Almost 18 inches of snow around his home would not ever be a problem, but no trains runing on Southeastern, buses on severely restricted services, roads being lethal for driving, and the threat of worse to come, all make it nonsensical to attempt to reach Crystal palace.
"Crystal Palace is closed tonight anyway," said John, "and getting there right now is a virtual impossibility. This is really bad news for us with an indoor season just around the corner. I can only hope that the athletes can do something at home or near home to keep things ticking over for now.
"We intend to have a session at Crystal Palace at 12 noon on Sunday unless things worsen, but we can only pray they don't - even then we will be restricted to an indoor track 80 metres long - the outdoor track is never cleared of snow and will probably be out of commission for another week at least."
Meanwhile, Trackspeed1 athletes are asked by their coach to keep an eye on their mobiles for updates by text. If they haven't been receiving these then they should let John know their correct mobile number. A final decision on Sunday will be circulated on Saturday.
| The Crystal Palace outdoor track is never cleared of snow and is likely to remain unusable to Trackspeed1 and the many other athletes whose training base it is for many days to come. Coach John Powell described the situation as "shambolic" and "endemic of the attitude to athletics in this country... We produce international standard athletes every year despite training in a sub-standard facility, but this really doesn't make life any easier." |
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