The recent UK Athletics Indoor Trials and Championships saw Met-Track coaches steal the limelight, as they showed their charges just what can be achieved with a little hard work. The event, held in the English Institute of Sport's indoor arena, in Sheffield, saw James Ellington soar into the final of the 60 metres sprint with a lifetime best performance in the semi-final of 6.69 seconds. James has been coaching Met-Track sessions ever since the launch in 2005, and currently champions sessions in Sutton Borough, Newham and Lewisham. The hotly-contested final in Sheffield was won by Dwain Chambers, and saw James finish a slightly disappointing sixth. That said, the fact that only seven months earlier he had suffered a potentially career-ending injury, put that into perspective, and heralded one of the most dramatic comebacks in athletics!
In the Long Jump JJ Jegede, the UK's number one at the event so far in 2011, will be cursing his luck in the final, as his 7.52 metre jump was overhauled late in the competition to edge him into the silver medal position. JJ has been working on Met-Track for over 2 years now, and currently leads the Hackney scheme, although he has also worked in the past in Barking & Dagenham, Waltham Forest and Barnet.
The longer sprint is not usually a championship event due to the fact that the indoor bends in the 200 metres are too tight to make it unfair on those drawn on the inside. Scheme Manager Jason Hussain was therefore very happy when he saw that he had drawn lane six in his heat, and duly delivered his fastest time of the season by far with a blistering 21.64 second effort.
However, Jason was pipped by just three hundredths of a second to first place, and hence was awarded the fastest loser's berth in the next round, albeit in his first ever national final, but duly inherited the dreaded inside lane! The bends mean he has to slow significantly twice during the race, and so he remained in sixth place with a time of 22.29 seconds, albeit tantalisingly close to the next two competitors in lanes two and three!
Jason, a former Great Britain Junior International, has been working as Scheme Manager for Met-Track for over three years now, and is responsible for much of its development and the whole of the day to day running of the project across the whole of London.
Met-Track Scheme Director John Powell, who was in Sheffield in his role as coach to both Hussain and Ellington, said: "These guys are seriously talented athletes, but they are ding an invaluable job for Met-Track. They are excellent role models for the young people they work with, and of course the bonus is that the albeit small considerations Met-Track is able to pay them, do help with maintaining their own highly intensive training programmes. It's immensely satisfying to be able to deliver something that has a double benefit like this to people who might otherwise not be able to pursue their goals in life, let alone the benefits young Londoners glean from engaging with us in the first place."
