Autumn 2007 - British Milers Club

From the pen of the Chairmanby Tim BrennanWelcome to the autumn addition of theBMC news. At this time of the year wealways look back at the season justgone. In the World Championship wesaw some fine runs particularly from JoPavey and Mo Farah, but alas nomedals. However most of those in theendurance team are young andimproving, and missing from the teamwere our two European 800mmedallists from last year. In theEuropean U20 and U23championships we did pick up medalsand further cause for optimism shouldcome from the results of our own BMCGrand Prix. Elsewhere in the magazineyou will find a full statistical summaryand what it shows is a great rise instandard compared to previous GrandPrix seasons. The greatest improvementcan be found in the Women’s eventswhere times close to 2 minutes or 4:10are now common in our 800m and1500m races.At the Streford Grand Prix we hostedthe Emsley Carr mile and also acelebration of the 50th anniversary ofDerek Ibbotson’s world mile record. The3:54 winning time was a great result asbefitted the occasion. At each staging ofthe Emsley Carr mile a book is signedby the athletes competing and it nowincludes most of the all time great ofthe event many of them British. TheBMC is not a historic society but byrecognising the achievements of thoseBrits who have led the world it mayhelp today’s runners realise what canbe achieved.Away from the Grand Prix we had ourmost comprehensive ever series ofregional races. At Exeter we have builtup over two years to stage meetingswhich regularly attract over a hundredentrants. Others such as Eltham havealso built up numbers. With a growingmembership and full Grand Prixmeetings the regional races will fulfil anincreasingly important role.This autumn we will be the staging twotraining days for senior athletes atWatford and Trafford organised by LiamCain. We felt that senior athletesoutside of national squads were lackingopportunities to meet, train togetherand gain some coaching advice. TheBMC academy has led the way intraining courses for young athletes andhopefully the senior version will proveequally successful. To check our hunchwe went direct to the athletes in asurvey to gauge interest and receivedstrong backing for the idea.One area where the BMC sometimesreceives criticism is that our pacedraces mean that athletes do not learnhow to employ tactics in their racing.An article elsewhere in this magazineexplains our thinking on this. We canalso help by providing advice on tacticsand David Lowes addresses this inanother article.Although this is now the close season,there is plenty happening with the BMCcross country at Bristol, our academycourses, senior training days, and thenational endurance coachingsymposium. I hope you will enjoy andbenefit from these events.BMC Coach of the Year 2008BMC COACH OF THE YEAR 2008 - ANDY HOBDELLOther Nominations George Gandy, Norman Poole, Trevor Painter and Gavin Pavey.BMC ATHLETE OF THE YEAR 2008 - JO PAVEYOther Nominations Mo Farah, Michael Rimmer, Elizabeth Brathwaite.BMC YOUNG ATHLETE OF THE YEAR 2008 - STEPH TWELLNo other nominations.FRANK HORWILL AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING SERVICE TO BMC - DAVID LOWESBMC News : Autumn 2007 1