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- Mar 30, 12
So it’s been a fair few weeks now since the aftermath of the Aviva Indoor Grand Prix/my last update, and much has happened in the meantime… Following on from a short but successful indoor campaign we’ve wasted no time at all in getting back on the horse and back to the grind! The Indoor competitions have served as ample guidance for the areas we’ve needed to work on in preparation for the upcoming summer season – the business end of the year! Plus, the string of personal bests has provided some confirmation that the new training regime I started back in October is working well and capable of producing the type of results necessary to secure a place on the Olympic team. In athletics you often train 3 or 4 consecutive months at a time (toiling daily for that extra centremetre or fractions of a second) before having the opportunity to test yourself in competition – be it over a 13 second run, a leap over a bar, or a hop, skip and jump into a sandpit. So it’s always good to know that the ‘end product’ is benefiting down-the-line, and such is no better indicated than by a new Personal Best performance during competition.
Training since the Indoors has been pretty unforgiving to be honest; no sooner than 3 days after starring at the Grand Prix was I reduced to all-fours on the infield of the Lea Valley track, mid-way through a session ‘watering the grass’, as coach Jarrett has so kindly coined it – needless to say this hasn’t been last time that I’ve taken it upon myself to assist the groundskeeper! Focus over the last 6 weeks has moved away from the Indoor appetizer of 5 hurdles to the main course: the 10 high-hurdles, spread over 110 metres that Outdoor races plant in your way. There’s been greater emphasis on speed-endurance and holding technique under fatigue, so sessions on the track and in the gym have tended to include longer recoveries but higher intensity work. So far so good though, a nasty chest infection and a few niggles have threatened to throw us off course but despite these speed bumps progress has been very promising, and compared to this time last year it’s fair to say I’m now a completely different athlete! So only 4 weeks remain until my first Outdoor competition of this Olympic year, I’m really pleased with where I’m at and I now can’t wait to fly out with the rest of the squad to a Warm Weather Training Camp in Italy, to add some polish before my season debut!
Aside from training, the latest chapter in my hunt for sponsorship has kept me especially busy over these past 6 weeks. This month in particular I’ve attended numerous events and networking opportunities, meeting some really incredible and accomplished people along the way. It’s extremely touching to meet people, strangers in fact, who express admiration for my quest and want to help in what ways they can. I really am grateful to all those who reach out to provide support and assistance at I time when I need it most, whether it be some kind advice, a sponsorship donation, an out-of-the-blue facebook message suggestion or independent enquiries on my behalf amongst personal networks. I very much appreciate all of your efforts and these gestures certainly do motivate me to keep working hard; spurring me on even more to prove that your belief is indeed well placed! So a big thank you to all these individuals reading this (you know who you are!) and to these organisations: the Adam Gibbons Sports Foundation, Blue Mountain Water, OO Club, Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers A.C. and The Crowland Show… As the saying goes: “if you’re absent during my struggle, don’t expect to be present during my success”.
However it hasn’t all been hard work and no play, catching up with friends from school and University is a rare treat that I’ve been able to do a little bit of recently. Likewise it’s been cool to get involved with some of my affiliate’s projects, in particular being a part of Dame Kelly Holmes’ ‘Team Day’ for her trust at Reading’s Majewski Stadium was a whole lot of fun. It’s great to support the fantastic work that the charity does and working alongside other talented sportsmen and sportswomen in doing so, like Jenna Downing and Sam Brearey, is inspiring in itself! Doing a Spring Collection photo shoot for Rampant Sporting was also great fun, especially with Lucy Boggis, a.k.a Gladiator – Tempest, on hand to show me how it’s done (a really talented heptathlete and long-time friend who was a teammate on my very first international team back in 2005!). On that note a big shout-out to up and coming sports photographer Tom Flathers who produced some fantastic pictures, some of which you can see in my gallery, when he photo-diarised one of my recent training sessions over at Loughborough University (the first picture above is taken from his work) – watch this space!
I’ve also managed to squeeze in a few school visits this month, including a practical session I held at Mary Webb School in Shrewsbury; I have to say hats off to teachers, as managing 95 12 year olds for half a day was arguably more exhausting than any training session ever could be! I always enjoy going into schools, serving as a positive role model to pupils in this way is a real privilege and having benefited greatly from sport through primary, further and higher education it’s great to coach and share my experiences with youngsters. However the end of my session coincided with the arrival of Derek Redmond, after meeting him he went on to deliver a fantastic presentation to the entire school, so on this visit it was me who left at the end of the day feeling inspired! I’m looking forward to doing more visits over the coming months where time allows and to working with the government’s National Citizen Service initiative this summer on behalf of the charity I support (do drop me a line if you are at all interested in the services I offer to schools and organisations). So I’m off to a training camp in the south of Italy next week, just as it seems the good weather in the UK is about to turn – but don’t hate me too much somehow I don’t think sun bathing, sightseeing and gelato feature highly on the itinerary!
Until next time,
~ Julz ~
- Feb 23, 12
Following my performance at the UK Indoor Championships last weekend I’ve merited an invite to the world renown Aviva Indoor Grand Prix, to be staged at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham this Saturday. This is a fantastic opportunity to take on many of the world’s best hurdlers, not to mention the two fastest hurdlers of all-time Liu Xiang and Dayron Robles – a pair of Olympic Champions, the former and the reigning World Record holder, respectively. As a Birmingham born and part-time based athlete I can’t wait to get out onto the track and compete in front of the 10,000+ home crowd inside the sold-out arena. I bumped into Liu during my training session yesterday and I’m pretty sure I could smell fear, so we’ll have to see if I can get the measure of him!
Not one to be missed, be sure to tune into BBC1 at 2pm this Saturday for the heats of the 60m Hurdles.
For King and country!
~ Julz ~
************* UPDATE *************
Another Personal Best (PB) performance! Drawn in the second of two heats, alongside Dayron Robles and a whole host of World and European medallists, I got off to a great start and kept my composure to cross the line in 7.71s, to make it five PBs in five competitions this year!
So that’s a wrap on Indoors, it’s back to heavy training this week and the quest for Olympic qualification this summer, as well as the sponsorship that will help enable this. I’ll be doing my utmost in between now and then to leave no stone unturned, there are 8 grueling training weeks until the Outdoor season begins, so every day counts. I really hope to be able to spend a few of these weeks putting in some quality training at a purpose built Warm Weather Olympic Training Camp in Italy, which will be led by esteemed Olympic 110m Hurdler Tony Jarrett, if I can raise the £1,400 needed for this.
If anyone reading this would like to help, you can do and out more: HERE.
Many thanks for your support!
~ Julz ~
- Feb 15, 12
February 12th, one of two dates in 2012 that’s pinned up on my wall. Sunday gone marked the focal point of my indoor season, the first of this year’s UK Championships; a twice annual event (indoors & outdoors) where Britain’s best athletes, as well as coaches and the powers that be, descend upon a given city to face-off, all with the same aim, to be crowned UK Champion. Whilst the outdoor championships bear greater significance, athletics being primarily an outdoor sport, unlike other disciplines hurdlers rarely sit-out the indoor season. So these championships are historically as competitive as the outdoor equivalent in the hurdle events and Sunday was no different. The 28 athletes who had achieved the national standard and succeeded in keeping their bodies in one piece, made the trip up to Sheffield and lined up for the heats on the Sunday morning. The atmosphere at the UK Championships is like no other, there’s an unmistakable and unavoidable tension in the air. As the biggest domestic meeting of the year, all eyes are fixed on proceedings, prior achievements count for little and every athlete wants to pull out their best performance to date at a time when it matters most.
Qualification requirements for the final were the 1st placed athletes from each of the four heats to be joined by the four overall fastest runners-up. I was drawn in the second heat and in the lane alongside the athlete ranked 3rd in the UK. Following a decent start I was able to put together a fairly good but comfortable race and come away with the win, sealing automatic qualification in a new Personal Best time of 7.74s, the second fastest time of the day from all the heats.
Fast forward a couple of hours and the stage all was set for the final, at the first attempt “on your marks… SET…” the starter’s gun sounded twice… indicating that someone had recorded a false start – every athletes’ worst nightmare! It usually takes a minute or so for the officials to check the computers (which are wired up to the pressure sensitive starting blocks) and reveal exactly which competitor was judged to have ‘jumped the gun’ – this makes for an extremely nerve racking 60 seconds as even if it’s blatantly obvious that it wasn’t you, your mind still wonders! The athlete in lane 5 was subsequently disqualified as we resumed to our blocks, the silent pause before the set command once again came on cue… only for a ‘faulty start’ to be called as tension started to pile upon tension. At the third time of asking we got away cleanly and I got a great start, taking an early lead I touched down off the first hurdle in pole position – before disaster struck – after an adrenaline induced rocket start I cleared the first barrier and approached the second moving faster than I ever have before, maybe surprising myself in doing and I didn’t react quickly enough to the second hurdle, leading to an almighty crash!!! Now hitting hurdles isn’t anything new, indeed if you watch the last two world record races you’ll notice that the winners make contact with numerous hurdles, but, there are just as many different ways to hit a hurdle as there are to skin a cat! I hit hurdle 2 with my lead leg (the ultimate sin!) before also hitting it with my trail knee and ankle as they came through – this was what prompted the impromptu ‘karate kid crane kick’ impression, that those of you who watched the race live on Channel 4 may have clocked, as I attempted to regain balance. One positive that did come out of this erm ‘altercation’ was that where as in previous years such a collision would have sent me to the deck or at the least seen me trail home in last place, the strength gains from my first winter of full-time training showed through as I was able to pull off this ‘Cirque-du-Soleil’ manoeuvre and somehow keep on going.
Albeit with momentum stunted and the race for gold now gone, I managed to somehow regain rhythm and with a late burst and dip of desperation secured 3rd place and the bronze medal, not surprisingly in my slowest time since my first race of the season, 7.84s. On review, it would be all too easy to focus on what the outcome of the final might have been but for my mistake, but just like not false starting clearing all the hurdles is part of the challenge, and there are a lot of positives to take away that warrant attention more. I’m extremely pleased to win my first ever Senior UK Championship medal and to walk away from the championships with a new Personal Best, both of which were goals set at the start of winter training. Having finished 4th here last year in 7.86s – with a UK ranking of 5th, it’s great to have improved upon this with a 3rd place finish this year and a 7.74s PB, consolidating a current UK ranking of 4th – in the words of Al Pacino (Any Given Sunday) “Inch by Inch”!
~ Julz ~
- Feb 08, 12
As I mentioned, off the back of some promising early season performances I received a call-up to represent England at an Indoor Grand Prix meeting last Tuesday in Austria, the Vienna Indoor Classic. Personally, I think it’s always a great honour to represent your country whatever the event or partiality; we all have ambitions but they say “tomorrow isn’t promised” and arguably it’s nobody’s birthright to be the best at what they do, so I try not to take opportunities like these for granted. A team of about 20 of us checked in at Heathrow Airport early on the Monday morning and caught the 2.5 hour flight to Vienna, going away to compete with a team is always a whole lot of fun, the travelling seems to go much quicker and the jokes are always popping off – especially when the ever mischievous @Lukey400m, my old training partner, is on the team!
Plus, as a British athlete you’re always looked after well and it’s cool to catch up with old friends, meet new faces too and visit different places around the world. Although the -5ºC daytime temperatures ensured not too much ‘visiting’ went on, like footballers athletes aren’t frequent skiers so I’m pretty safe in saying I’ve never been anywhere so cold in my life or so scared of having to go outside! After our transfer from the airport we arrived at the hotel at around lunchtime and with the meeting not due to kick off until the following evening we had a lot of time to kill, this was no great surprise as such is often the case when competing abroad, luckily sprint hurdler Sara McGreavy brought ‘Arrowhead’ with her (nah I hadn’t heard of it either – a strangely addictive crossword puzzle book!). I spent most of my time graeco-roman wrestling with the team physio to try and ease the stiffness from the races two days previous, and ‘making the world right’ with roommate and fellow philosopher @GianniFrankis!
‘Showtime’ soon came around the following day, I had a good warm up and was drawn in the outside lane in for the heats; the race was a marked improvement from a few days earlier, although I hit three of the barriers and collapsed a little off the last hurdle I managed to hold it together to record another new Personal Best time of 7.75s, qualifying for the final and just marginally missing out on the win by a mere 1 hundredth of a second – check out the race video HERE. However, immediately after the race I felt a slight pain in my right quadricep and after much deliberation decided it would be wisest to pull out of the final and not risk further injury, with UK Indoor Champs just over a week away. This was a pretty frustrating decision to have to make as I was almost certain that I was going to run even faster in the second round, especially with the schedule lending itself to doing so, the final timetabled less than an hour later and having blown away any cobwebs in first round. Nevertheless, I sat on the sidelines and watched the final go by – with acupuncture needles sticking out of my leg! Lovely!!! – low and behold all the competitors that lined up for the final did indeed run faster than they did in the heats.
Having now touched back down on home soil I’ve had some treatment, my quad is back to its normal self and I’m glad I decided to err on the side of caution to make sure that I’m 100% for the one that really counts, this weekend. With enough warm up races under the belt and the luxury of having had a few sessions this past week to make some final adjustments, I’m now chomping at the bit to get out and compete in front of a sell-out, capacity crowd this weekend, at what is the focal meet of the Indoor season and first blood of this Olympic year, the UK Indoor Championships in Sheffield. Make sure to tune in on Channel 4 from 2pm this Sunday, should I qualify through the heats the final is being televised live at 3.15pm and is one of the most hotly anticipated events on the programme.
Thanks again for all of your support and well wishes, please keep your fingers crossed for me!
~ Julz ~
- Jan 29, 12
This season my coach and I decided we’d keep to the same indoor race schedule that worked so well last year and so for the second year running I turned up to Lea Valley in North London on Saturday for my second competitive outing of the indoor campaign. This meet boasted a stronger field than the previous week, with many of the UK top 10 set to lock horns over 2 rounds of the 60m Hurdles and the result didn’t disappoint. The first race however was one to forget for me, every so often a sprinter finds themselves affected by a temporary but extremely disabling condition called ’asleep in the blocks’ and this it appeared was my turn. As the gun went “BANG” I failed to react straight away and found myself left in the starting blocks by my competitors, likened to being the contender on Gladiators (TV programme) who had to start on John Anderson’s “second whistle” - less than ideal in a sprint race! I managed to make up some ground, enough to finish a credible 3rd place in 7.91s, but with the 60m Hurdles being such a short race if you don’t get a decent start it’s more or less ‘Game Over’. The race was won in a UK leading 7.66s, so this was a missed opportunity to be pushed to an equally fast if not faster time. However after an hour to regroup it was time for the second round, making amends I got a decent start and was the first to touch down off the first and second hurdle. From there onwards a couple of errors caused me to crash the remaining three barriers, as I was passed by the eventual winner, nonetheless I finished 2nd in 7.81s a new Personal Best time.
In other news this week, I received a call-up to represent England in an international fixture next week in Vienna, Austria. This should be a good opportunity to test myself against some of Europe’s best – plus good authority tells me Vienna coffee houses are the truth, so it’s only right that I duly verify this whilst representing my country! We fly out on Monday and race on Tuesday evening, wish me luck!
~ Julz ~
- Jan 22, 12
After 5 months of ‘cold turkey’ Saturday marked the first race outing of the new year and the 2012 season! Similar to last year’s season opener I ran two rounds of the 60m Hurdles at the Loughborough Indoor Open, a low key meet that I usually kick off with to ‘blow away the cobwebs’ and focus on some technical points but in a race environment. The result was encouraging, a pair of wins and my fastest ever season opener: 7.93s in the heat and 7.87s in the final (7.84s being my current Personal Best time). The first race was a little tentative and the second quite sloppy, as is to be expected with the long lay-off, but it compares favourably with last year’s results: 8.04s and 8.03s. These race will form much of the blueprint over the next 3 weeks as we prepare for the UK Indoor Championships, highlighting the areas I need to sharpen up; and with much room to improve and the ring-rust still falling off, the next few meets look promising.
p.s. Happy Chinese New Year! – word is I’m a ‘dragon’ and this is my year, we shall see!
~ Julz ~
- Dec 31, 11
That’s the name of the game and fittingly this month has been one big battle to do just that! Besides financial stability, injury and illness are unquestionably the two biggest threats facing me, and any other athlete for that matter, in achieving success in the run up to the 2012 Olympics and for the duration of my career. Pushing your every boundary in training whilst at the same time ensuring you reach the start line fit and healthy is ultimately half of the fight. Unlike other sports where teammates can help to take the weight off you at times or implements, like say hockey sticks, bear some of the brunt, in track there is no hiding. It’s just you and your body that’s asked to deliver optimal performance every single race outing. 2008 Olympian Andrew Steele recently wrote an interesting piece for the BBC about his experience of this rarely publicised ‘darker side’ to athletics and professional sport.
This month the intensity of training has been upped yet again, but with much of the winter slog now in the bank and an indoor race schedule looming on the horizon, extra care has also been taken to monitor my sessions and track how my body is adapting. This has been in order to prevent over-training, as the last thing I want is to be denied the chance to show a glimpse of the progress I’ve made this winter, during the upcoming Indoor Season.
Although with Christmas to navigate things were always bound to get a little hairy. Don’t get me wrong I love Christmas and the entire festive period, but admittedly it doesn’t half mess up an athlete’s routine! Your first race in over 4 months is just around the corner and: most tracks and gyms suddenly close, your coaches and physiotherapists either stop entirely or reduce working hours, you have to find a way to accommodate family gatherings/location/travel with training plans, oh and then there’s Christmas lunch – which threatens to annul, in one gluttonous swoop, all of the core and abdominal circuits you’ve winced through in the gym for the last 12 weeks! Bahhh Humbug!!!
That said I have to say up until the 22nd December things were going suspiciously well! At which point, and right on time, I developed a phantom pain in my achilles tendon – a part of the body where if it hurts history suggests you should probably stop and listen to it. This was swiftly followed by a couple of 3 hour stints in A&E on Christmas Eve, to address “that awkward moment when your butter-fingered training partner/‘supposed’ spotter drops a bench-press bar on your skull” (- during the very last rep and very last set of the very last exercise of the training session, might I add). To add insult to injury, having avoided catching even a sniffle since winter training began back in October, I then went down with the delightful Norovirus on Christmas Day, just for good measure. On the upside all the enforced rest this week has given me ample time to write another blog post; albeit from my sickbed, with my leg on ice, a summit the size of Mount Sinai chilling on my brow and the contents of my large intestine staring at me from a bucket across the room. Brilliant.
But as they say: All’s well that ends well. Fast forward a little, today is New Year’s Eve and I’m pleased to report that the bug has now passed, my head is healing – scans revealed I managed to escape without a fracture to the skull or internal bleeding, and the rest has done my achilles the world of good. Looking back at my training diary, the last two weeks actually compare favourably to the same period last year, where a strained groin and Wensleydale induced food poisoning actually kept me out of action for longer – maybe I really don’t like Christmas? So here’s to a fit and healthy 2012, my first race is in a couple of weeks and I can’t wait. Stay tuned!
Season’s Greetings and a Happy New Year to you all!
~ Julz ~
- Nov 30, 11
Another 4 weeks banked and only another 8 months to go until I spend all I have… at the Olympic Trials! Without wanting to tempt fate, the last four weeks has probably been the best block of training I’ve ever had (although to keep this in perspective, through circumstance, I was rarely able to string together a full fortnight of training whilst at University without missing/compromising sessions or breaking down). It’s satisfying to know that we’ve made steady progress across the board so far and whilst there’s still a very long way to go it’s pleasing to see positive indications: technical improvements in the way I’m going into and coming off the hurdles, I’m lifting heavier and more efficiently than ever, my sprint times are down and my overall fitness has noticeably benefited from the increased volume of training.
More recently I’ve started the pre-competition preparation phase of training, which has seen a shift of emphasis to speed and more race related practice. It’s a timely reminder that the Indoor Season is fast approaching and that all the cumulative hours of graft are essentially for those 13 seconds of ‘fight or flight’, or in the case of Indoors, 7 and a half seconds. I have quite a limited volume of training prior to this year to call upon, so I’m finding that the thin line between pushing your limits and getting injured is even thinner for me and a few different niggles and warning signs have caused me to back-off at points this month or modify my training – the strained hamstrings and torn quadriceps of recent seasons have taught me it’s much better to live and fight another day!
More so, the hurdles themselves can be a cause for concern, at 3 foot 6 inches tall if you lose concentration or don’t get it quite right, they BITE, simple as. My trail leg knee which has currently swollen to the size of a grapefruit can testify to that and I was fortunate to walk away from a bad fall recently without breaking my wrist; just as three of the UK’s top 10 sprint hurdlers (Will Sharman, Gianni Frankis & Edirin Okoro) have in recent years. Luckily my ‘knight in shining armour’, none other than the mercurial 400m prodigy Chris Clarke, was on hand to run over and peel me off the track – what a guy – I’ve always said you don’t know who your real friends are until you’ve fallen flat on your face over a hurdle!
a graphic reconstruction of me taking a bad fall at training last week (click below)
So as we enter December I’ve got one eye on the heats and final of the UK Indoor Championships on the 12th February, where I’ll be looking to improve upon my 4th place finish in 7.86s from earlier on in the year. I can honestly say that since starting athletics aged 17, admittedly because of the personal choice I made to prioritise academia, I’ve never gone into a Championship of any description feeling ready. It’s always been a case of performing the best I can in the circumstances (and praying that my hamstrings don’t disintegrate from the shock!), whilst sometimes this is just part and parcel of sport, with me it’s often been to the extent that if the other 7 guys on the start line knew how little I’d given to preparation I’m pretty sure they’d have offered me a head-start! As any international athlete will tell you, as a junior natural talent will often see you through such situations, but at senior level talent without a hell of a lot of hard work and application is about as useful as a solar powered torch. My experience of this has been one of much frustration, not necessarily because I’ve just had my ass kicked and have hurdled like a drunken crab, but more because you know that your performance isn’t a true representation of your ability. This is something, all things being equal, that I’ll finally be able to put an end to this year. My time, my efforts and energies are now channelled into athletics as my primary focus and as my coaches will attest; when the championships come round next year I’ll be ready.
~ Julz ~
- Nov 28, 11
Last week I travelled to the University of Worcester to promote a new Sport England initiative called the School Games, alongside Rt. Hon Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport Jeremy Hunt. It was a really successful media event and it was great to interact with local school pupils and see them already benefiting from this promising scheme. If you didn’t catch the full story on BBC News last week, check out the guest blog I’ve written for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport HERE.
~ Julz ~
- Oct 27, 11
I can barely believe an entire month has passed since my last post… time has flown! – although not because I’ve been having fun, that I can assure you. The week beginning the 3rd October marked the first week of ‘Winter Training’ and each week since then has been a steady progression of pain, soreness, breathlessness, disgorge (- who knew there was a posh word for vomit?), oh and did I mention pain!… In fact I’m pretty sure my coaches could go to prison for some of the sessions they’ve set me… Anyway enough of my wining this is completely normal for Track & Field athletes at this time of year (or so my coach tells me!). Basically the general plan is to put in 12 solid weeks of hard graft, literally breaking myself down to build myself back up stronger, faster and more technically proficient; before beginning preparations after Christmas for the upcoming Indoor Competition Season (Jan to March). The plan = so far so good, this is my first ever Winters Training where athletics has been my primary focus (rather than academics: GCSE to A-Level to Law Degree, and then last year my graduate job as an elected Sabbatical Officer) and I’m absolutely loving it!!! It’s so good not to have to rush through a gym session in order to dash off to a Tax Law lecture or have to cut short a track session so I can dart off for a Trustee Board meeting.
The area where my training has perhaps benefited most is the time not spent training – I’m always keen to receive advice and wisdom from those more experienced than myself as I’m a firm believer that if possible it’s always better to learn from the mistakes of others or those witnessed by others than to falter yourself – and on countless occasions I’ve been told by ex-athletes, coaches and elders that rest and recovery from training is as important as the training itself. So the new found ability to implement recovery strategies for after these near-death experiences (also known as training sessions) has been priceless; afternoon naps, DVD marathons, strategised replenishment and a lot less stress than I’m used to, has kept me fresher and better able to survive quality sessions back to back!
So I’ve just about settled into a tunnel-visioned routine of 6-day a week training with 1 day of rest and I’ve also added some finishing touches to a team that is behind me all the way. In the sense that whilst athletics is largely an individual sport it’s most certainly a team effort every time I run a personal best time or win a medal. ‘Team Julz’ (as it’s narcissistically known) comprises of my Lead Coach and Taskmaster Eli ‘The Boss-lady’ Binks who’s nurtured me since I was first spotted in 2004, my family, a Sprints Coach, an S+C coach and 2 S+C assistants, my Physiotherapist and 3 support Physios, an Osteopath, a Biomechanist, a Sports Therapist, a Sports Psychologist, a number of associates and my Sponsors [YOUR NAME HERE] ; ) It’s been great to add Tony Jarrett to this list this winter, a Hurdles coach and living legend in the sport of athletics (one of the faster hurdlers of all time, his accolades speaks for themselves). It’s a privilege to learn from someone who has been there and done it all in my very discipline, he has a talented group of young and hungry hurdlers who are brilliant training partners and to benefit from a true athlete perspective in ones coaching and approach to competition is something few athletes are fortunate enough to have.
Aside from running myself ragged around a track and paying people to lie me on a physio bed and inflict pain *cough* Poora Sohal *cough*, this month I’ve also continued to work with a whole range of projects based around giving back to sport and providing inspiration and motivation for young people through the intrinsic values of sport. I really enjoy working with young people in this way, sharing with them my experiences as someone who has hugely benefited from sport through education; I did a presentation on behalf of my sponsors Blue Mountain Water to the Midland Bursars Group a couple of weeks ago on this very topic, much aligned with the beliefs of ‘Right To Play’ a fantastic charity I collaborated with during my job last year . At the start of the month I went to a national training day in Loughborough for Sport England’s ‘Sporting Champions’ scheme which was a real learning curve, aside from continued professional development it was also a lot of fun for a ‘big kid’ like me and a rare opportunity to hang out with accomplished athletes from other sports; such as Olympic Cycling medallist Bryan Steel, GB Sailing’s Sam Breary, England Rugby International Rachael Burford and Olympic High Jumper Brendan Reilly. More recently I was invited to the BUPA Birmingham Great Run (half-marathon) to launch ‘Sportmakers’ (see photo below) on behalf of the Birmingham Sports Partnership with ex-England footballer Geoff Thomas and the Lord Mayor - who I found out to be a bit of twitter don – needless to say no way in hell was I taking part in the run itself but it was a great occasion, congratulations to all participants! …That’s all for now folks…
Happy Halloween!
~ Julz ~
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About
- Rising star Julz Adeniran...With a new Personal Best time of 13.72s set during the 2011 season, accompanied by a consolidated Top 5 UK ranking, Julz Adeniran is now within touching distance of the elusive 'A' qualification standard that would take him to the London 2012 Olympic Games. Having achieved what he has to date as a part-time athlete, his sights are now firmly set on establishing himself as a notable presence within the senior Great Britain team ahead of this summer's home Olympics and 2014's home Commonwealth Games, as he attempts to lead his charge full-time through the help of external sponsorship. Few can doubt that with the necessary backing he is searching for, simply to enable his craft to receive full attention so that he may train and compete full-time, Julz will soon be a force to be reckoned with and a major championship contender for Great Britain in the 110m Hurdles.One to watch, Julz Adeniran is, one of tomorrow's athletes... Who needs your help today!International Highlights
2012 – England Senior Team, Indoor Grand Prix – Vienna, AUS
2011 – British Universities Team – Loughborough, GBR
2009 – England Senior Team, Outdoor Grand Prix – Istanbul, TUR
2008 – England Senior Team, Indoor Grand Prix – Bratislava, SVK
2007 – Great Britain- EAA European Championships – Hengelo, NEDEngland Senior Team, Indoor Grand Prix – Bergen, NOR2006 – Great Britain - IAAF World Championships – Beijing, CHNGreat Britain - DLV International – Mannheim, GER2005 – British Schools Team – Tullamore, IREDomestic Record
UK Indoor Championships 2012, Bronze
British Universities Championships 2011, Double Gold
England Championships 2011, Silver
Shortlisted for British Universities Sportsman of the Year 2011 - one of 4 nominees across 158 Universities & 51 sports.
ESAA (English Schools) Championships, Double Gold
UK U23 Championships, Bronze
UK U20 Championships, Silver
UK U17 Championships, Double Gold
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Gallery (click to enlarge)
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Sponsor Me
- Be a part of something BIG, boost profile, help an aspiring Olympian!
Julz is currently seeking sponsorship to help secure selection for the London 2012 Olympic Games, and permit podium success at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and London 2017 World Championships... Would you like to be a part of this journey? Can you help?
"Law graduate and Young Director to Olympic Hurdler. Not a career objective and certainly not an orthodox route, but it has remained a lifelong goal since I first became a national champion in 2005. Academic pressures, a serious car accident and other testing life encumbrances have failed to derail me from striving towards my personal ambition of representing Great Britain at the pinnacle of competitive sport, the Olympic Games. I have the work ethic, the mental fortitude and the talent to succeed but I require your foresighted support to ensure I am able to receive adequate sports medical care, fund training and competition costs, and commit wholeheartedly to achieving this goal by training on a full-time basis."
If your BUSINESS or SCHOOL is at all interested in the services on offer in return for 'Private Sponsorship', or for information on 'School Visits', please do not hesitate to get in contact (above).
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Tweets
- May 19, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- True say, but you can't beat that smokey voice of hers #hotdamn RT “@LouiseHazel: Becky fluffed it!”
- May 19, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Liu Xiang dropping it like it's hot! #thatishcrayMay 19, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Knee is in a bad way after falling hard in Wednesday's race... gonna have to fork out for an MRI scan #perfecttiming #London2012May 18, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- #ff █░F░O░L░L░O░W░F░R░I░D░A░Y░█ never a dull moment with these boys: @Shocka_Sprints @NigelLevine @dikkydavenport @JHyltz @GianniFrankis
- S/O to my roomie,carer,psychotherapist & fellow Louis Theroux enthusiast @dikkydavenport for steering me away from a ball,chain&river today!May 17, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Back from a disastrous comp in Belgium. Note to self: nosediving into hurdle1 & sliding across mondo into hurdle2 isn't big nor is it clever
- S/O to my bro @Shocka_Sprints for peeling me off the track, hard fall & slide at hurdle 1 #ladyluck give me a break... http://t.co/VMYZl7B5
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News
- Media ArchiveSportsvibe - http://www.sportsvibe.co.uk/articles/athletics/julz-worth-investing-in-ambitious-adeniran-sets-sights-on-olympics-15477/Department of Culture, Media and Sport - http://blogs.culture.gov.uk/main/2011/11/post_18.htmlDame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust - http://www.dkhlegacytrust.org/Charity-News_638
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Videos
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Journey
- The Journey So Far...A relatively late starter to the sport of athletics, Julz's talent for the hurdles was first spotted in 2004 during a school sports gala in Bromsgrove, where a timekeeper suggested that he try-out for the English Schools Championships, to be held later that summer in Gateshead. Taking heed of this advice Julz wasted no time in applying himself to the sprint hurdles discipline, taking to it like a duck to water. His very first year competing beyond school level, the 2005 season, saw him win National Indoor and Outdoor Championship titles at the first time of asking and break Andy Turner's (current GB #1 for the 110mH) 12-year-old English Schools Championship Record. Julz would also earn his first international representative vest that very same season, gaining selection to compete for England, aged 17. Before going on to represent Great Britain four times during his first three years of hurdling.
Despite such sudden advancement, all the more attention grabbing in a overly technical event like the hurdles, the relatively uncut diamond followed through with prior intentions of completing a University degree, successfully attaining admission to the prestigious University of Birmingham Law School; where his sporting development would take a conscious but temporary back-seat. The balancing of academic rigour emplaced its reigns and a car accident in early 2009 made sure of a challenging and injury ravaged period, culminating in the withdrawal of much needed National Governing Body/Lottery funding and his sponsors at the time. Undeterred by these setbacks and the burden of academic commitments, Julz bounced back to regain full fitness a year later and went on to encounter further success at HE level; showing his resilience in winning several British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) titles and UK Championship medals, in 60m Hurdles and 110m Hurdles, as he progressed through the age-groups.
Upon completion of his Bachelor of Law studies in June 2010, Julz was bestowed the honour of being elected through a campus-wide general election to be one of 7 Young Directors, amongst the 28,000 students at the University of Birmingham. On taking up this 12 month sabbatical he served a full-time post with a broad portfolio, at heart of it to represent the wider student body, provide political and strategic direction for the Student Union organisation, and improve campus experience for all students. Under the title of Vice President (Sport) of the University of Birmingham Guild and AU President at University Birmingham Sport - a UK Top 4 Students Union and UK Top 2 sporting institution respectively. Having fulfilled his Sabbatical Officer tenure as of September 2011, and equipped himself during the year in office with a good training base from which to work off of, Julz's focus now turns to devoting himself to a professional athletics career with both excitement and intrigue as to what he can now achieve within the sport as a full-time athlete.
