7th February 2022

UKA AND THE HOME COUNTRY ATHLETICS FEDERATIONS ANNOUNCE THE ADVISORY PANELS MEMBERS

UK Athletics and the Home Country Athletics Federations have today announced the composition of the discipline-specific advisory panels, as outlined in the UK-wide Coaching Strategy which was launched last October. The panels intend to obtain guidance and support from experts across the sport who will support the development of the event group areas across the UK.

The panels will offer expertise in all areas including the technical frameworks for the events, athlete profiling at various stages of development, content and curriculum for the new Learning and Development Framework, as well as developing Communities of Practice and competition requirements in their area.

The panels are composed of highly skilled individuals across the sport at all levels in their coaching journey who bring a variety of experiences, understandings and knowledge to the discussions.

There were an extremely high volume of applications to join the panels, however, unfortunately it has not been possible to include everyone at this stage. Moving forward we encourage all coaches to both feed into the advisory panel members as appropriate, and fully engage through the coaching forums that are due to be set up early this year. These will provide valuable feedback in order to help drive the strategic plan and the direction of coaching across the UK.

The panels will cover the areas of children, combined events, endurance, jumps, para, sprints and hurdles and throws.

The advisory panels, which will meet four times a year, are responsible for supporting the development and implementation of agreed priorities in the coaching strategic plan with the aim of increasing the standard of coaching and athlete performances in the event / area.

The composition of the endurance advisory panel will begin with a small group who will look at the overall strategy for endurance below the World Class Programme. Over the coming months, the group will be widened with sub-groups to advise on the various disciplines on the World Class Programme.

The advisory panel members are as follows:

Children’s

Scott Grace

Scott is the Advisory Panel lead, and he is England Athletics National Technical Lead for Youth Development. Scott has authored multiple coaching and teaching resources, including the winner of the 2014 European Athletics Innovation award, the ‘Athletics 365’ programme, Teaching Primary and Secondary Schools Athletics resources and the Leading Athletics associated resources. Scott has presented globally on topics including Youth and Athlete development and is a former member of the European Athletics Youth Expert group. Scott is also a regular international Team Coach and Team Leader for England and GB & NI age group teams.

Joanna Bohannan-Walker

Joanna established ‘On Your Marks’, an organisation providing schools with support and resources for the delivery of fun, multi-event athletics as part of the curriculum and extra-curriculum. Recently, she has been part of a working group to provide technical athletics resources for secondary schools throughout Wales. Joanna works as a children’s coach and mentor for Everybody Sport and Recreation and is a tutor developer, assessor and content creator for England Athletics, Welsh Athletics and British Athletics. Joanna was one of the tutors that developed the original Children’s Coach award.

Jamie French

Jamie is the course director for Physical Education at Leeds Beckett University with extensive knowledge through research into Child Development, at topic on which he has presented extensively. Jamie is a highly experienced coach, Tutor Trainer and content developer.

Janice Hendrie BEM

Janice is a Physical Education Teacher and into her 45th year in teaching. She has been coaching for 37 years and is a current coach at Inverclyde AC where she coaches younger groups within the club. She also runs after-school and holiday sessions for 5 – 8 year olds that includes a Young Leaders programme in secondary schools. Janice is a Coach Education Tutor and External Verifier for Scottish Athletics.

Lijana Kazlow

Lijana has more than 15 years’ experience in sports development and has had roles across multiple sports and institutions in advising, coaching, officiating, teaching, lecturing, tutoring, assessing and mentoring. Lijana’s area of interest and expertise is in child development and educational transitions. She has extensive experience of designing, implementing and delivering courses and workshops for the health, education and sport sectors and works across Europe on various Youth and Leadership programmes.

Gary Laybourne

Gary has extensive experience in the Sport and Recreation sector. He is the CEO at ‘Coach Core’, a charity that provides coaching apprenticeships for young people, and holds current positions on working groups at Sport England, Sport for Development Coalition and UK Coaching to provide expertise on creating a new, diverse workforce in children’s coaching.

David Millet

David is one of the UK’s leading youth coaches. He established the successful Marshal Milton Keynes youth section and programme and has assisted other clubs in developing and implementing enhanced youth programmes. He works with teachers in local schools to facilitate skill transfer in athletics and has contributed to and supported programmes such as Athletics 365 and Funetics. David is an England Athletics Tutor for Coach Education and Children/Youth workshops.

Hannah Pretty

Hannah has been coaching children and young people in athletics at grassroots level for over 10 years in both club and community environments. She is the co-founder of Little Lions Athletics which is a club delivering fun athletics-based sessions to under 8’s focusing on teaching them fundamental movement skills through games and play. For the last 18 months she has been leading on Welsh Athletics’ physical literacy offer ‘Starting Blocs’ which is a resource available to clubs and providers in to introduce young children to our sport. Hannah has worked in Sport Development since 2014 and is a Welsh Athletics Tutor for Coach Assistant and Leadership in Running Fitness.

Anita Richardson

Anita is a coach at Sale Harriers Manchester and has coached athletes from club level through to international junior level. She is a senior lead in education for primary PE and has been a panel member of the Department for Education expert group for primary PE. She has won national awards for her roles in teaching, sports development and coaching.

 

Combined Events

Darren Ritchie

Darren is the Advisory Panel Lead and England Athletics Event Group Lead for Combined Events. Darren is a former Commonwealth Games athlete (in Long Jump), has an MSc in Performance Coaching and has coached athletes to World and European Age Group Championships and Commonwealth Games.

Fyn Corcoran

Fyn is Welsh Athletics’ Event Group Lead for Combined Events and a former international Decathlete, competing for GB&NI at European Cup Combined Events competitions.

David Feeney

David is a former international athlete, former coach to World Junior Champion, Niamh Emerson, and Head of Combined Events at Loughborough University.

Mike Holmes

Mike is the former coach of Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Jess Taylor-Jemmet and the British record holder for High Jump, Steve Smith. He is the former GB&NI National Coach for High Jump and Combined Events.

Rafer Joseph

Rafer is the Combined Events lead for Talent at England Athletics and former International Decathlete. He is currently coaching several international athletes in Combined Events.

Tom Reynolds

Tom is Athletics Northern Ireland’s Performance Lead, and coach in hurdles, sprints and combined events, and he is a former international Decathlete.

Laura Turner-Alleyne

Laura is a former international athlete and Olympian. She coaches on the Talent Pathway and in the British Athletics Futures Academy Programme, including the sprints relays alongside Leon Baptiste. She is coach to European medallist, Holly Mills (Heptathlon), and European U23 international Jodie Smith.

Kelly Sotherton

Kelly is a three-time Olympic Medallist, World and European Medallist and Commonwealth Heptathlon Champion who is the Team Leader for England Athletics at the Commonwealth Games.

 

Jumps

Darren Ritchie

Darren is the Advisory Panel Lead and England Athletics Event Group Lead for Jumps. Darren is a former Commonwealth Games athlete (in Long Jump), has an MSc in Performance Coaching and has coached athletes to World and European Age Group Championships and Commonwealth Games.

Frank Attoh

Frank is a former international triple jumper. He has a UKA Level 3 Performance coach award in jumps has coached multiple international horizontal jumpers including Greg Rutherford, Yamile Aldama, Chris Tomlinson and Jamaican athlete, Trecia Smith, World Gold Medallist and two-time Commonwealth gold medallist.

Denis Doyle

Denis is personal coach to Tom Gale and, in total, has coached seven Olympians, eleven national record holders at different levels, an Asian medallist and four age group medallists at European and World level. He has also had extensive success in coaching athletes in other sports at international level including basketball, swimming, bobsleigh and rugby. Denis has worked with athletes from GB&NI, St. Lucia, Ireland, India, England and Northern Ireland at five Olympic Games, six World Championships (three senior / three junior), five European Championships (two senior, three junior), one U23), two Asian Championships and three Commonwealth Games.

Jamie French

Jamie is England Athletics Regional Coach Lead for Jumps for the North of England. delivering continued professional development workshops, online webinars and providing supportive information for coaches. He has experience as an England Athletics Team Coach at international competitions and is personal coach to national and international level athletes. Jamie is a Tutor Developer for England Athletics and Welsh Athletics and oversees the quality assurance of Coach Education. He also led the development of the self-guided jumps module for the Athletics Coach qualification.

Allan Hamilton

Allan is the National Jumps and Combined Events Coordinator at Scottish Athletics and is a former Scottish international athlete.

John Herbert

John has competed at three Olympic Games as a triple jumper and a bobsledder and won gold for Triple Jump at the 1986 Commonwealth Games. John has coached at four Olympics and is currently working with Bobsleigh to prepare their athletes for the 2022 Winter Olympics. John was coach to Philiips Idowu and Jade Johnson.

Aston Moore

Aston is an Olympian who won bronze at two Commonwealth Games and at the European Championships in the Triple Jump. He is the British Athletics National Performance Institute Senior Coach for Horizontal Jumps and personal coach to some of the leading horizontal jumpers in the country including Abigail Irozuru, Ben Williams, Olivia Breen (T38 Long Jump), Stef Reid (T64 Long Jump) and Zak Skinner (T13 Long Jump). Aston previously coached Ashia Hansen (former indoor world record holder) and Phillips Idowu (world champion and Olympic silver medallist).

Linda Nicholson, BEM

Linda won the Scottish Athletics Development Coach of the Year in 2019. During the same year she coached long jumper, Stephen Mackenzie to the final of the European U20 Championships and brings expertise of developing athletes from grassroots to national and international level in athletics and netball where she has also been recognised with a Coach of the Year award.

Kate Rooney

Kate is a two-time Olympian and became the first British Junior to make a world junior final in the pole vault, with a British Junior record of 4.00m. Kate broke the British Senior record 12 times. She won bronze at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi 2010, was a world championship finalist (Top 6) and European championship finalist (Top 6). She is the pole vault coach at Loughborough University, the England Athletics Pole Vault lead coach for the Youth Talent Programme, Regional Coach Lead for Jumps in the Midlands and is also a Team Coach for GB&NI.

Scott Simpson

Scott is British Athletics National Performance Institute Senior Coach for pole-vault and personal coach to Holly Bradshaw, Olympic bronze medallist, Olympic 7th placer, Harry Coppell, and England Pole Vault Champion, Sophie Cook.

Guy Spencer

Guy has coached athletes at Regional, National, International and Olympic level. He recently coached Daniel Falode to fifth place in the 2021 European u20 Champs. Guy is an England Athletics regional coach lead for Jumps and lead for Triple Jump in the Youth Talent Programme where he has contributed to the development of the horizontal jumps curricula.

 

Para

Sarah Benson

Sarah is the Advisory Panel Lead and has worked in the role of Paralympic Pathways Manager at UK Athletics since 2017, working from grassroots level, developing the Futures and Development Academies, to the World Class Programme. Sarah, a steeplechaser who competed to elite level international athletics, has worked as a team coach and team manager at Paralympic and Olympic programme teams.

Job King

Job is the UK Athletics Paralympic Talent Development Coordinator, leading on wheelchair racing, frame-running and endurance (400m upwards). He coaches several wheelchair racers at the Coventry Godiva club including Kare Adenegan, the Paralympic, world and European medallist.

Joe McDonnell

Joe is coach to Kadeena Cox (T38 400m), Shaun Burrows (T38 400m), Thomas Young (T38 100m) and Libby Clegg. He is Head of Para Sprints for Loughborough University. Joe also works as a consultant sprint coach on the Para Pathway, and he has coached Paralympic, World and European Champions across two Paralympic cycles.

Dean Miller

Dean is a Paralympian, who has now moved into coaching where he is based at the University of Birmingham and the British Athletics Talent Hub. Dean coaches a large group of endurance athletes at national and international level. Dean has a master’s degree in Inclusion and Special Educational Needs. In 2021, Dean was selected for the Performance Foundation Coach Support Programme (UK Coaching) and the Generation 2024 Coaching Programme (UK Sport). He also works as a consultant endurance coach on the British Athletics Talent Programme and as a Team Coach at International Paralympic competitions.

Aston Moore

Aston is an Olympian who won bronze at two Commonwealth Games and at the European Championships in the Triple Jump. He is the British Athletics Senior National Academy Coach for Horizontal Jumps and personal coach to several Paralympians including Olivia Breen (T38 Long Jump and 100m), Stef Reid (T64 Long Jump) and Zak Skinner (T13 Long Jump and 100m).

Coral Nourrice

Coral is the UK Athletics Paralympic Talent Development Coordinator for sprints and jumps. Coral also leads the British Athletics Street 2 Stadium initiative, working in London, Birmingham and Leeds to discover Paralympic and Olympic talent in schools.

Alison O’Riordan

Alison has extensive experience in high-performance sport and coach education/development with global experiences from Australia, Ireland and the UK. She brings an applied background to the group with a PhD in the Biomechanics of Seated Throwing alongside a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in Biomechanics, BA (Hons) in Sports Studies and PGCE in Physical Education. Alison has worked with senior, junior (U18 and U20) and para-athletes to the highest levels, including medallists and representatives at World, Youth, Junior, Commonwealth, and Paralympic Games. She has coached 18 athletes onto five Paralympic Games for Australia, Ireland, and the UK.

Pamela Robson

Pamela is the National Disability Pathway Officer at Scottish Athletics. She is a wheelchair coach and also a teacher of additional support needs.

Nathan Stephens

Nathan is a three-time Paralympian and is currently working as the Performance Pathway Senior Officer for Disability Wales. He has also been a Team Coach of British Para Athletics teams including the European Championships.

 

Sprints & Hurdles

Benke Blomkvist

Benke will be the joint Advisory Panel Lead. He is the British Athletics Senior National Institute Coach for Sprints and Hurdles. Benke has been a professional coach for 25 years and was the head coach of Swedish Athletics for sprint/hurdles for several years. After working in Wales as the Senior Performance Coach for a period of time, at the beginning of 2015, he joined British Athletics to be based at the NPI, working in sprints, hurdles and relays.

He has played a pivotal role in the British relay teams set-up in recent years, and was named joint BBC Sports Personality Coach of the Year in 2017 following the British quartet’s World Championship gold medal in the men’s 4x100m relay. He has guided British athletes to World and European medals, including Andrew Pozzi who won gold at the 2018 World Indoor Championships in the 60m Hurdles. He is also the former long-term coach of women’s 60m Hurdles World Record holder Susanna Kallur and her sister Jenny Kallur.

Leon Baptiste

Leon will be the joint Advisory Panel Lead. The double Commonwealth Games Champion (2010) is a coach at the British Athletics National Institute. He competed in the 100 and 200m over a 15-year career and has since coached several athletes across the Olympic and Paralympic programme – Sophie Hahn has won Paralympic and world gold medals, as well as setting world records, and Beth Dobbin reached her first Olympics this year. Leon also coaches as part of the British Athletics Futures Academy, working alongside Laura Turner-Alleyne with the sprint relays.

Michael Afilaka

Michael works with athletes at all levels of the Olympic Pathway. Michael coached Jeanette Kwakye to the final of the Olympic 100m and to a world indoor silver medal in the 60m, and coached Ashleigh Nelson to a European championship bronze (100m) and relay gold, Commonwealth Games relay bronze and world championship relay silver. Michael has set up various informal coaching networks and has extensive experience of mentoring other coaches.

Matt Elias

Matt is an Olympian and Commonwealth Games athlete who won two silver medals in the Manchester Commonwealth Games 2002. Matt left Welsh Athletics last year after ten years in various roles including National Talent Development Coordinator for Sprints. He has moved into an independent professional coaching role.

Amy Foster

Amy retired from athletics in 2019 and since then has taken the role of Athletics Northern Ireland Academies Manager. She has worked as a coach on Athletics Northern Ireland’s Athlete Development Programmes such as Rising Stars, Speed Power Academy and Youth Academy. Amy has competed at European Championships and Commonwealth Games during her sprinting career.

Janice Kaufman

Janice coaches athletes at various levels of the Olympic and Paralympic pathway including Jason Nicholson who placed 5th in the 2018 U20 World Championships. Janice is a Tutor for England Athletics in Coach Education. This year, she jointly won the regional BBC Unsung Sporting Heroes Award with her son, Richard, for the coaching they provide at Gateshead Harriers & Athletics Club.

Mike Leonard

As well as several U18 and U20 internationals, Mike coached Craig Pickering to European Junior Gold and to 3rd ranked in the world in the U20 age group and Joey Duck to Commonwealth Youth Games bronze and World Youth semi-finals. Mike has extensive experience in tutoring, assessing and mentoring other coaches and has presented at many conferences and masterclasses.

Shani Palmer

Shani is England Athletics’ Event Group Lead for Sprints and Hurdles. She competed at the Sydney Olympic Games in the 100m, and represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and England at several major championships and Games.

Martin Owens

Martin is the Sprints Coach at the University of Birmingham working with athletes in the 400m and 400mH and in the women’s relays and has a career in Further Education where he works with educational awarding bodies. He has delivered regional coach and athlete development workshops and has established coaching networks. He delivers on the England Athletics Youth and Junior Talent Pathways. and has coaching experience with para-athletes and school children on the  British Athletics Street 2 Stadium initiative.

Allan Scott

Allan is Scottish Athletics’ National Manager for Sprints, Hurdles & Relays so plays a key role in the Performance team in Scotland. He represented GB at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, competing in the 110m hurdles, and also competed at World and European Championships.

 

Throws

Nick Ridgeon

Nick will be the Advisory Group Lead and is the England Athletics (EA) event group lead for throws & UK Athletics Futures Academy coach. He has been coaching in athletics for 15 years and has coached athletes that have achieved international representation in shot, discus & hammer. His previous roles include EA club and coach support officer, Northumbria University head of strength and conditioning & EA throws talent coordinator. He is a regular international team coach for GB & EA teams and will be the throws lead for the England team at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

Stuart Carlaw

Stuart is the shot and discus lead coach at Loughborough University. He is also the Talent Lead for shot with England Athletics and he has coached several international throwers. He founded the England Throws Camps that aim to improve and professionalise the delivery of coaching and coach education for throws. The initiative provides two camps a year that brings together leading coaches and practitioners with athletes and coaches of all levels.

Mark Chapman

Mark is the Talent Lead for Throws at England Athletics. Mark has been coaching athletics for over 30 years, mainly throwing and some multi-events. In that time, he has coached multiple English Schools champions and medallists and taken athletes to five world and European Junior Championships, reaching finals with most, and also three Commonwealth Youth medallists. Mark was shot put lead on the National Coach Development Programme and has been the National Talent Event Lead for Discus for the last few years. He is an academic at university leading on Sports Science programmes with a specialism in Coaching, Biomechanics and Strength & Conditioning. He has presented at multiple athletic and sports science conferences and has published his research in many journals.

Malcolm Fenton

Amongst others, Malcolm has coached Mark Proctor (shot put) to compete at the 2000 Olympics, Europeans, Worlds (indoors and out) and Commonwealth Games. He has also coached Amir Williamson (Hammer) to the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Niamh McCarthy (Ireland), a F41 Para Discus thrower to bronze at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships. Additionally, between 2018 -2019 he coached Hannah Molyneaux to fifth place at the European Under 18 Championships in the shot put. Malcolm has held numerous Lead roles in throws for England Athletics and has extensive experience in mentoring, tutoring and presenting at conferences and master classes.

Alison Grey

Alison is Scottish Athletics’ National Throws Coordinator. In her coaching capacity, Alison has produced numerous District and National medallists as well as Internationalists in Shot Put, Discus Throw, Hammer Throw, Middle Distance and Combined Events.

Laura Kerr

Laura is a former international Javelin thrower and Athletics Northern Ireland’s Talent Lead. She has acted as a Team Coach on British, Northern Irish and Irish teams, and has been appointed as the Team Leader for the 2022 European U18 Championships. She has been coaching at Athletics Northern Ireland for over 11 years, working in Coach Development and Talent during her time at the organisation.

Shaun Pickering

Shaun is acting Head of Throws for UKA and an IAAF/World Athletics Level 5 Coach and Academy Member as well as a member of the IAAF/World Athletics Coach Education programme (CEVS) working group for throws. He is former international athlete who competed at the 1996 Olympic Games and won a bronze medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games for Wales.

Goldie Sayers

Olympic medallist and three-time Olympian, Goldie is regarded as an excellent technician. During her athletics career, Goldie was coached by some of the finest coaches in the UK and abroad, spending time in Finland, South Africa and the USA where she experienced different coaching philosophies relating to the event and gained knowledge in programming, technical skills and physical development. Goldie inputted into the development of the throws modules on the Athlete to Coach course and delivers as a tutor. Goldie holds an ILM Level 7 qualification in Executive coaching that has experience in motivational speaking.

Ryan Spencer Jones

Ryan is Welsh Athletics’ National Throws Coordinator and is also coach to Paralympic Champion Aled Davies. In his role at Welsh Athletics his remit is to develop, assist and work on key partnerships with personal and community coaches to ensure Wales produce a succession of throwers.

David Turner

David is the Head of Throws at Loughborough University and specialises in the javelin throw, having himself studied at Loughborough between 2002-06. David coaches the performance team javelin throwers at Loughborough and has team-coached for GB&NI, England and Wales at major championships. David is the England Athletics Talent Event Lead for the javelin throw and was one of the GB&NI Team coaches for the Tokyo Paralympic Games. David’s coaching group includes Paralympic Champion Dan Pembroke, World Champion Hollie Arnold, British Champion and European U23 5th placer Bekah Walton and Greek International Ioanna Malli. David says his coaching highlights so far have been coaching Hollie Arnold to gold and a world record in the final round of the Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast 2018, and Daniel Pembroke’s win at Tokyo 2020.

Mike Winch

Mike is a Commonwealth silver medallist and former British National Coach for Shot. He is coach to several senior and junior international athletes and coached multiple Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Judy Oakes and Olympian’s Philippa Roles and Emeka Udechuka.

 

Endurance

The composition of the Endurance Advisory Panel will begin with a small group who will look at the overall strategy for Endurance below the World Class Programme. Over the coming months, the group will be widened with sub-groups to advise on the various disciplines on the World Class Programme.

Chris Jones

Chris leads the Welsh Athletics Performance team in his role as National Coach. Previously Endurance Lead at the organisation, as well as at Athletics Ireland, he also works with British Athletics on the Endurance strategy in recent times. Chris has been Team Leader for British teams at international cross country and half marathon Championships. He has also worked in triathlon previously as Director of Performance at Triathlon Ireland.

Anne Buckley

Anne is the Chair of the UKA Mountain Running Advisory Group with a focus on the development of mountain running and mountain runners. She has been Team Leader for the GB&NI Mountain Running team since 2018 – a discipline in which she herself represented GB&NI in six World Mountain Running Championships and two European Mountain Running Championships where she was three times part of the medal winning teams. Anne also ran for GB&NI on the road and for England in XC.

Andrew Drake

Andrew has a PhD in Physiological and Biomechanical Determinants of Performance in High Level Race Walkers, is Personal Coach to Tom Bosworth and other international Race Walkers, coaching across the performance pathway from English Schools through to Olympic Games level. Andrew is the Manager of the Leeds Talent Hub. Has worked on the What it Takes To Win models for endurance.

Spencer Duval

Spencer is National Endurance Lead at England Athletics, overseeing the development of the programme in England. The 1996 Olympian steeplechaser has also worked as a Team Leader on British cross-country teams and World University squads.

Luke Gunn

After a long international running career over track, cross-country and road disciplines, Luke now coaches endurance runners from 800m to marathon at regional, national and international level including Isabelle Boffey, the European U20 and U23 800m Champion. Luke manages the Talent Hub at Birmingham University alongside his job as Head of Athletics. He has taken the role of Team Coach at international competitions for GB&NI

Mark Pollard

Mark is currently the Head of Performance at Scottish Athletics, overseeing the programme in Scotland. He was previously the Head of Endurance at the organisation. Also, he has worked as a Team Coach on British and Scottish teams.

James Thie

James made international finals at World and European level and represented Wales at two Commonwealth Games. He is now a senior lecturer in Sport and Performance Director for Athletics at Cardiff Metropolitan University. He manages the Welsh Athletics Talent Hub and acts as coach advisor for the BMC. James coaches several international athletes.

Steve Vernon

Steve was a GB&NI international cross country and mountain runner. Since retiring from competition he has gained extensive coaching experience from within the club system and also the professional athlete system. He currently coach 13 International Endurance athletes ranging from British U23 Champions to Olympians and World Finalists. The athletes are part of a professional team based in Manchester and supported by New Balance. Steve has experience of mentoring other coaches through the Athletics Ireland coach Mentor Scheme.