The Herald reports

Some interesting points posed by Doug Gillon who played a fair bit of rugby in his time at Myreside-also Frank Dick mentioned in the article played with Royal HSFP and was used at one time by the SRU as a performance advisor when he was head of UK Coaching


Taking a backward glance can help athletics make forward stepDOUG GILLON, Athletics Correspondent August 29 2007
I have sympathy for Kelly Sotherton, whose heptathlon bronze medal, forged from such adversity over the javelin, has spared Britain from the barely thinkable, a world athletics championships with no medal. Yet I find something disturbingly arrogant about her attitude to lessons which may be learned from history.

Sotherton, more darts player than spear thrower recently, did not miss three British internationalists whose candid criticism of the team in Osaka might be cruelly insensitive.

It was John Regis (an agent) who was "chasing money", not the class of 2007, said Sotherton. She resented his comment: "If you spray peanuts around, you get monkeys."


Had Regis been caucasian, such is political correctness these days that this observation might not have seen the light of day. However, Sotherton took greater issue with Regis, Colin Jackson, and Jonathan Edwards dwelling excessively in the past: their "in my day" mentality, as she put it. "We are not chasing money," she said. "We're chasing medals. It's a lot harder than it was."

Yet these athletes achieved more than Sotherton, and in an era with no National Lottery funding. Each has a global gold medal. So do Scotland's Liz McColgan, Tom McKean and Yvonne Murray. All without the benefit of the lottery. They all must have been doing something right. And all would still be podium standard today.

For Sotherton and such as Ed Warner, the UKA president, to imply the sport has progressed so much that they can learn nothing from the past is blinkered.

Sotherton has discarded javelin coaches like spent running shoes in the hope of picking up inspiration. Presumably, she considered each mentor had enough "history" to be able to help her?

Having tried the two greatest British throwers, Steve Backley and Mick Hill, the latest seems to have stopped the rot. The fact that he is a teacher, and not a world-class thrower, is a reminder that chickens are not always good judges of a tikka masala.

History is worth nothing if we can’t learn from it. The sport now risks reinventing the wheel, but one with square corners


Challenged by Frank Dick, head of UK coaching during some of its greatest years, Warner said he did not belittle past achievements, but told The Herald: "Comparisons with the past are invalid for many reasons." He cited more intense competition, more athletics nations, and the rise of African athletes make championship medals harder to win than 20 years ago. "I don't think you can replicate these old structures and replicate that success now."

Warner has challenged everyone from a critical Michael Johnson down for advice on solutions. A cabinet full of global gold medals and two iconic world records afford bragging rights. Likewise for Edwards and Jackson, only male Brits to have won global gold since 1993.

History is worth nothing if we can't learn from it. New models, yes, but the sport now risks reinventing the wheel, but one with square corners.

Curing global and domestic track-and-field ills won't be easy, but the first step in countering addiction to this failure has to be admission of a problem.Warner does that. How-ever, before condemning all our yesterdays as outmoded, how about analysing what we did right? And despite official perceptions, decline has been spectacular.

At the inaugural world event in 1983, Britain won seven medals (two gold: Steve Cram and Daley Thomson) while 23 athletes made top-eight in finals. Biggest decline is in men's events, from 800 metres to marathon. We analysed 25 years, from 1981 to 2006. Depth of quality has declined. The impact is least at 800m and greatest at the marathon. In 1981, 30th marathon place in the UK was 2hr 16min 41sec. In 2006, 30th was 2:26:49. In 1981, no fewer than 186 British athletes recorded 2:26:49 or better.

In 1981, the gap between the world 1500m record and GB 30th was 13 seconds. Now it's 18.

In 1981, the gap between 5000m world best and GB 30th was 48 seconds. It's now 96, a lap and a half. Thirtieth in the GB rankings last year was 14:14.56.

In 1981, 71 Brits ran as quick as that. Dave Moorcroft, world record-holder (13:00.41, 1982), is now 61st on the world all-time list.

At 10,000m the gap in 1981 was 1:59. Now it is more than 51/2 minutes. That equates to more than a mile. In 1981, GB 30th was 29:21.3. Now it is 31:38.46. In 1981, 101 Britons ran sub-31 minutes.

Marathon decline was most damningly illustrated when Paula Radcliffe ran faster than any British man. The gap now between the world best and Britain's 30th male is almost 22 minutes. Only one Brit is in the world all-time top 100: Steve Jones, 2:07:13. He was world record-holder.

Very few of these athletes achieved these significantly greater performances because there was money in it. There was no huge sport science investment as today.

So let's have serious analysis of what they did and how they did it.

It would be naive to think that performances have not been influenced by drugs, and this impacts on ambition. But that can't be allowed to become an excuse.

Cutting funding and reducing the numbers who aspire is no answer. The more narrow the base, the lower the pyramid.

In this city, where shrines to ancestors are ubiquitous, it's worth considering reverence to the past.

This article was originally posted on 29-Aug-2007, 07:18 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 29-Aug-2007, 07:20.