LITTLE KNOWN FACTS ABOUT JP AND TS1 UK...

As the summer season beckons and the Trackspeed1 UK annual warm weather training camp approaches, Head Coach John Powell has been reflecting on years gone by.  Here are a few facts - not so well known by many…

·      The squad’s first ever sponsor was Fila who stepped in during the early nineties;

·      The squad’s first source of funding was the National Foundation for Sport and the Arts (who took a backward step when the National Lottery emerged);

·      More on funding – the squad’s immensely generous benefactor and Patron, Sir Eddie Kulukundis OBE, bankrolled a huge amount of support to John Powell and his athletes through the nineties before the lottery kicked in;

·      John Powell himself has belonged to three clubs – Herne Hill Harriers where he was Junior Captain, Blackheath Harriers where he founded what was to become the most successful youth scheme in athletics, and Belgrave Harriers where he reformed their youth and junior section, winning the national league in 2000, and for whom he still sits as club Chairman;

·      Educated at Alleyn’s School, Dulwich, John’s athletics career opened up as the establishment’s Cross Country Captain who also skippered then Southwark Borough teams;

·      Numerous coaches have partnered John during his almost four decades now as a coach.  They include the long jump legend Alan Lerwill, sprints coaches Clarence Callendar, Donovan Reid, the late Roger Walters, and others way too many to name here, but several more he met the other side of the Atlantic…

·      USA coaches John has worked with have included the late Paul Turner (Harvard), Brooks Johnson (Florida), Lance Brauman (Florida), Mike Holloway (Florida), Bryan Fetzer (Virginia), Walt Cline (Washington), and a host of others including squad Diagnostic Advisor Gavin Fernandes now based in Sydney, Australia;

·      John’s first ever coaching examination took place at Crystal Palace with a certain Ron Roddan – coach to Linford Christie – in April 1976;

·      In 2012 John was short-listed and interviewed for the position of Head Coach for UK Athletics;

Trackspeed1 UK Head Coach, John Powell

·      Athletics has enabled John to travel the Globe.  He follows his athletes everywhere and has supported them - at personal expense in most cases - in Singapore (first World Youth Olympics '10), Deagu (World Universities '03 and World Championships '11), Melbourne (Commonwealth Youth Games '04), Beijing and Santiago (World Junior Championships '06 & '00), Moscow (European Youth Olympic Trials '10) and numerous other destinations in Europe and beyond;

·      As an athlete (a very modest one, he will hasten to add!) John competed in 100m, 200m, 400m flat and hurdles, 800m, 1500m, steeplechase, cross-country, road running, and 3 marathons!

·      Jamie Quarry was the first Trackspeed1 athlete to win an English Schools title, and his Junior Boys Triple Jump record (1987) stands to this day;

·      One of the most famous athletes to be discovered and schooled by Trackspeed1 for the first 4 years of his career was Phillips Idowu;

·      John was head of security, having designed the security plan, for the Crystal Palace Diamond League event 4 years in a row 2008-11;

·      John has been part of TeamGB at two Olympic Games in 2004 and 2012.  He worked with New South Wales Police prior to Sydney 2000, and was involved in early security planning for London 2012;

·      John Powell has met Her Majesty The Queen three times – as a sixth former at school during her Silver Jubilee, when she presented awards to his new Met-Track scheme in 2005, and on receiving the MBE in 2013;

·      John’s battle with Cancer just over 20 years ago saw him survive the rigors of two relapses, becoming the first patient in London to receive then pioneering treatment that ultimately saved his life through a bone marrow transplant in 1992;

·      John’s daughter Jasmine is the oldest IVF baby in British history (see www.jasmine21.com), and his youngest daughter Jessica confounded consultants by arriving in a somewhat more orthodox manner, much to the shock but utter delight of both parents!

·      John acted as a pundit on Sky Sports during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games;

·      Among some dramatic experiences in his Police career, he helped douse a demonstrator in Whitehall who had set himself alight with petrol, and was running toward the Queen and Government officials on Remembrance Sunday at 11am.  He was one of the first on scene at the Poll Tax riots in Trafalgar Square, and he had a giant flower pot rammed over his head outside the Royal Exchange during a large 'Stop the City' demonstration in 1984!!;

·      Of all the international standard athletes moving to other coaches against John’s wishes over the past 3 decades, only four have ever improved.  Interestingly their surnames involve the initials M, B and E !