In recent years many coaches, Promoters and Athletics Managers think that, it is best for athletes to give the County Championships a miss.
Peter Browne was a very good international runner and a World class veteran 800m man. He was President of the Middlesex County Athletics Association in 2012.
“I think they are wrong. County Championships I always regarded as a step on the path to success.
Unfortunately the season is not structured the way it used to be. It used to be a progression. You would have the County, Area, and then National Championships. That was a natural progression. Unfortunately with the calendar overfull, people are having to focus on multiple events, so they are not picking the County Championships.
Money & being on television as a paid athlete, rather than doing athletics as a major hobby?”
“I think the problem is that there are a lot of people who are preparing, as though they were ‘Olympic final potential’ and they are not. If you accept that if you go warm weather training as a thing to do for most athletes but the number who go warm weather training and prepare as though they have potential for an Olympic final ‘It’s not there’
Bill O’Conner (81) President of The Middlesex County Athletics Association in 2022
Championships should be a must for all/ Senior & junior athletes, men and women”. Bill has run every London marathon. One was in 2:34.39. He had been a rugby player in New Zealand before he became a good runner in the UK”
Richard Priestley President of the Middlesex County Athletics Association in 2015 & 2016 and recently a Team Manager
He was a good club middle distance runner
“Definitely the case. I think it is a pathway to the Southern’s and obviously representative matches are very important, That was how I progressed through the ranks.”
Do you think that there is too much of a gap now between Higher competition and things like the County events?
“There is a gap, The elite athletes are not encouraged to do these Championships or the Area one’s so, they are pulled apart from them where as, in our day you had the chance in competing against the very best all the time”