Still Running (weakly). Issue 93

PAST – inspiration –“It’s dropped a couple of degrees,” said Peter Coe to me, as we watched his son, Sebastian, run 800 reps at a cool-ish Battersea Park track in 1986.  “I may stop him after this one.  I’ve seen enough.”

The comment was typical of the care and attention to detail that characterised their coach-athlete relationship, something that they were both keen to differentiate clearly from that of father and son.  To Peter the coach, Seb was always, “my athlete;” only away from athletics was he, “my son.”

Another global 1500 gold medallist, Jake Wightman, has just announced that his father, Geoff, will no longer coach him.  Geoff was commentator in the stadium when Jake won at the 2022 Worlds, and 6th in 1990 European marathon himself, the same day he proposed to Jake’s mum, Susan Tooby, who was 12th in 1988 Olympic marathon!

Children being coached by or following their parents.  One thinks of Liz and Eilish McColgan (both Commonwealth 10,000 champions), of Lillian Board and her father, George, and of David Walker winning the Three Peaks Race in 2003 after his father, Harry, had won it in 1978, 1979 and 1981.

Daley Thompson’s son, Eliot, did not quite reach his father’s athletic heights but was nevertheless national decathlon champion in 2022.  By contrast, Matthew Centrowitz Junior eclipsed his father Matt (4-time US 5000 champ 1979-82 but non-medal winning Olympian) by winning 2016 Olympic 1500 gold.

And just this past weekend, we saw Larissa Iapichino of Italy win the European Indoor long jump title.  Her mother is Fiona May, two Olympic long jump silvers, born in Slough, but who married Italian pole vault champ Gianni Iapichino.  They named their daughter after one of Fiona’s rivals, Larissa Berezhnaya, Ukrainian World Indoor long jump champ in 1991.

PRESENT – perspiration – “That’s perfect,” said the coach, as his athlete, being paced by her brother, passed 5 miles in the Royal Parks Half Marathon in her quest for a big PB (hopefully from 2:07 down to sub-2 hours.)  At 9 miles, it was the same message that she was still on track and, “one mile at a time now.”  Her coach noted that she did look tired.

But she had done the training – the tempo runs, the speedwork, the hills, the long runs – without missing a session.  And so it was with a mixture of excitement and trepidation that I once more jogged between the paths that criss-crossed Hyde Park to catch my daughter and my son with 500 metres to go.

There they were and the clock read, “1:55” something – she was going to do it, and I must have had something in my eye, just as I do now in fact.  She clocked a low 1:58 and was naturally elated.

For me, it was all about the trust that she put in me to design her training programme, the trust with which she discussed every week’s progress with me, not to mention the trust she put in her brother, and the trust with which she looked to me for that crucial reassurance at 5 and 9 miles.

That look – and all that lay behind it – meant the world to me – and still does.

FUTURE – suggestion – If genes were anything to go by, Thomas Staines should be the future of British 800-metre running.  And my suggestion would be to choose your parents as wisely as he did.

Vested interest: Thomas is a member of my club, Basingstoke and Mid Hants AC, and I used to run with/against/behind his granddad, Mick Keough, a top-class athlete, who came 4th in the British trials for the 1960 Olympic marathon.  RIP Mick.

Now Mick’s daughter, Linda, was a 1988 Olympian and 1990 Commonwealth silver medallist at 400 metres.  She married Gary Staines, also a 1988 Olympian and 1990 European silver medallist at 5000.  And Thomas is a product of that union, benefitting, one presumes, from the demon combination of Linda’s speed and Gary’s endurance at his preferred 800 metres event.

Good luck, Thomas.