in TV. He started comparively steadily (in the pack) but after the first half mile he was on the leaders shoulder in second or third place. Thereafter he appeared to find it tough and gradually slipped down the field and from what I could see, did not finish in the top 10.

Whatever the result, we were very proud to have three Manx athletes at the meeting and just to take part requires a high level of achievement.

Only open this file if you are used to the "f" word!

Its the new Aussie version of Windows. You'll probably need to zoom in or enlarge the jpg file.

Entries are coming in at a steady rate for this years race. Unfortunately, like last year, the world wide problems means we do not anticipate any entries from any of the Armed Forces Units who have supported our race so well in the past. We can claim International status this year as we have a entry from Swiss runner Rolf Bruhwider who I believe is related to the Gales from Colby who are well known in motor cycle and junior football circles. 

Having read the lead article on the front page this morning (see below) my first thoughts were that it gives you a warm feeling to be remembered in such a way as I, amongst others, was by Brenny.

Come the summer months however Brenny hated Baldwin due to the flies that followed him around. On one occasion he carried a leafy branch with him the whole way around swatting the flies as he went. Very much in the style of Eddie Murphy's character in the film Coming to America. I bet Dougie Corkill has never walked in that style!

The annuaul pilgrimage to Morecambe was quite often the highlight of the year. A mixture of the young and old and the fast and furious. I say that but it is not about Kevin Madigan this time but Brenny himself. One year we arrived with enough walkers for two teams, the question was who do we put in each team. Rather than put our best  four out (JC,  Chris Keown, Brenny & Tig) in the A team leaving Ralph Martin, Mick Holgate , George Callister and Brian Brough in the B team we split the walkers up believing that we could take first and second prize in the team event. The teams were then Tig,  Chris, Mick  and Brian in the B team and Brenny, JC, George and Ralph  in the A. 

The race began with the usual mad dash along the promenade and as it progressed into the surrounding towns I slowly built up a lead at the head of the field. The distance that I was ahead of the second walker, Brenny, was just enough that he didn't see which way I went when turning off the main road and he carried on along the wrong road at about 9km. He had walked  he reckons a couple of miles before asking a local if they had seen any other walkers. He back tracked and set off in pursuit of the entire field. He eventually finished  2nd, no mean feat but his team placed third overall behind my team in first with Lancashire WC splitting us. JC was mad with Brenny, had Brenny won his team still wouldn't have won and had the best  four walkers been picked for the A team we would have still picked up first and third in the team event.  However JC believed that Brenny had robbed him of his team prize and didn't speak to him for the rest of the day, preferring instead to just shake his head at Brenny in disgust.

Although it wasn't really my fault, I feel embarrassed that one of Stan Hall's photos from the Greeba Fell Race, which I submitted to Isle of Man Newspapers with Stan's credits, has been published on the back page of the Courier with my name attached.

I am beginning to wonder if Peter Hughes is right to avoid you in the street as any meeting results in a 'feature' on the website! As I have now featured I will make a small contribution about my view of which sport I enjoyed the most rather than which I was most successful(?) at. Success is so subjective and not easy to compare across different disciplines.

Without doubt my time walking was the most enjoyable. This was due to Allan (coach and training partner) Party and Tigger (ever present training

partners) and a whole host of others who would come out on Tues/Thurs nights and Saturday mornings around Baldwin. There is nothing to beat an early morning traffic free walk around Baldwin, a fantastic training route. Racing and training was always done in a friendly atmosphere, loads of encouragement and everyone pleased for everyone else. The trips to the Nationals were always eventful as was the annual 'end of year party' to the Morecambe 20K, always an adventure!

Cycling - well a distant second to walking. Not nearly as friendly especially when you were new to the sport. It took a long time to feel part of it. Racing was exciting and again the training routes were great if chosen well. My preferences were hilly, low traffic with fantastic scenery. A favourite route would take in St Marks, Colby Glen Road and either Dalby or Foxdale and home. Running - never really took it serious, usually raced off the back of walking training to add variety. Fell running was a favourite although I didn't do too many, but did notice on your website I still hold the record for the old course at St Johns! Probably my only claim to fame though I was rather pleased to beat Tig at the national 20K in '93 (I didn't beat him often). I have a cracking photo by Gladys Callow capturing the agony (Tig's face) and the ecstasy (me lauding it as he crossed the line). I'll try and dig it out.

While reminiscing about the trips to the Morecambe 20K I couldn't help but think of the late Kevin Madigan. After one trip he was nicknamed Mudigan. A large group went on this particular trip including many juniors. On the Sunday a group of 6 or 7 decide to stroll to Heysham to get the boat. Kevin was in the group but had the tickets for everyone. The stroll turned in to a pub crawl and instead of taking an hour, it took about 4. We arrived at the boat a bit worse for wear, only to find some very irate adults and juniors who had been waiting hours for Kevin to turn up so they could board. His name was Mud and it stuck!

Organised by the Isle of Man Veterans Athletic Club

I received an entry form from the Department of Tourism today to publish on the site but I've held back because I think it may contain an error. They should be available shortly however.

The following men were chosen to represent the Isle of Man at distances between 800 metres and half marathon at the 2001 Island Games.

Keiron Murray, Gianni Epifani, Paul Clarke, Chris Quine, Colin Moore and Tony Okell.

At the same distances the following women were represented:

Julie Harrison, Jackie Ashman, Helen Simpson, Carly Noon, Jessica Draskau, Jane Mooney and Marie Noon.

There is a massive disparity between the sexes as to which athletes compete in the Island Cross Country Championships, the Manx Gas Island Cross Country League and the Lancashire Cross Country Championships.

Here are some possible reasons:

• The women have the sense not to risk injury in cross country.
• The men recognise the value of cross country to their training but the women don't.
• Women find Sunday afternoons more difficult to attend.
• Its much easier to be selected for the women's team so there is no incentive to race against other Manx athletes.
• There is no worthwhile competition for women to make it worthwhile (the old chicken and egg story).
• The men recognise that cross country is important for the development of the sport and if they don't do it the sport will go downhill.
• The women are training hard and will race appropriate to their needs.
• Its just a coincidence that all the women are not able to take part this winter.

If that doesn't start a debate what will? There's another idea!

David Doyle manages to make the sports pages, the business pages and even the news pages at different times and he is featured in the business pages of the Isle of Man Examiner this week writing in detail on the impact of the Higgs Review on corporate governance for the non-executive director.

David is a leading writer and speaker on the responsibilities of company directors and his publication on the subject seems to get bigger and more thorough every time I see it.

You've read about his athletics career to date including his massive improvement in the Clerical Medical Parish Walk and his marathon debut in New York and you can also read about his professional career to date if you click here.

On the same page of the paper as the article written by David Doyle is a piece on the same subject (the Higgs Review) by the Director General of the Institute of Directors, George Cox.

George is married to a Manx woman, Lorna nee Moon.  Lorna is an old school friend of my wife, Marie, and after many years of lost contact, we usually meet them once a year on their visits to the Isle of Man through the good organisation of Lorna's sister, Stella and her husband Tim Craine.

As George and Lorna usually sponsor me in the London Marathon they have every right to appear on this page! Actually George used to have a much larger role in the London Marathon. In his preview role, as Chief Executive of computer giant Unisys who used to supply the timing, he used to watch the finish of the marathon from the VIP box.

George was a leading sportsman in his younger days representing Great Britain in rowing.

After spending more than my allotted time on the website tonight on the front page alone I wasn't going to write much on this page tonight. But after a break when I had a quick look at Athletics Weekly, I came back with a chuckle and some more twaddle!

There is a story than former British Cross Country Champion, Spencer Duval is to make his marathon debut in London and it reminded me of my training run with the former steeplechaser in 1994 for which I received a lot of stick for admitting a case of mistaken identity.

I went to the 1994 Commonwealth Games as athletics team manager and in between my duties I went for a run to burn off all the excess eating. I was running quite hard and I caught up with an English team runner and I excitedly started chatting. Obviously the only reason I caught him was because he was doing an easy run whereas I was gasping for breathe. "It's Jon isn't it" I gasped thinking I was running with Jon Brown.  "No its Spencer" he said as he embarrassed me talking about his aims for the following day's steeplechase.  It was time for my moment of glory and so I speeded up to hide my red face!

I've commented previously about the massive numbers required to commentate on athletics since BBC won back the contract.

Athletics Weekly report that John Regis is quitting the team; no bad thing considering his dreadful conflict of interest last year when commentating on the athletes he trains or manages. But AW also report that both Colin Jackson and Jonathan Edwards will replace him so the numbers swell again.

Undoubtedly the two men in question are two of our greatest athletes of all time but does than me they'll make good, er, yer know, er, commentators like, yeah Sally, yeah, Gunnell.

My money is on Colin Jackson doing a good all round job but with Jonathan Edwards droning on about the same things all the time. I just have a feeling that Colin Jackson will have more understanding of what makes other athletes tick and how not everyone is the same.

I still feel that the Beeb should concentrate on having a few stylish commentators like Steve Cram than having to extend the commentary box to fit them all in. It tends to distract you from the athletics themselves. Cram is capable of talking knowingly about all events as he proved so well when he was in shared the much smaller Eurosport commentary box with the equally good Tim Hutchings.

The inevitable question. What do you think? Can I generate a few forum entries.

Usual time; usual place.

Judging by the conditions in Douglas, training would be very difficult on most surfaces last night. My first look out the window this morning tells me that it is still very slippery.

Working on the principle "do as I say" rather than "do as I do" I would urge caution if the weather continues as it is. Its surely better to modify your training than have an accident costing weeks or even months of training.

Miranda Brennan is expecting twins. Yes, I know that some of you will have known this for a while. Even I have but I couldn't find the picture of Steve (or Miranda) to go with the news and I've finally dug it up (see front page).

Its debatable which sport Brenny was best at as he switched several times between walking, running and cycling usually to stay ahead of his injury problems.

Miranda has also been a leading sportswoman.  She qualified for the 1990 Commonwealth Games swimming team (although she was not selected) before developing into a useful race walker in the late 1990s.

They already have a six year daughter and Steve, who works in the IT section of the tax office (I'm sure its got a grander title), is still studying hard for a Masters in Business Administration.  Although he gave up his own cycling web site, he is a regular visitor to this site.

I finally made the effort to find the picture after meeting the Brennan family at Tynwald Mills on Sunday afternoon during my first visit for about seven years. Its a shame I didn't have my camera with me on that occasion but contrary to what people think, I don't carry it everywhere. The one I've used was taken at St Johns whilst watching the walk last July.

I'm sure all parents who are used to driving their children around to attend sport will hope that Miranda and Steve's twins are more decisive than Steve as to which sport they want to take part in and do the same one!

Two of the longest road races of the year take place within three weeks of each other in the next couple of months but rather surprisingly the publicity hasn't reached the newspapers - or this site beyond what I've written myself.

The Castletown Health Stores 20 Miles is less than 5 weeks away on 9 March and the Island Half Marathon Championships are going to be held three weeks later.

Its worth making the point (as well as requesting more information for the runs) that there will be no road run on 1 March, the date of the Steam Packet Grand Prix Walks. This breaks a tradition of more than 20 years due to date clashes with the Bradda Fell Race after the walks were moved to fit in with the national and international timetables.

As far as I am aware entry forms for the Easter Festival are still not available and I continue to forward enquiries from people who email for me information to Colin Halsall.

The last few weeks have been an improvement, although I did feel run down again at the end of last week (despite an all clear on my blood tests). A lot of the improvement is down to being able to train during the week (I had two weeks off between jobs) but I’ve also had a look at my diet and sleep to make sure they’re providing me with the basis for training hard. I’ve gone mad for kiwi fruits, broccoli and bananas…. 

As you can probably see I’ve begun to add a few race pace / hard hill intervals onto the end of my steady runs. The aim of this is to get used to running fast and relaxed when tired. I’m also not quite ready to start running race pace reps on the track and in any event the winter wind makes timing track reps (and gauging effort) a real bind. 

My next race will probably be the Ramsey Firemans in February. I’m looking for a big improvement to on my PB this season (29:22) to try and get near to my best ever course of about 27:45 in 1999! That said I’m about 5kilos heavier than I was back then.

Thursday night sees the next round of the Ramsey Fireman's runs and, if I have time, I'll update the database of results to date beforehand.

The Bank of Scotland Winter League Walk resumes next Sunday and I'm expecting the recent decline in numbers to be reversed with the central location, particularly if we can "drum up" a few of the potential walkers who are aiming for the Clerical Medical Parish Walk.  Expect a full preview online later in the week.

On Monday evening I'll be publishing the latest news from the Island's 400 metres and 800 metres Island Games Champion, Keiron Murray.

I've got a stack of pictures to publish from the Ken Watterson Greeba Fell Race from my own camera plus Stan Hall's and Barbara Bagley's.

I've received the final league tables from the Manx Gas Island Cross Country league from Graham Davies and these will also be published in the next couple of days.

There should be final news from the athletes representing Lancashire in the inter counties at Nottingham next Saturday followed by their results on Saturday afternoon.

I've got more of my opinions on the cross country scene and would welcome more of yours.

I have news of one of the athletes who made the short list for the London Marathon 1000 challenge only to be turned down plus a theory as to why certain athletes were chosen (or rejected).

And if you've seen me over the past few weeks at any social event and thought you had escaped without a mention - beware.  I always hold a few back for when I'm really scraping the barrel for news!

I have yet another photographer making her debut on the site this week. Elaine Parkinson has sent a picture of the new life members of the Manx Mountain Marathon organisation.

Its good to see a meaningful discussion on the forum at last. Lets have a few more!

Commonwealth Games High Jump finalist Martin Aram opened his indoor competition season yesterday afternoon (Saturday 1st February) with a good performance at the North of England Senior Indoor Championships at Sport City in Manchester. 

He cleared a height of 2.10 metres at his first attempt, equalling his Manx indoor record and just two centimetres short of his outdoor best, which resulted in a Silver medal.  The competition was won by Martyn Bernard, who managed to clear the next height of 2.15 metres.

Martin Aram is quoted as saying after the event, “This is a good start for the year for me and I have three more indoor competitions scheduled so hopefully I’ll be able to get a bit higher.”

Tony Okell produced another classy performance to win in a very good time considering the wet conditions underfoot. He set his stall out on the first climb to Greeba summit, opening a gap that increased slowly but surely all the way round the 9 miles course till he eventually had over 3 minutes in hand on Ian Gale at the Cronk Dhoo farm finish.

As predicted only one lady, Rose Hooton, took up the challenge and she had another exceptional run getting the better of 15 of her male rivals.

I must say a big thank you to everyone who helped on the day especially Brenda and Bruce Walker, Allan Thompson and Steve Moynihan who made the long trek up to the summits to make sure everyone passed through safely. Finally many thanks to sponsor Ken Watterson and everyone at Cronk Dhoo Farm Campsite for their help and hospitality.

Son Neil fed me the news of Terry's appointment in Guernsey last week and reports that both Terry and Carol are enjoying life in Guernsey.  Terry starts his job on 1 March (as Athletics Development Manager if you missed the picture on the front page).

As I designed the little surround for the picture of Terry on Friday evening I wondered how long it would take Guernsey walker Rob Elliott to see the news. Within two hours I had received an email! Thanks to Neil, the appointment had really been a scoop for manxathletics.com as it has not been announced in Guernsey yet.

The organisers of yesterday's Greeba Fell Race received on a phone call from Ken Watterson who for the second year had kindly sponsored the prizes for yesterday's event.

The plane (I think the Isle of Man leg) on his return from the USA had been delayed and he would only be arriving back on the Island as the event would be taking place.

A meeting was held last Wednesday evening at the NSC for those wishing to be considered for Isle of Man teams for this years Knockdhu and Snowdon International fell races. The meeting turned out to be a constructive discussion on which way to tackle the coming season and some good positive ideas came out. We now have a squad of at least eight runners who are competing at a good standard  and it was agreed that the only fair way to pick teams is to base selection on performances in this years Managrakem fell league. This will mean our top runners competing against each other on a regular basis which will hopefully keep the standards rising all the time. If anyone else would like to be involved with the squad get in touch with myself or Margaret Lockley and you will be made most welcome All squad members will be expected to attend the Tuesday training sessions on a regular basis, but  it must be stressed that these sessions will continue to be open to all runners irrespective of standard.

The meeting had a long look at this years British championship races and after a great deal of thought concluded that the only race that it is practical to send a team to (  this will be a club team ) is the Pen Y Gent race in Yorkshire in early June. There are five other rounds but all are difficult to get too or clash with our own events. An extra bonus with Pen Y Gent is that Nick Percival actually organised it a few years back and so has considerable knowledge of the course etc. that he can pass on.

A further plan that was revealed at the meeting was the intention to organise a training week-end when the weather picks up a bit, possibly at Ardwhyllan in Baldwin, where up to twenty runners can enjoy a hard couple of days training and hopefully some expert coaching as well. More details will be available soon.