Well it has been quite some time since my last blog, to be exact over three years ago with my Middle distance spring blog: Middle Distance - Spring Blog 2022 | Kettering Town Harriers | Kettering Town Harriers, where I was talking about two new momentous events in my life; the birth of my first granddaughter Sorenna and the passing my 60th birthday!
My granddaughter is now a beautiful, bubbly, bright and very active 3 1/2 year old and despite my ever increasing age I'm enjoying every minute of being a grand father and with our second granddaughter due imminently (September), this whole cycle will begin once again, Something I am really looking forward to. Being a grand father definitely re-shapes your life perspective.
Something else shaping my life perspective is retirement, now only a few years away, and I now find I am increasing looking forward to retirement after working in the motor industry since I was 16 (that’s 47 years!), and 38 years with my current company. I am hopeful I might be able to retire a few years before my 67th birthday, watch this space!
So what has happened At Kettering in these three years? The answer is a huge amount we have seen the ending of the “Alice era” at least with my direct input with their day-to-day coaching, training and racing plans. Both girls are flourishing in their new environment and are still representing the club with honour, I’ll talk more about this later.
The whole squad dynamic has changed with over 10 athletes moving on into University life over the past few years and 2025 very much feels like the start of a new generation or era, with some very talented athletes in the younger age groups; U13 to U17 striving to leave their mark in the history of this great club.
One great thing being a coach of 20 years is that you get to see many new generations coming through and chances for some of them to emulate some of the successes of previous generations, and this always keeps me highly motivated. With the last generation now firmly established in their new environment I can find additional time and energy to funnel into shaping this new generation, and to help them develop over the next few years.
One thing I think it's worth talking about before I go onto some of the new athletes, is the process of dealing with athletes that you have personally developed over a great many years moving on sometimes with a new lead coach. As as coach this can be very hard to deal with and I have seen many coaches struggle with this dynamic to the point where animosity can creep in sometimes ruin the very relationship they had built with their athlete. I take a far more pragmatic view; as a coach at grass roots level working athletes from U11 often until they go into university you have to accept that a lot of these athletes will outgrow you and your squad/ club environment and will experience new training groups and coaches particularly during their university years. I do both accept and embrace this process and work collaboratively with my older athletes and their new coaches to help cement them into their new environment. This in my view is the correct way to continue to support your athletes in an athlete cantered approach. I do retain contact with most of my athletes in their new environment and certainly help when they are back at Kettering during their “many” holidays even if It means working with them while they are doing their own sessions. This is definitely one of the tougher aspects of coaching especially where you have invested many years in the development of a junior athlete sometimes to International standards, and you have establish a very personal relationship over many years, rather like your children growing up and moving on with their own life this is definitely a bitter sweet moment.
So what of this new generation of athletes in the current squad? Well I can honestly say I am very excited at the prospect of developing new athletes hopefully to follow in the footsteps of the Alice’s, and others, the current squad is brimming with talent and one year on with this project I can already see signs that there could be athletes who will make a breakthrough.
Mariana Owen joined us last summer, already a junior girls English schools representative for Derbyshire over 1500m, She was moving into the area to start her new school, Oundle, and she took it upon herself to do some extensive research in to the local athletics clubs so she could continue with running. I was delighted when she contacted me and made the decision that Kettering seemed to be the right club for her based on some of athlete we have developed to a high level over many years.
Based on how Mariana has settled in, I’d say her research was sound and Kettering and my squad seems to be working very well for her. She is a great athlete with a very good perspective on what she wants to achieve, and most importantly she listens to all the advise I have given her on my athlete centred approach to coaching. During the winter season she showed her quality in a number of events including the road relays and at local and National level cross country races. This culminated in her achieving a top 8 finish at English Schools in March which earned her her first international vest representing England at the SIAB international in Scotland. This was a remarkable achievement for her and the club who have now helped produced athletes who have won a total of 19th international vests over the past 10 years, something I am immensely proud of.
Marianna Owen, the first of the new generation to represent her Country at the SIAB XC International
Mariana has also flourished on track this season improving her 1500 metre time by over 15 seconds; currently UK ranked 14th at this distance. However it's not all been plain sailing. Representing Northamptonshire at English Schools Over 1500m she once again experienced the brutal nature of elite sport, failing to progress to the final For the second year running, perhaps a combination of tactics employed in the race and the brutal 30° + temperatures. Marianna on paper would have expected to qualify, but sport at this highest level always throws up the hardest challenges, and there are no guarantees to the form book at English Schools.
I always say how you cope with setbacks is the thing that will define you as an athlete and Mariana bounced back in spectacular fashion just days later when she ran her first ever 3000m track race setting an impressive time of 10:05 to make a statement, a UK 7 ranking and smashing the current club record by over 25 seconds! She will now have an opportunity competing in the England Athletics National U15 championships, perhaps eyeing up a podium finish, certainly she will have learned from her previous experience of racing at English Schools.
Another athlete having a mixed experience at English Schools was U17 Peyton Almond. Peyton was the recipient of my Neville Marshall award for her performances in 2024 while in her second spell at Kettering and was sadly short of the qualification time for her preferred event, the 800m, but she did achieve the 1500m qualification time and very much saw the high’s and low’s of elite sport this summer. Perhaps unexpectedly she didn’t qualify for the final, especially as she had experienced a virus the week leading up to her race, but she walked away in a reflective mood and perhaps more determined than ever to return next year in the 800m.
How things can change, the following day she was drafted into the Inter-Girls mixed 4x100m relays and Northants finished 2nd in their heat for automatic qualification for the final. Fast forward 2 hours and Peyton was in the position of starting the 4x100m relay English Schools final with three highly ranked specialist sprinters in her team; using starting blocks which she had only recently trained for, which would be a hugely challenging situation for anyone. Peyton put in a highly credible performance handing over to the 2nd leg in a great position, which the team capitalised on, resulting in them finishing with a magnificent Bronze. An an amazing achievement for Peyton, and the speed training we do as a Middle Distance squad paying dividends, this unexpected medal winning performance was the 9th English Schools medal won by the squad in the past 9 years, an incredible achievement and testament to the hard work the athletes put in.
An honourable mention to the third member of the new look squad who experienced her first English Schools Championships, U15 Clara Booth, competing in the 800m. Junior Girls 800m heats are typically brutal, and so it was on this occasion with five heats and only the winner automatically qualifying along with three fastest looser sports, it get no more brutal than this. Clara run a fine heat, full of positivity, and was one of 5 with 100m to go who could have won the heat, sadly she ran out of legs in the final straight so was unable to progress. None the less, she will build on this great experience and this with fuel the fire in her belly to return in future years.
There are many more athletes who are hot on the heels on the three who made English Schools, U15 Ben Scott just a few seconds off the qualifying standard for the 1500m, after just a few months training with the squad, along side U17 Iona Elwood who ran a 13 second PB in her 1500m while navigating her GCSE exams, a remarkable achievement. U15 Millie Sharp with undoubted potential based on her consistent high quality training will make significant progress once she masters the art of racing, as will U15 Elsie Bennett, younger sibling of Alice. U15 Joshua Spavins will emerge from his major growth spurts and related niggles a better athlete, as will U15 Oliver Smith who has set a remarkable 9 track PB’s this season. New recruits U17 Sophie Hancock & U15 Amelie Heron are also making strong progress since joining the Harriers, and multi talented U15 Sabina Lawton who juggles lots of other activities along side her running has undoubted potential to acheive much more. Lots of names mentioned, and of course the squad has many more athletes who are progressing well, sadly too many to mention, with lots of work for coach and athletes to focus on over the coming years. We have a great core of younger athletes in the U11/U13 establishing themselves, so this new generation give me great hope going forward.
I have spoken about the new generation, what of the older generation of athletes? Well things are going well particularly for Alice Bennett who as I write this blog post has been selected for her first full GB vest in the upcoming European U20 championships in Tampere Finland, which is an amazing achievement for her. Alice finished 2nd in the trial race with a superb run, and under the guidance of new coach, Luke Gunn she has set a new 400m PB, and sliced over 2 seconds from her 800m PB, this despite a 8 week delay to her track season due to a small operation. This was on top of all the usual challenges of a first year student at University, with a new squad, different training, and of course the fact she was starting a new chapter in her life studying, new friends, living independent of her close family, which in many cases would overload an athlete, but not Alice. She has been a model of consistency over the past 5 years that I had the pleasure of coaching her, with a great attitude and work ethic, and it’s fitting that she is the 20th International vest to come from the squad over the past 10 years, something I am immensely proud to be a part of.
Alice Bennett brilliant start to life at University with her first GB vest in the European U20 Championships
Alice Bates has faced some challenges, but continues to see success in her second year at University. Alice was diagnosed with ADHD during her first year and this continues to challenge her from translating her training performances into a race day performance, something she finds immensely frustrating. Despite this Alice had had considerable success, she finished in 2nd place in the woman’s short course XC at BUCS, and followed this up with a fine silver medal over 3000m at the BUCS indoor championships, both these events are competition of the highest level. She still enjoys high rankings, particularly in the 3000m; UK ranked 7th U23, and the longer distance events may be the direction she takes moving forward?
Others who trained in the MD squad over many years are also setting in well with University life, Lucas Rogers, Ben Brooker and Rio Carr based at Loughborough, Lucas Mansell at St. Mary’s, George Separovic in Leicester, and Ellis Johnson at Warwick, all running well and setting new PB’s. It’s great to see the guys returning from Uni during their holidays, and still continue to be an active part of the club, again something which gives me great satisfaction.
One final subject I feel it’s important to mention, is the historic changes the club is undergoing this summer, with a collaboration with the North Northants Council, Northants FA, and our club. The NFA are investing a significant amount into the old hockey pitch, now a state of the art 3G football pitch, and on significant improvements to the pavilion/ club house. This will see us moving into a new clubhouse and will see a coffee shop developed in our old clubhouse space. There will also be new changing rooms, toilets, and a staffed entrance from 8-10pm daily manned and managed by the NFA, who will be responsible for the whole site including the athletics track. This is a bold move and hopefully will allow further investment from any profits the site develops to be fed back into both the NFA and KTH. We need to see how this works in practice, but certainly this is a potentially better option than to continue with minimal investment from a cash strapped council, and this should secure the future of this club going forward.
As I write this blog during my much needed summer holidays, I am mentally preparing for the new XC season & Road Relays already on the horizon, ensuring that every athlete gets a summer season break from running, and then transitioning the training to build up the aerobic base. For some there will be the important 1:1 discussion on how the track season went, and ideas on how we can improve things going forward, and of course Govilon training camp will be with us before we know it, so plenty to keep me busy.
I hope with my next blog (hopefully not another 3 years time) I can talk about the progress of some of the athletes in the “new generation”, certainly I expect some will experience further success, although this is never taken for granted, certainly not by me. They will need to align fully to the two core pillars which which I value above all else and which underpin success going forward, consistency and hard work. I constantly remind my athletes about these two aspects, and this is something all the previous generations aligned with.
I wish everyone a relaxing summer and hope batteries can be recharged ready for the long haul towards Christmas, by which time I will have become a grandfather for the second time, perhaps my granddaughters will form part of a future generation of athletes, possibly at Kettering, now that’s a thought!
Shane Smith – Head Endurance Coach
All view expressed are my own.