http://www.european-athletics.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4932&Itemid=2
07 March 2007
AFTER being involved in the sport for more than four decades there is very little top British coach Malcolm Arnold has not seen.
He was the man who guided John Akii-Bua of Uganda to Olympic 400m hurdles gold in 1972 and coached sprint hurdler Colin Jackson to two world and four European 110m hurdles titles.
But at the final day of the European Indoor Championships even he achieved a feat for the first time on the international stage by guiding all three British athletes into the final of the 60m.
It was almost the perfect scenario as Jason Gardener took a fourth successive European indoor crown and the 20-year-old Craig Pickering scooped his first major senior individual championship medal with silver but the third member of Arnold’s army Ryan Scott was disqualified for false-starting.
But Arnold refused to be too harsh on the youngest of his three 60m sprinters preferring to shrug his shoulder and put the incident down to experience.
“He was taking a bit of a risk and forced it,” said Arnold of Scott. “It was just one of those things.”
For some athletes training in the same group as your rivals is an impossible situation. Jealousies can take hold but not this group.
“Training in a group can have an enormous benefit, providing they can handle it. But it is no different to when I had Colin Jackson, pictured right with Gardener, training with Mark McKoy (the 1992 Olympic champion). They are differences between the athletes Jason is the big brother to the rest of the group, he has lots of experience and he is only too happy to pass on his knowledge to the rest of the group. Craig is the academic, who wants to succeed and has a very clear vision about his athletics and his career. But Ryan is different again.”
Arnold explains how just 12 months ago Scott’s career was at a crossroads. He had failed to make the 60m final at the national junior championships and he explains: “Ryan could be a bit of a wayward character unless you are right next to him he is not always the most motivated and doesn’t fulfill his training obligations. But I have been really pleased with Ryan over the last 12 months he has really pulled his finger out and training with the other guys has been an enormous benefit.”
But Arnold recognises his sprinters face a more demanding tests in the outdoor season and he was realistic about what was achievable in the summer.
“I’m not quite sure where Jason is at in terms of his planning,” added Arnold. “For Craig I would like him to make an individual spot in the 100m for Osaka (World Championships), although the European Under-23 Championships is also important. He is also eligible for the World University Games, but that is in Thailand and if he went to Osaka he couldn’t physically compete at both. As for Ryan his main aim would be the European Under-23s.”
But Arnold, who threatened to quit after the retirement of Colin Jackson in 2003, is not quite ready to pack away his stopwatch just yet. First Gardener and subsequently Pickering and Scott, 20, have giving him a new lease of life but he was guarded about what the future holds and he was only prepared to admit: “I just enjoy working with talented young athletes.”