Rookie athletes given taster day at St Mary’s (From Streatham Guardian)

Rookie athletes given taster day at St Mary’s

9:57am Friday 27th August 2010 in Sport By Tom Pollak

Some of Britain’s most promising young endurance runners have attended a training camp at St Mary’s University College, Twickenham, sponsored by Virgin London Marathon.

Around 90 athletes, aged 14 to 17, took part in the week-long residential camp which ends today.

The youngsters were chosen on the basis of their performances in the London mini marathon, English schools cross country championships and the English national cross country championships.

They took part in training and educational workshops where they were told about nutritional and psychological aspects of athletics, and were introduced to a variety of coaching techniques.

During the week, they also met with top international athletes, who are based at St Mary’s endurance, performance and coaching centre, including Mo Farah, Steph Twell, Andy Baddeley, Andrew Osagie, Chris Thompson, Colin McCourt and Jemma Simpson.

EPACC coach and Australian international Craig Winrow said: “It was a fantastic opportunity to work with young athletics talent.

“Hopefully, they were inspired by some of the international class athletes they had the opportunity to meet while they were with us.”

St Mary’s EPACC was formed earlier this year by Sport St Mary’s in partnership with the Virgin London Marathon.

The centre provides support to numerous student athletes at St Mary’s, along with international athletes who have made St Mary’s their training base.

On Tuesday, coaches from athletics clubs in south west London and further afield were invited to a day-long session to learn about the centre.