Meet your coach!
and fitness to any level that you are capable of.
I have specifically chosen the words "to any level that you are capable
of"
because your potential to achieve anything is relative to your ability
to apply
yourself to the job in hand. Many people do not achieve, simply because
they
don't get started in what they want to do, or they don't have the confidence
in themselves to apply the talent that they inherently have. Others
are part-way
to their GOALS but are unsure as
to how to complete the process. Have a
read of our FREE NEWSLETTER
and see how our members are doing.
My wife Asta and I at the Annual Mt Roskill
Sports Award Dinner where I received the 1998
Community Board Award
Prior to taking up RACE WALKING in
New Zealand at the age of about 47, I had been a reasonable
runner (and coach of both runners and walkers) achieving regional masters
championship titles from
1500m through to the marathon distance. This aspect of my athleticism
was soon to change when I began
to race walk against walkers that I was coaching. They needed my participation
to bring up the numbers for competition….. and every starter counted.
Having gained one of my NZ Athletics coaching diplomas under
the instruction of the great
ARTHUR LYDIARD, I began to apply his tried and proven running
principles to race walkers' training
as well as the running training programs I was coaching. Not only did this
type of training assist me to
personal success, it also helped me to coach national and regional walks
champions to their titles.
My first walking races in the masters grades, produced national
masters records and within a year I had
begun to produce world masters age grade and age
group records. In 1991, at the age of 49, I was
selected for inclusion in the team for the 1991
Race Walking World Cup held in San Jose,
California.
I was the oldest competitor taking part and managed to set a new world
age grade record for the
50 km event.At the age of 50 I set a national open grade 2 hour race
walk record. In the same year
I bettered the "B Standard" qualifying time for the Barcelona
Olympics 20km event but was not
selected to compete. That year I also bettered the qualifying standard for
the next Commonwealth
Games but was injured after returning from competing for New
Zealand at the 1993 Race Walking
World Cup, this time in Monterrey, Mexico and was unable to continue
my successes at open grade
international level. I was also getting a little slower but not so slow
that I was unable to continue to gain
world masters records/best times.
The
San Jose flag bearer (1991)
In all, give or take a few (I gain a few each year but do lose some every
now and then), I hold about
50 world masters age grade marks, of which about 17 are age
group (5 year age grouping) marks.
I have only competed in two world masters events; in Kobe, Japan at the
1998 Veteran's World
Road Race Championship in the 30km race walk, finishing second
overall, 1st in the 55-59 age
group with a new world best time and again in the 2001
World Veteran Athletics Championships
in Brisbane, Australia. This event produced a silver medal in the 5000m
track walk and another in the
20km road walk. The 5000m result gained a new age 59 world best time.
For both Kobe and Brisbane
I had competed after having had injuries in my build-ups so was delighted
with the resultant outcomes.
Once again, I was forced to compete in a world class event with an injury.
This time at the World
Masters Games held in 2002 at Melbourne,
Australia. I still managed to reset the world
record
for the 5000m track walk and had a good result in the 20 km road walk
event. Two gold medals,
this time. However, tests taken prior to departing for Australia, showed
that I had osteitis pubis,
a pelvic bone problem similar to a stress fracture and that it appeared
that the injury had been there
for some time, restricting training. Each time that I had tried to gain
full fitness, the injury would curtail
training, leaving me to compete at a lesser level than I might have been
able to.
In 1992 I was appointed to the position of Athletics
New Zealand National Coach for Race Walks.
I held this position until all the National Coaching positions were disolved
by Athletics New Zealand.
About three years ago, I produced for Athletics
New Zealand, the Level II Race Walking Tutor
Kit
for the Coach Education Programme. This
tutorial is used for the instruction and training of race walk
coaches in New Zealand.
In 2000 I received the Athletics
New Zealand Adidas Male Veteran Athlete of the Year award
and in 2002 and again in 2003, I received the Athletics
New Zealand Adidas Masters Male Athlete
of the
Year award, the term "veteran" having been replaced
by "masters".
(And again in 2002 and 2003 and 2005)
I continue to compete at national level in both masters and open grades
walks but only rarely take
part in running races although I still use running as part of my personal
training program.
Email :Program Fitness
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