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!

[email protected]

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

[email protected]

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:[email protected]>

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 t