welsh athletics

WELSH ATHLETICS NEWS

17/10/08 Welsh Athletics reaches a crisis. Many of the best coaches within Wales have lost confidence in the central organisation. WAA have increased paid staff, but not on the coaching side, and the whole attitude of the employed staff is it seems about ticking boxes, 'we have a list of athletes in our devlopment team. so we are successful.' They have not stated this(they of course would not)but that is the message athletes/coaches are getting. The volunter coaches within Wales need support, and that can only come if WAA wake up and realise they need a Head Coach who works with the regional coaches. Wales needs that more than a couple of guys who tick boxes. And have an less arrogant view than the organisation tend to have about their abilities .

Open Letter to James Thomas , WAA.

I have never met you, so we have not had the chance to discuss your role within WAA. But I read your various announcements on the WAA website. You state that "The National Development Squad (NDS) aims to assist athlete-coach pairs who have the potential to contribute to the relevant U18 & U20 age group internationals in 2009 and future Welsh International representation. And "Athletes have been invited to the National Development Squad based upon achieving the U18 & U20 International Selection Guidelines (ISG) in the 2008 Outdoor Season. Athletes who have not reached the guideline may also have been invited based on their performance profile, showing rapid development and consistent performances close to the ISG during the 2007/2008 season. "

Maybe you should reflect a bit more. Have a look at past figures/performances and see what has happened to Athletes outside of your's and Jeremy Moody's current interests- and think again. Just think and look at the performances. You and Moody appear to have little idea what is going on amongst the talented athletes from a few years ago,or those on the fringes. I know this because you or Moody have never spoken to many, so actually no idea what their lifestyle/commitment to the sport is, or what problems they may have had. I am not aware that you speak to local coaches very often-if ever.

What you all fail to see or understand is that Athlete's mature at different ages- and when you look at the fall out rate across the UK maybe then you will start to understand. The highest fall out is amongst the talent at U15/U18 age group through either injury/pressure or boredom. Have a look at the career of Amy Spencer, a classic example. Andrew Watkins from Wales.

At the U20 Level your role surely should be to encourage athlete's to stay in the sport, provide competition ( which you as WAA singularly have failed to do re Youth Commonwealth Games). You may dream of Welsh Athlete's competing in London 2012, but we all know that few ,if any, will be selected.

Your focus should be on the Welsh National Team for Commonwealth 2010 and 2014. If the athletes perform they will progress. As National body that surely is your role. Keep athletes in the sport. Talent development is keeping numbers involved, not reducing numbers by cherry picking. I doubt anyone could pick a guaranteed World Champion at the age of 16

You cannot make it happen, and the sort of pressures you are trying to introduce will just burn out a few more. To add to the number of talented athletes I have seen leave the sport over the last 5 years-both in Wales and the UK.

You are welcome to state your views about Athletics development within Wales. I will happily publish unedited. We need to a full and frank discussion of what is going on, and what the aims of WAA are for the longer term- well beyond 2012, and as I am sure you are aware the biggest group of athletes in Wales are the U15-11 age group. Given WAA are trying to abolish the West Wales Louise Arthur League, a successful league that has developed a lot of talent from West Wales, I think you views on this would be interesting. .

You should select, not ask for invitations to join. Surely that's your role, else might as well have a secretary sifting through the application

Others will not state this publicly, because they worry about their kids selection for Wales. Never held that view, if the kid is good enought they will be selected, or the selector will get hassle. We know they make weird choices from time to time, but the mood at grass roots level is changing, these will get challenged in the future.(and have been in the past).

Look forward to hearing from you.

25/09/08 Welsh Athletics Competition review. A mix of the Good and Bad ideas. They are persisting, along with the other Celtic Nations in changing the Celtic Games to U18 with U16 rotating events every 2 years. What's the point and what a wasted opportunity. They had every chance to expand the number of Celtic Nations to 5 at least by including IOM and Cornwall. Instead just reduce the opportunities for the U16 kids- shameful.They also plan to close the Lousie Arthur League , a popular and successful league in West Wales. This League started as the BP league, based around Port Talbot area clubs, though other clubs could enter representing BP. It then became the Kate Willaims League and then was re-named as the Louise Arthur League in memory of a Young Carmarthen Athlete who sadly passed away . As far as I know WAA do not fund this league, and why are they meddling in a League that is so popular amongst the Young athletes and the clubs. It was named after Lousie Arthur for good reasons and WAA should back off . The Author of this, Mr Thomas,WAA, should listen, it seems despite asking for feedback he has ignored all from West Wales. It is not the fault of West Wales that they have a popular and successful league. Maybe look at it and try and replicate, not try and close it. Presumably it does not fit in with the UKA/WAA pathway to glory plan. Wake up, anything that is successful and works getting kids involved is good. The rest of the Competition Review is interesting and some positive ideas.

A run through the key points:

Championships

They plan to introduce Relay Championship end of March. Excellent idea, we obviously need athletes to develop relay skills and athletes enjoy(of all ages).

There will be a Combined Event Competition in Conjunction Welsh Schools in November- hopefully for all School Age groups.

They plan to invite non-Welsh Elite athletes to compete- again hopefully in all Age groups, stopping the closed U17 and below Welsh Championships.

Internationals

They plan to have live feeds of events- well that was idea I proposed last year but blocked by the CEAO WAA. At last they have realised it is a good idea and it is easy. I am available.

They want Media Coverage- at last, they have worked out the sport needs more Media coverage. Easy done over the Internet with Cameras.

Leagues

Leave the Lousie Arthur and South East Wales Leagues alone

How will they judge if an athlete is competent events? Better have a minimum distance/height o stop clubs entering athletes who will just compete to get a point. Risky- who will decide on competence ?

6 Athletes per club will just drag out the meetings longer- bad idea. Let the Clubs work out who to enter, 2 per event. Only scoring athletes should compete.

Senior League rotation of Events at Meetings- excellent, but hey I have argued this for Years. Do it for the Youngsters as well.

No standards- how does this square with technical competence ?

Composite Teams for YAL and JAL- at last they will push this, makes sense for a small Nation.

Event Specific Competition

Waste of time. Works for T6, but pointless and just a WTA iniative, and how much longer will this exist. Athletes have better things to do mid-week. the T6 works because very specific. Sounds like WTA trying to justify their jobs.

Combined Events

Missed out the major point to make sure Medals are available for Welsh Athletes.

Positive is that they have realised that Wales needs a CE Squad- because we have few good athletes in this multi-discipline event.

Run/Jump/Throw- well yes, they are the last ones to realise this. Go back to Leagues and have a U11/13 League where kids must do a different event each meeting. Discourage early specialisation, and make it fun (short meetings).

Statistics

No need to do much, the funded Power of 10 by UKA and the commercially funded Athletics Data have it all. Ironic- when I suggested 5 years ago toWAAhaving a database of performances, I was told by a Lady that it was not the way they did it. No need for a stats person, it is all there at the click of a mouse.

Wind Gauge- even the Lousie Arthur League has one , raised by local sponsorship in Carmarthen. But definite, rather than the finger in the air approach that was used in the past.

What is Welsh ? Rumours had it that WAA had decided you had to be born in Wales, if so make it clear and off we go to the IOM. If a Welsh Couple had the misfortune to be England had an early delivery in england, would that child be eligible for Wales. They need to clarify this urgently-rumours suggest they are saying must of been born in Wales.

Championships

All Welsh T&F to be Open- repeat of above, do they mean all ages?

Presumably "some Junior Championships to supplement Senior Championships" means they realise not enough compete at Senior level. For Wales I would just merge the U20 and Senior Champs. I think that's what they mean.

Welsh Games

Welsh Games re -introduced, (and I suspect Jamie Baulch is behind this-a Director WAA). Excellent idea, it should have never died out, and totally support as I am sure will the Public. Wales needs an International showcase event. Get Powell and Bolt over- that will bring the crowds in- a financial gamble, but what an event, and an experience for the Athletes in Wales.

Graded Open meetings-fine, my first email to WAA about this was in 2002. Mid -week, wake up, these kids go to school. Fine for the Cardiff kids.

International Competition Review

This is the interesting bit-European Internationals for Welsh Athletes.They state maybe- get off the sidelines, negotiate with European AA and get Wales in as a Nation.no reason why it should no happen, European AA want more competitors/followers of the sport, and his is the way forward.

This will happen ,up to WAA to progress. Arrange more International Competitions and you will keep the Athletes in the Sport.. The rest of the Page is UKA/Collins blurb, relayed by the WAA?UKA manager.

So interesting reading. Welsh Athletics need to make a choice. Do they follow the slavish Collins view of the Sport, or are they prepared to become independent and develop Welsh Athletes.

WAA choice, but time is running out now, and if they are not careful they will end up with a huge gap as experienced Coaches get disillusioned and leave the sport in Wales.

The telephone is a wonderful invention, and the car even better . Talking and traveling around might actually help them in realising what is going on.

They state " Development and potential of individual athletes will be given serious consideration" what does that mean, a subjective choice by a people who have a degree. Get real.

Welsh Athletics is more than welcome to respond.

23/09/08 19 Days to go until the Youth Commonwealth Games. 19 Days for Welsh Athletics to reflect on a missed opportunity , for maybe one or two of the Welsh Young Athletes the chance for a YCG medal. Hannah Thomas would have had a great chance over 100m to medal and if Welsh Athletics had had the guts to take a decent team , who knows what success they could have acheived.

The question is are they gutless or not interested-or both.

They love their awards ceremonies, fine, but I hope it cost no money from the funding of the sport within Wales. As some-one said to me a few days ago, "history is yesterday, to-morrow is the challenge".

And that is the challenge- will Welsh Athltics embrace the changes signalled by the appointemnet of Charles van Commenee appointment to the newly created role of Head Coach.

It is obvious that UKA have realised that they need a Head Coach in charge of UKA/Team GB. Will this filter throughto the regions. The previous administration developed a structure of Regional administrators to role out the Collin's/UKA then view of how to develop the sport. It has obviously failed with Team GB making little progress in Athletics over the last 8 years, and with the regions having a lower involvement in Team GB success.

Radical changes are required within WAA to develop the talent we have, and to retain them for the future. The WDA think they have the solution, but I would question their success. How many Athletes caught up with them have moved on? Not many.

Would not the athletes be bettered served working with properly funded Coaches who can develop them further. What are the WAA saying to the Club Coaches- thanks, but we can do the job better ? Who? And which one from WAA ( I am not even sure who the specialist coaches are) has taken athletes on to a higher level.

They can claim credit for every Welsh Athlete they like, but few train in Wales, or at the very least under WAA coaching. So dream on boys, you can have your dinners and events, but you are failing the Athletes and coaches in Wales.

If WAA (or the WTA)would like to email me a list of the athletes developed by them who have achieved Global success-specifically-I will apologise. Doubt I will have to.

It's the Club coaches who drive the sport on in Wales, and they need rewarding. If I was CEO WAA, I would be seeking funding for these Club Coaches, not the rather curious "Talent Development Officers"-who I am not sure, like most in Wales, what they do.

A Club coach earns no money-probably pays out for Athletes. WAA pays their staff.

This issue will run, throw and jump.

4/09/2008 " Just wondered what you think about the Area Development Centres being promoted by Welsh Athletics? The content is fine but should the delivery be done away from the clubs? Planned for non-club nights so, in theory, coaches can attend to learn new skills but will they and will children who would normally go to the club prefer the ADC session or vice-versa? The sessions do actually clash with the training nights of some clubs (not Cardiff, Swansea and Deeside) so will the likes of Brecon, Carmarthen, Menai and others be able to benefit?

Perhaps it would have been better to arrange a series of free training days for club coaches with travel costs and lunch provided. Delivery could then take place within the club. I can see some potential conflict between club and ADC sessions with athletes having to choose and ADC coaches being paid as opposed to voluntary coaches in the clubs. The concept of run, jump, throw and fundamental skills and conditioning is fine but for 10 years this has not been part of the UKA Coaching Scheme where coaches are quickly directed through a narrow event route. This is an attempt to correct that major mistake but should we not just change the coach education syllabus instead?

The concept of run, jump, throw also has to be backed up with appropriate competition otherwise many will just do a couple of sprints and a relay or an endurance event but not sprint. Virtually every competition in Wales is designed around event specialisation – leagues and championships provide competition in individual events so as long as this is the norm, young athletes and coaches will still be encouraged to specialise.

How much of this has been discussed with the clubs? Are all clubs aware of this initiative and supportive of it? As I have said, the content is fine but should it not be delivered in a different way.

Moving on to a different topic, with Dave Collins being axed in favour of a head coach should Wales now look to appoint its own head coach? Who is responsible for coaches and coaching in Wales, is it the Performance Manager or Talent Development Manager (neither of whom like Collins have any previous athletics experience)? Who is running athletics in Wales, the UKA appointed Performance Manager or the Director of Athletics? Wales, I maintain, must follow UKA’s lead and adopt a more coach led performance/development structure embracing coaches at all levels and in all areas of the country. How many other sports in Wales do not have a head coach? Most coaches are unhappy with what is currently happening and want to see change but are never really given an opportunity to express their opinions or consulted in any meaningful way about new proposals. Wales has to change and like UKA change quickly.

23/08/08 WAA claim they sent medals to England AAA for the winners of the Welsh section of the CE competition last weekend. England AAA apparently say they never got them- maybe WAA sent them to Beijing or India in error !!If India they will be returned as the organisers will be well confused, WAA are the only GB Commonwealth Nation not be sending a team, as we all know. Seems we are all learning a lot about WAA attitude to Youth development- or maybe the lack of it. They seem incapable of getting PB's correct correct in their news column, the Development Officer seems incapable of recognising Welsh Athlete's success unless on the TDA. No-one bothered to go to the U17/U15 CE, I gather they announced asking for an WAA Official to come forward- and I believe that as I have heard the same at a Indoor AAA-when I was present. Again no WAA official present.

As the kids say at the moment "Are they having a Giraffe".

Not quite sure how that expression has come about, but a simple analysis I guess is people doing silly things because their heads are in the clouds- I quite like it, must remember to use it in the future.

Anyway back to WAA, the Giraffe's. See they have a pic of Christian Malcolm now, but not sure they have any involvement in his current development, though I am sure certain individuals will claim they have. That's why he is going to run 400m in London 2012.

The Clubs in Wales must shoulder some of the blame, many are involved in the WAA set up as Committee members, on the Council or Directors. They need to use their influence to sort out what is happening , unless they agree. Doubt they do, like many athletes, parents and supporters. Trouble is few are prepared to voice their opinions, something I cannot understand or would support.

Maybe WAA do not really have a role or a clear role, other than the one that the pussycat Dave Collins roars. Too dependent on Central funding, and lacking the financial independence to do the "right thing" for Welsh Athletics .Maybe they do not actually care, they have jobs ,in Sport, a good life, rub shoulders with the mighty and famous. Like Civil Servants they just do what they have to do, shuffle paper and fill forms to prove they have done a good weeks work.

If only life was that easy, and some-one has to come in who really cares- Steve Brace did, but did not have the support or financial ability to develop WAA- but why should he of he was an Athlete, who did well in his own right, and does care.

I am only on the fringes of this sport, I just watch and think. And what I think at the moment is that all involved in Athletics in Wales need to think and decide what they want. Do not be scared, just voice your opinon, because other wise nothing will change. Otherwise in 5 years time, we will be in the same position, same conversations, but no-one will challenge what is happening.

We are lucky to live in a fair democracy, so use your freedom of speech to try and make changes- they(WAA) will really not penalise your kids- or you, if your are an athlete reading this, because they would be caught out very quickly- results cannot be altered. Claims about lifestyle meaning that support is not given, should be kicked into touch- these guys are not , and should not be , mind doctors. The role for any Organisation is to give Young athletes every opportunity, the mind doctors come in later, but they are meant to be there to help , not block progress.

WAA have managed to drive a few kids out of the sport already with this unscientific approach- as have other GB regions. Their priority should be to keep as many kids in sport as possible, as a regional body. UKA will take them on if good enough.

But if WAA want to continue this idea, then why take a 16 yr old to an U23 Champs(not even in the TDA), because they have no older athletes available (hopefully not because not good enough), and hen he gets injured before a major event -UK School Sports, where he could have medalled. That makes no sense at all, leave the young man alone and let him focus on the Comp he could have done well in.

OK Injuries can happen, but what was the point.He's going to be a rugby player anyway.

Not the first young athlete to get injured in a relay warm up-I can think of several, where a hard session the day before a Comp had one stamped on by the incoming runner, and another suffered a back pull. You cannot get a relay team to-gether the day before, it needs months of training, and the last thing you do is make them work out flat out the day, night before.

Lack of knowledge by Team managers, another problem. But relays could be easily sorted, we have a guy called Steve Perks in Wales, who had a bit of an involvement in a GB Gold medal at Athens-well was the Relay Coach, so a bit more than a side role- why he never got a gong from the Queen is a mystery. Do WAA use him- or maybe he does not want to be involved with them- that I am not sure about, but Perks should be asked to be National Relay coach.

So up to you , accept the status quo or use your voice.

6/08/08 Welsh Athletics are sending no paid staff to Beijing, and there are no proposed changes to Welsh Eligiblity, despite rumours.

19/07/08 Welsh Athletics claim to have no money to send teams to YCG, they are also happy to reduce the Celtic Games down to one age group-because they have no money.Fine- but look at the jobs page. They want two new roles-Senior Physiotherapist - Wales-£34,268 - £45,690 p.a and Senior Strength & Conditioning Coach - Wales £34,268 - £45,690 p.a.

For the handful of athletes on the Welsh Development programme. Nice job if you get it- but could not that money be better spent within Wales to develop Athletics.

I will coment no further -makes me feel sick.

16/4/08 16/04/08 WAA(welshathletics) entry Forms. The U20(12/7) and Senior(15/6) are Open- Swansea and Deeside. Quite why the rest are not I am unclear- WAA happy to send Athletes to England AAA (open all ages), but not for English, Scottish and anyone else to compete in Welsh Age group Championship. I believe same people involved who decided not to send a Welsh Youth team to the Commonwealth Youth Games- the picture emerges. The Track and Field committee are to blame, and led by volunteers it would seem. Strange world we live in where volunteers appear to make more important descisions than the paid staff. WAA should be emabarrassed- or the leadership of the organisation at least questioned.

1/4/08 I make mistakes, who does not but read this and suss it out. "The long, undulating but fast course at the picturesque venue at Strathallan School found the young Welsh team wanting as only boys team captain Jonathan Hopkins (Brynteg- Glamorgan Valleys) gained a top 10 placing.He was always in the leading pack and held his place on the second lap of the 6000m course to complete a fine cross-country season.England as expected dominated the team events gaining a clean sweep including the perfect score of 21 points in the junior girls age group. To their credit the Welsh junior girls team gained the only medals of the weekend as they packed well behind 10th place Ffion Price (Llandrindod- Powys). "

Now they probably meant Hopkins was only boy with top 10 placing, but badly written. Ffion Price was 10 th, so in top ten placings

Now if I had written " Ffion Price and Jonathan Hopkins finished in the top 10 at..." get point, and Girls should always feature first because they are women and I am a gentleman.

16/03/2008 All's seems not to be well within WAA- it would seem that some Coaches feel that the Performance/Talent managers have a touch of "arrogance" and do not fully understand the "Coach/Athletes relationships".

Communication is also an issue, well I have debated this so many times over the years, but seems those within WAA Board- comprising volunters and the Paid are seemingly coming to blows over this.

The (UKA -Wales) Performance Director role comes up for renewal next year, I am told.

Hopefully Wales will fight for changes and push for a Welsh-centric development of the Sport. As should any National region within UK. Forget 2012 as a priority.

I can only assume that the Performance/Talent managers made the choice to not send a team to India for YCG- the Board of WAA, if it works as a Board , would have listened to them- as the paid professsionals..

14/03/08 Reflecting futher after last night at the track ,my mind just went into what a waste of an opportunity for WAA to develop talent in Wales by ignoring the the YGC. Emily, as everyone in Wales will know has had problems, but watching her run last night- just for a short session as she gets back into training, made me reflect on what could have been.

OK these athletes have been beset by problems, and WAA have not helped at all. A choice by WAA to select athletes to support dependent on a view of lifestyle is crap- they have no knowledge of many individual athletes in Wales. Many athlete could hit the Scottish standards for the YCG, Emily in theory should have been able to do easy- 25.2 some 2/3 years ago, and Hannah could have made the same for the 400m. And the list could continue.

WAA should reflect and not whinge when people leave the sport- they have let the young athletes down-badly. Really badly, and I hope they all sit down one-day and reflect on the destruction of Welsh Athletics. Which they have overseen.

They have no chance of developing Welsh Athletics with the present attitude. But I suspect they do not actually care, just happy if they get a couple through to GB teams.

So England win again.

13/03/2008 WAA development officer had this to say about U17/15 CE: "Following a very busy and exciting AAA's Indoor Combined Events Championships at Sheffield this weekend, that also included the Welsh Athletics U17 Pentathlon Championships, Welsh Athletics would like to congratulate the following Welsh Athletes and thier Coaches on their podium performances;Lauren O'Reilly - U17w - 1st (England Athletics Championship),Lauren O'reilly - 1st (Welsh Athletics U17 Pentathlon)Megan Rogers - 2nd (Welsh Athletics U17 Pentathlon)Sophie Pick - 3rd (Welsh Athletics U17 Pentathlon)"

David Guest did not compete in U17M- so no Welsh I could see, and same for U15B-unless I missed. U15G Wales had Katie Lewis,Bridgend 4th and Sara Otung,Cardiff 8th.

Mr Thomas appears to have forgotten the U15 Girls, but why should he worry about that, he is only the WAA Development Officer . Does not seem that worried that, as far as I can see that only 5 athletes from Wales competed- David Guest did not compete, I assume for good reasons.

WAAdo not really care a jot- was Thomas or anyone else on the telephone trying to encourage athletes to compete- easier to send out letters saying you are eligible and then just report a little.

Sums it up, and I was chatting this about the very subject this evening at the track. I am no really sure how a Development Officer goes about his job, but seems that it involves no direct contact with the athletes in Wales. It would be a good reality show, shadow an Development officer !! Work experience maybe.

If I ran my business on the same way I would be bust- ignore my clients and just send them the odd email. These Organisations claim to be about development, well get off your arses and do something for your salaries.

Anyway at least they can say the right thing (sic):

"Welsh Athletics would like to congratulate all the Welsh Athletes and Coaches in attendance. We look forward to seeing you all again as we move towards the outdoor season.

James Thomas

Welsh Talent Development Manager"

If there are any athletes left, I am sure they will compete in the Outdoors as they watch the rest of youth GB get ready for the YCG.

6/3/2008 Scotland announced YCG standards- salt in the wound for Welsh athletes. Had WAA followed a similiar policy, then many would have met criteria- not sour grapes personally, but Emily ran 1/10th outside 100m time 2/3 years ago and the 200m would have been easily achievable. The fact she, and many others are not going for is down to WAA. Well done WAA. And don't turn around and say that they are no running these times, they have had no incentive to even bother. And they have not.

26/02/2008 From the forum"just got back from AAA'S and was talking to my sons girlfriend who is a scottish athlete same age etc who has gained the time for junior commonwealth and was telling me how much she is looking forward to going warm weather training to portugal and that the team is now coming together and they are doing lots of press etc in Scotland. She was saying that its giving her the extra drive and also something to aim for in her first year at under 20's. Also that she hopes this will be the first step to bigger and better things. Well done Scotland poor show Wales."

12/02/2008 Team Cardiff for ICC Finals at Sheffield this Sunday coming.

10/02/2007 From Forum :"List of Welsh athletes apparently not in receipt of UKA World Class or Welsh Academy funding/support (not sure if there is any discretionary support):
Matt Elias
Gareth Warburton
Jimmy Watkins
James Thie
Rob Mitchell
Scott Simpson
Tracey Morris
Heather Jones
Anwen Rees
Julie Crane
Philipa Roles
Carys Parry
Laura Douglas
Katia Lannan "

Now it would be interesting if the WAA would make a comment. There only problem would seem they are over 16 yrs old.

08/02/2008 The 4th most popular link on the site is the Youth Commonwealth Games. WAA reckon a pointless competition !!

11/12/2007 Provisional Timetables Welsh Champs

U13/17

U15/20

Seniors

U20 and Senior are Open to all.

8/12/2007 To-day's proposed trial broadcast of the UWIC meeting has been effectively blocked by the CEO of WAA, who has told any WAA staff involved at the UWIC meeting not to provide any assistance- so therefore co uld not happen. I am pretty annoyed, spent some time organising this "Trial", had spoken with Organisers of meeting and seemed no problem. I am an apparently unauthorized media source, well fine, but at least free. WAA had video coverage of Outdoor Championship meetings, I assumed they (the Company) paid for the rights. No, WAA, paid for them to film, and got some revenue from Sales of DVD's. Did not even nearly cover the costs, apparently. That is obviously better than broadcast commentary over the Internet for free, with the idea of doing this for the Indoors in Jan( Stupid month for Champs). Not even a WAA meeting, well they hold few now , exercising their control of any Athletics event in Wales. Their remit.

Well do something then.

WAA have such a good record of getting Corporate funding, attracting Media coverage(sic), - they have failed to persuade any TV company to cover meets in any depth .Their loss on this occasion, I had asked several organisation's to tune in, including European Athletics, Athletics Data to see how it went. WAA lose, but then what's new.

33% of UKA staff are going to be made redundant soon, 1/3 rd. Maybe Focus a few minds.

3/12/2007"The news that Glasgow has been chosen to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games effectively ended Wales’ hopes of achieving a similar feat until at least 2022." IC Wales about Athletics. The link had been changed, so in case you missed repeated here.

1/12/2007 Just seem entry fees for Welsh Champs- that's a lot for what are hardly the most competitive events in the UK- numbers will be lower for every event, £6.50 is a lot just to have try an event-enter 3 and that's a cool £19.50- Senior £8.50, so 2 events £17.00- hope they remember to announce finalists unlike last year. £17.00 quid for a minutes competing, least the 1500m runners get value per minute. Then travel and overnight stay, no wonder I am skint.

Anyway I am English, trying to get tickets to Twickers for England v.Wales- Emily will be in the Red next to me in the White- anyone who could help, much appreciated.

1/12/2007The more I think about it, WAA descision is disrespectful. For many reasons- to the Host Country, the concept of the Youth Commonwealth Games and to the many talented Welsh Athletes who would have made the "normal qualifying" standards, and finally to the idea of education, experience and learning. The people behind this descision should be fired from thier jobs, whether paid or volunteers. They have failed Welsh Youth, and the purported reason are pathetic The failure of WAA to raise cash is not the young athletes problems, if the WAA cannot fund events like these, then they should shut up shop- it seems a large % of their income goes on wages..!! They are not educationalists, this is not their remit.

WAA need to apologise to the Youth in Wales for failing them- maybe they could hold a quasi Youth Commonwealth Open in August, a time of year that will not interfere with the end of the season(sic) and school.- no they could not, no money.

Lets use a simple analogy- I run a firm making widgets . I employ people to train youngsters to make widgets, lots of courses, and I have some good widget makers. A Widget competion for the U18 widget makers is announced. Despite training these young widget makers, I decide not to send them. Instead I say to them, OK I have trained you, but rather than you experiencing this Widget Competion, I would rather focus on one of you going to the Widget Olympics. OK we will be a smaller widget business, but having one in the Widget Olympics is more important to me, much better than having a firm with lots of experienced widget makers.

Link to the YCG site.

"The mascot of the III Commonwealth Youth Games Pune 2008 is the younger brother of 'Shera', the mascot of the Commonwealth Games 2010. His name is “Jigrr”. He is young, impish, playful, mischievous, intelligent, sporting, alert and full of life, all set to energize Pune for Commonwealth Youth Games 2008. Incorrigibly competitive and incredibly brave, he is oozing with confidence and the twinkle in the eye reflects his 'I can do it' attitude.

Jigrr is an amalgam of the Hindi word "Jigar", which implies courage and the sound of a tiger roar (grrr...). Jigrr is also phonetically similar to Tiger.

Jigrr will not only promote the Youth Games at Pune but also spread his enthusiasm for sports among the youth of India. He is here to spread pure joy of youth and give a smile to everyone.

The vibrant colour waves which form a major part of the Commonwealth Youth Games identity demonstrate the ethos of the games. Each colour represents core values that each participating member and the host city stand by. The colour waves stand for pride, achievement, celebration, harmony and joy. They convey the dynamic nature of the city and its youth; the overlapping waves
portray the interaction amongst the participating countries. The whole concept revolves around enthusiasm and sheer energy which is embodied in the youth. The event being specially conducted for youth the colour waves aptly symbolise this spirit of enthusiasm and energy

The seal, the pictograms and the colour waves together lend a classy, youthful energetic, dynamic and contemporary look to the entire event. They encapsulate the intrinsic idea of the Commonwealth Youth Games and thus create an outstanding identity for the multi-sporting event to be held in Pune in 2008.

1/12/2007 No athlete I have spoken to seems that bothered about exclusion WTDA. Which makes you wonder the value of the purpose. Most athletes take the view that they can achieve thier goals anyway.

WAA need to maybe focus on some slightly more importan issues. Announce standards for 2010 Commonwealth Games asap, and get funding to send a decent number of Athletes- including relay teams. WAA will let the nation down if they cannot send a full team. Let us down once with Youth Commonwealth non attendance(the only UK based Commonwealth Nation not to send a team). So send a full team of athletes to cover all events-that should be the aim. Expose athletes to a Major Champs, and then ales might have a half chance of seeing some of them in 2012 Olympics. But fail to work on the Commonwealth Welsh team, and they might as well pack their bags and move into England.

If they cannot afford it, well get rid of the three Talent Development Staff WAA have accumulated, have one, and savings will pay for a full team. I would sleep uneasy in a job where I was paid good money, but unable to get/want a full Team to India. Guess it is a cultural thing where the paid Staff think they are more important than the actual Sport. The volunteers are brilliant-coaches,officials etc. They love the sport, and seeing the kids coming through.

30/11/2007 There is now an Open under 17 pentathlon included with the Welsh under 13/15 Pentathlon Championships on March 1st. Note this is not a Welsh Championships.

29/11/2007 I am now completely confused by the WTDA, seen the recent list, good luck to all those on, but many seem to be missing. The criteria for inclusion seem to rely on the Dark Arts- and the athletes get younger by the year of inclusion. Smacks of the usual, sadly. Not sure anyone not included will be to fazed. If you are , don't be- even by Welsh Ranks those selected are not always the best in event and age group performance. Seemsthey look at the weird and wonderful-committement, support networks and experience at Competing- well so they say, though several successful and experienced are obvious by their ommission.

Who cares, I am more interested in seeing the Sport developed rather than these rather futile lists of "Talent". If they read History, then all would be a lot clearer.

At least the sport has the funding for this sort of nonsense rather than trying to improve competion structures to encourage and retain athletes in the sport. If they actually looked at some of the modern ideas, we might see OGM(Open Graded Meets) far more suitable for a small athletics comunity that Age group meets. But that would be too simple.

So what woud I do- get of my arse, travel around the clubs, talk to athletes, find out what thier plans are-educationally and sport, talk to the coaches and build up profiles. More importantly I would encourage every athlete who has the interest to train in pretty often poor conditions, and listen to what they think would help them and all athletes.

So tear up the degrees and get real- because for every one they think is a potential winner, they are missing a few. Young athletes by their nature of growth go up and down-no athlete reaches maturity until 20's, and this is proven, with the very odd exception. Talent development is about encouraging all talent to remain in the sport, not just a few. And it is not just athletics, sport in the UK has a history of throwing kids in and kicking them out again. Some bounce back, others are lost.

Even the Chairman of UKA bemones lack of depth in the sport(at a House of Commons select comittee meeting)- but these are the very policies that are causing this. The Power of Ten maybe that idea that actually will wreck the sport- not sure it was designed for this initially.

England got to the World Cup final because the players wanted to, they were huge outsiders-but it worked. Sport is not an absolute science, Paula Radcliffe knows this. Others know this. The clever clogs fail to understand this basic truth.

And when I heard to-day of a very Talented athlete not included....because they lacked experience. Um, the performance record says otherwise. Guess the face did not fit.

There must be some confused athlete's out there and that is not the role any Talent programme should create. No doubt if questioned, they will be told that if they work hard, improve life skills,they could get on the list. Who would want to, now thats a question. Is getting selected a victory to those on the list, something to brag about, or should it just be a very private thing. Why they (WAA) felt compelled to write the little Bio's for each athlete is a mystery. Since all want to go to the Olympics, sadly, but realistically, most better start saving now for the Ticket.(That applies to the thousands in UK who want to compete in London, but the Team is not that Big).

Noticeable that none mentioned competing for GB in European Champs- that would be a first start, before Olympics. Maybe they are not that aware of European Champs, or just not sexy enough.

Start with Commonwelath in India and see what happens- better Athletes than most in Wales have never progressed beyond the Commonweath Games-injury, bad luck, whatever. But an Athletics Body that is purely focusssing on 2012 has lost the plot. One or two show potential to be World Class- but only very few- and Wales has only ever had a few.

Write to your AM, at least one athlete was added whose AM had questioned Welsh Assembly Sports department about exclusion, but genuinely due talent should of been on the list last year.

I know little, but understand less.

24/11/2007 "The news that Glasgow has been chosen to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games effectively ended Wales’ hopes of achieving a similar feat until at least 2022." IC Wales about Athletics.

18/11/2007 Great book this-Travels in an Old Tongue: Touring the World Speaking Welsh (Paperback) . There is a Welsh speaking Comunity in India, the Welsh missionaries were out there.

17/11/2007 Carmarthen Harriers Annual Report (Dinner was 16/11, sadly I was unable to attend due to being a Taxi for youngest).

15/11/2007 WAA finally launch new website.

12/11/2007 Wales are going to the Youth Commonwealth .

Just not an Athletics Team, because inappropiate. Bless them.

10/11/2007 WAA now has a real opportunity to develop Athletics in Wales following Scotland getting the Commonwealth Games in 2014. A real chance to, for a change, focus on putting to-gether a full team for this event-it's to late for the 2010 Games. So instead of just trying to focus on trying to getting a few Athletes into the GB squad for Olympics in 2012, focus on developing a "Team" for 2014. We have a load of young athletes, who if encouraged and motivated could perform well. Early- well not really, we need to keep kids in the sport, and developing a "2014 Welsh Team" concept now will be the way forward. If out of that focus some make the GB team, great, but let's turn the focus firmly onto a Welsh team for 2014. I would rather see 40 athletes compete for Wales at the Commonwealth in 2014 than 2 in the Olympics for GB in 2012. This must be the right approach, and could energise the sport throughout Wales- the athletes, coaches and followers of the sport in Wales. If WAA have no interest in the Commonwealth Games, well come out and say it now- it is regarded by many as the second biggest festival of sport in the World. WAA ,historically, have never really put much effort into the Commonwealth Team, lets give it a real go. Your view-go to the Forum.

5/11/2007 Strong rumours that WAA will be shortly announcing dates for a U13/15 CE Champs. If so congratulations to WAAfor being sensible enough to listen to complaints and take action. Watch this space.

5/11/2007 From what I hear only about 20 of the 37 athletes invited turned up to the West Wales Regional session. Mixed reports on whether worth while attending, and some will not be going again I gather. Same report as I heard re National Squad session. It would seem Athletes did not have the chance to discuss the day with the WAA Talent Development Manager, as he had left ( so I am told). If he was there all day then some athletes did not find him at the end of the session, and I gather he did not ask athletes to introduce themselves. He must have photographic memory if he knew all of them by face and their disciplines. Uncanny ability.

3/11/2007 As has been pointed out to me under the WAA regional squad scheme , what happens to a 2nd year U15 who is 49th in Power of Ten. Next year first U17- ranked 52. They are dropped from the regional squad. Is this a sensible way to develop athletes? The authors at WAA of this scheme need to be marked theselves- so far 5/10 for effort, 1/10 for ideas.

And more rumblings of discontent from North Wales where apparently other Welsh Internationals have not been invited, but others lower in rankings have been. I need a "Deep Throat" who can supply me with the Regional squads- WAA seem loath to publish them. Many links on the WAA site seem to fail, or is it just me who clicks on download and a URL cannot be found I have tried using Firefox, my browser of choice , and I.E-same errors come up.

National Events Coaches has been updated. Seems some very experienced people in place, Blenke Blomkvist comes with strong credentials,and while he may not have the knowledge of the Youth athletes yet, that side looks OKAY. They just need access to the athletes- and it's in part up to them to identfy athletes, forget the Squad nonsense that is going on at the moment. Most of them have been around for a long time and know the Young athletes pretty well- they know who has real potential, something the newly appointed Talent Develpment officers may not have. Whether they will be allowed to do thier own thing is another matter. Personally I would have the National Events Coaches having a strong input into National and Regional squads.

Sprints / Relays Benke Blomkvist
Sprints / 400m Darrell Maynard / Elwyn Jarrett
Hurdles Benke Blomkvist
Middle Distance Arwyn Davies
Cross-Country / Long Distance Derek Osborne
Long Jump Sue Alvey
Triple Jump David Hawthorn
High Jump Denis Doyle
Pole Vault Edward Thompson
Throws Paul Jensen
Javelin John Davies / Nigel Bevan
Shot Nigel Bevan
Combined Events Mike Guest
Mountain Running
Race Walking Martin Bell

2/11/2008 North Wales Champs 5/1/2008 at Deeside. Contact is Sue Sawyer.

1/11/2007 To answer many emails in one go. Yes, it is true that Emily Mitchell, Welsh record holder and Welsh International, Hannah Jones Welsh record holder and Welsh International, Antoine Woodman Welsh International have not been asked to West Wales regional squad meetings. Obviously not good enough. Common factor- Carmarthen Harriers.

Thomas Cusworth U15B (Wrexham) ranked 8th in UK for 100 and 9th for 200. Ran 23.1 for 200 Missed national qualifying standard by 1/10 sec. NOT invited to National Squad.

Athletes from Deeside attended Squad sessions that they did not get performances for.

Apparently you get sent a form to attend- if you cannot attend you have to state why, with valid reasons. That's sport.

Happy days for WAA.

1/11/2007 The Power of Ten and Athletics Data rankings are statistics. In the presented form a simple list of best performances-a snapshot. The use of statistics is a difficult and complex subject and Welsh Athletics have used no detailed analysis in determining their regional squads.

The burst of activity of WAA in their squads days is long over-due. However questions must be raised, particularly with regard to the Regional Squad days. The selection the athlete has to be in the top 50 in the Power of Ten. A flawed selection policy, where no detailed analysis of the Power of Ten statistics has taken place. 1) It takes no account of athlete's who may have been injured. 2) The Power of Ten include Hand Times, not that many , but enough to knock out some Welsh Athletes with ET from the top 50 I suspect. 3) It takes no account of the huge number of athletes in say the U15/17 groups, with a load of times within a 1/10ths of each other .4) Does not take into account the odd freak performance by an athlete in top 50 with regards to season's pattern. 5) Frequency of competitions with electronic times . 6) Does not reflect competition within Wales, which the Regional days should. I note the top Welsh U17 100m time was recorded in Rhodes !

A statistical approach should have been used, take the data from Power of 10, look at the consistency of Performances, where and when best performances occurred, conditions etc and compared those to Welsh BP. The you might get a better idea of how Welsh Athletes are doing.

This looks like a typical desk decision to say lets favour any in top 50, let,s not look at consistency of those performances in the top 50, accept HT and runs in meets outside the UK at non International meetings. The whole process is obviously ( to many) as deeply flawed. Net result many talented athletes have been ignored because they did not run , or run well, due to injury. No attempt seems to have been made to actually identify the talent within Wales.

Just a further confirmation that WAA have no interest in developing Welsh Athletes unless likely to get onto the be-loved UK Pathway. The designers of this concept are convinced that they are following the correct pathway. I have doubts, many. They think athletes wail try and improve to get into Regional and National squads. Why should they ? Athlete's(and Coaches and parents)are bemused by the selection policy. Many not invited do not understand it, they thought they were doing reasonably well, and that included non-injured athletes. The reaction is more likely to be"Stuff em" and when invited in the future will probably ignore the invite. Called an "Own Goal". These talent development Officers would have been better advised doing some ground work and trying to identify talent, help injured athletes -entourage and support. The are creating a divide in WAA athletics, and I cannot wait to see their chosen beaten by the ignored- see they have created the divide already. Doubt the Regional squads have followed this "in top 50" closely anyway, list are not published, because in the past exception's have been made where the right person is in the right place. But I have evidence this is happening now. But if you hear of anyone attending not in Power of Ten top 50 let me know.

Having said that who would want to go anyway- the sessions are full of the sort of mumbo-jumbo beloved by students of sport, who fail to understand that sophisticated techniques such as visualisation need to be done on a one to one basis(that was at the National Squad session). Have a look at a time-table, West Wales Regional Day.

10:00 - 10:30 Welcome and Registration
10:30 - 11:30 Theory session on Lifestyle Management and the UKA Performance Pathway.
11:30 - 11:40 BREAK
11:40 - 12:40 Practical session on fundamental movement skills
12:40 - 13:20 LUNCH
13:20 - 14:20 Practical session on technical and tactical aspects of events or event specific conditioning
14:20 - 14:30 BREAK
14:30 - 15:30 Practical session on technical and tactical aspects of events or event specific conditioning
15:30 - 16:00 Informal questions and answers with event coaches.

Note the first session is about Lifestyle and UKA Performance pathway. For Lifestyle, I think we should read commitment to Athletics, i.e. if not 100% committed then forget it. Strange that as I recall a few Olympic Athletes dabbled with other sports and came back to athletics. Others of course never came back and went on to succeed in other sports. The whole day sounds like a chance for some to spout on about how to do an event , which presumably due to the elite nature of the squad, they have a rough idea. Since many will not actually know what event they may be doing in a few years, pretty futile in my opinion. I would think by Lunch most would have fallen asleep with boredom.They are going to be youngsters, though must be only a few as not many in West Wales are in the Top 50, well there are not that many in Wales. I could sit down and work out, but life is too short.

31/10/2007 Carmarthen Harriers launch new what,s on Guide for the area -first What’s On (3 November – 18 November 2007). Not a bad idea, if any other clubs want to, email the same , will be happy to publish.

27/10/2007 "AT the inaugural AGM of Welsh Athletics Ltd, John Penny (Cardiff AAC) was appointed as a vice-president and will serve on a new Awards Panel.Former Olympian Jamie Baulch has joined the board of directors, which also includes Matt Newman (chief executive), Steve Brace (director of athletics), Lynette Harries, Keith Matthews, Jan Evans-Nugent, Alan Currie, John Collins, Clive Williams, Carol Anthony, Phil Avery and Joyce Tomala.Two of the AGM’s first decisions was to reject a motion from South Wales region to prevent Welsh Athletics from selecting young athletes for international fixtures on the same weekends as the Welsh Schools National championships for cross-country and track and field, and made the decision to fall in line with the rest of the UK and increase the unattached fee to £2 with effect from April 1 next year."

25/10/2007 Scottish young athletes have been in Portugal for a training trip building up to Youth Commonwealth Games. Now if you read this on the Scottish site, you will note that Nigel Hetherington(ex WAA) was behind this, with support Scottish Athletics. Sounds like the Athletes had a blast, worked hard and had fun- that's what it is all about.

.24/10/2007 Dyffed Schools AGM

19/10/2007 Good to see so many viewers on the subject of Combined Events on the Forum. Please though make a comment-a forum is just an exchange of views, and out of that positives come. No-one knows who are you are, unless you want them to. If you want a gmail(google mail) account, email me, I have 18 invites left on my account at the moment. Forums die very quickly unless an active exchange of views. If you talk at a training meet, talk in the pub, well, add your views. Having a view is not an embarrassment- saying nothing is. I would love to see this forum for Welsh Athlete's really develop, but it is over to you, parents,coaches and the athletes.

18/10/2007 Dyfed Schools Annual report

18/10/2007 Brianne League XC Results

17/10/2007 At the recent Gwent Cross League match at Singleton Park Swansea Carmarthen Harriers had six teams in the first three places. The under 11 boys team won their event with the under 17 ladies team second. The under 13, under15 and under 17 boys teams all finished in third place. All the Carmarthen Harriers cross country team members will be competing in the West Wales cross country championships in Margam Park Port Talbot on Saturday 3rd November and the second Gwent Cross Country League match in Bath on 11 November.

17/10/207 Welsh Club Award 2007-Carmarthen Harriers Coach Delyth Brown has for the second year won a Welsh Club Award. The award this year is in recognition of the success achieved by her group of endurance, cross country and steeplechase athletes

16/10/2007-No wonder kids in Wales find it hard to find a club in Wales. 50% of the club sites either hide email address or bounce. Hey, have a website so I can email or do not bother. The spammers will crack you anyway, so the clever will think they are avoiding doing that- but actually achieve nothing . If you are being spammed email me, and I will tell you a simple way to get rid of. See I am not that bothered about publishing my email address, but its my living, being spammed, both for this and work. I deal with it, but I like/need contacts for work. It's just a price one pays, like junk mail through the post.

13/10/2007 I had a chat with Jamie Baulch ,World Indoor 400m Champion in 1999, this afternoon about his proposed election as a Director of WAA. His commitment to Welsh Athletics was infectious, he has a raft of ideas for Athletics in Wales and the determination, that saw him become World Champion, to see them through. An extremely busy and successful man (in Athletics) and with his own business, this is not a role he needed to take for any prestige as a sleeping Director. Jamie wants to be involved and make a difference, encourage more into participating and following the Sport in Wales and be active in his role as a Director of WAA. Let's hope (as I am sure he will be), that he is elected and I will then watch with interest. WAA need a World Class athlete on the Board with strong ideas, and Jamie Baulch is up for it .

13/02/07 If you know of any other Indoor Fixtures let me know.

09/10/2007 Another email re subject of Combined Events in Wales ."With reference to the shifting of the c/e champs to Sheffield ...how disappointing and frustrating. My wife and I were at the open and schools champs in Cwmbran earlier this year and even though the weather was atrocious there were a lot of kids there competing (including my two). This showed that there is enthusiasm for this competition in Wales. However, this stupid decision to amalgamate with England will automatically curtail the number of Welsh youngsters competing due to more time/financial constraints imposed on parents.Also, as mentioned in another e-mail, due to to numbers there might be restrictions imposed on competing athletes. Even if there are no restrictions on numbers then there might be so many competing that a long day will turn into a marathon and consequently put a lot of kids off attending in the future. Here at our club, we have for the past couple of years been trying to encourage as many young athletes as possible to have a go at multi-events to see where their true
potential lies . But decisions like this will just have a totally negative effect on them and I'm sure others
throughout Wales."