POWELL HONOURED AT THE PALACE

Trackspeed1 UK Head Coach, John Powell, received his MBE from Her Majesty The Queen today in an investiture ceremony conducted at Buckingham Palace.  He described the experience as "one of the proudest days of my life."

John Powell with his MBE at Buckingham Palace today

John, who learned of the impending Honour back in May this year for 'Services to Athletics', attended the event along with his wife, Chanphen, mother Ellen, and the person responsible for the nomination in the first place, former junior international sprinter, Jason Hussain.

As if the day wasn't memorable enough, special permission was granted for his daughter Jasmine (19 months), escorted by God Mother Lucy Eggleton, to access the inner courtyard at the Palace for the official photo-calls afterwards.

"That made it all the more exceptional," said John.  Everything is a blur when your name is announced and you walk up to Her Majesty to receive your medal, but afterwards in the Courtyard it was really quite emotional, especially when I saw Jasmine standing there.

"It was an amazing event, obviously very well conducted.  My short conversation with The Queen centred around coaching and the Met-Track scheme.  She actually presented the medals after our first season, when visiting Bexley Borough, where I was serving as a Police Superintendent in 2005.

"I know there must have been a fair bit of support shown for the original nomination, so I can only send out my warmest and most sincere gratitude to anyone involved, especially of course Jason who put the whole thing together. 

"Today was a truly humbling experience that I will never ever forget."

After savouring the experience today, John will land back on terra firma on Saturday as Trackspeed1 UK reconvene for day one of winter training!

"We have a decent group of athletes this year after a bit of a dip this last season, so I am looking forward to getting back into the groove with stopwatch and clip-board," he warned.