Steffensen Outraged

[sady]

@Charlie_Francis

I just wanted to comment on the Paul Hallam reference to Olivia.
When I was in Oz, Paul brought her to Nanny’s track for me to see along with another un-named girl (he wasn’t allowed to attend my seminars).
While Olivia was good, this other girl showed me more raw ability and improved with every suggestion in each run.
During a water break,I asked Paul Nancarraw who she was and he said it was PH’s step-daughter, Jascinta. Paul H had made no reference to her at all- beyond no favoritism.
At the end of 3 sessions in a week, Jascinta had improved beyond recognition and, as you know went on to do well as a finallist in 100mH at the world youth games. Olivia did well too IMO but it’s tougher in the open sprints.
I’ve lost track of what’s happened since.
My feeling (and personal experience) is that athletes shouldn’t be passed on without a very good reason and support from centers should be brough to the coach who developed them and already knows them best. This is a center-based idea rather than an athlete based free-for-all.

The reason for Paul Hallum reference, a young man from my home town is an a AFL development team, apparently Paul boasted to the team that he is John Steffensens assistant coach.

Jacinta had been coached by PH for years, well before he became her step dad, she won the Aust titles back to back for a long time, Liv always came 4th. Things changed.

I passed Liv to Warren because her mom had not long had a new baby and she had a minor car accident coming to training, Warren was closer to where they live and we can communicate. I tried getting Liv in a local school and made the mistake of ringing the NSWIS for assistance, Paul was their sprint coach. Things changed from there, not long after I was deemed too professional (council employees wording) and was required to pay up to $450 for ground usage at local council parks to train even 1 kid.

I know Liv is now training with an old foe, I would really love her to do something special next weekend, only god knows how many obsticles she has had to overcome over the years.

[Bateman63]

… thanks kitkat lol

[kitkat1]

@Bateman63

Furious John Steffensen is still undecided as to whether he will run in this weekend’s national athletics titles in Perth – claiming again he has no support from those in charge of Australian athletics in his battle against injury.

The Perth-born former Commonwealth champion has been left furious in the build up to the championships at Perth’s new athletics stadium, after being overlooked for an injury exemption meaning he has to run to qualify for the Commonwealth Games.

Just 12 weeks since having an operation to cure a longstanding back injury, Steffensen says he is an 80 per cent chance to run – but the missing 20 per cent was the element that would make him competitive.

And in a blistering attack on Australia’s high performance manager Eric Hollingsworth, Steffensen questioned his credentials as a coach and administrator.

“I read Eric’s comments in the Telegraph, and I did not expect anything else from him – I don’t know Eric much as a coach so I don’t think he would understand my position,” Steffensen said.

"I love running, but unfortunately we had surgery 12 weeks ago and we ran out of time, the nationals have come in the way.

"We tried our best and we have not really made a decision whether we will run or not, we will wait until the day.

“I am about 80 per cent – but that 20 per cent is what makes you perform well, which is the sprint side of things.”

In another stand-off between the former Commonwealth champion and Australian athletics chiefs, Hollingsworth said in interviews over the weekend that the 27-year old needed to prove himself again

“John is looking at the world through those glasses of the 2006 Commonwealth Games when he was the man,” Hollingsworth said.

“That was four years ago. He must establish himself again.”

But Steffensen said not only was that an attack on him, but also his coach John Smith, who worked with Maurice Greene in his golden era and currently has the world’s fastest woman Carmelita Jeter under his wing.

“If you keep pushing me with this back injury what type of performance do you think you are going to get out of me?” Steffensen said.

"It is about having some understanding and treating me with some respect and giving me some support knowing that I had back surgery.

"My coach believes – and he has got the fastest woman in the world at the moment – and if he didn’t he would not call me every morning at 11am from America.

“What (Eric) did say is questioning John Smith … and that is a big call from a coach that has done nothing.”

The 400m heats at the national titles will be run on Friday night.

Is this story so good you felt the need to post it for the second time on this same page. LOL.

[Charlie_Francis]

@sady

The reason for Paul Hallum reference, a young man from my home town is an a AFL development team, apparently Paul boasted to the team that he is John Steffensens assistant coach.

Jacinta had been coached by PH for years, well before he became her step dad, she won the Aust titles back to back for a long time, Liv always came 4th. Things changed.

I passed Liv to Warren because her mom had not long had a new baby and she had a minor car accident coming to training, Warren was closer to where they live and we can communicate. I tried getting Liv in a local school and made the mistake of ringing the NSWIS for assistance, Paul was their sprint coach. Things changed from there, not long after I was deemed too professional (council employees wording) and was required to pay up to $450 for ground usage at local council parks to train even 1 kid.

I know Liv is now training with an old foe, I would really love her to do something special next weekend, only god knows how many obsticles she has had to overcome over the years.

Sorry to hear all that. As an outsider, I have only the snapshot of the time I was there.
Ideally, the athlete who develops an athlete is in the best position to stay with them with support from whoever can or will help.
There’s an old saying: "Managers (read coaches do) while administrators (read federations) control. All federations live to drive a wedge between coaches on the outside and towards those they have control over. I experienced the same shit myself.

[sady]

@Charlie_Francis

Sorry to hear all that. As an outsider, I have only the snapshot of the time I was there.
Ideally, the athlete who develops an athlete is in the best position to stay with them with support from whoever can or will help.
There’s an old saying: "Managers (read coaches do) while administrators (read federations) control. All federations live to drive a wedge between coaches on the outside and towards those they have control over. I experienced the same shit myself.

Then we have to get over it or die inside. I join cf in 2006 after wasting close to 3 grand going through the proper channels in Aust, I say waste because they do not seem to know what I wanted to learn. I wanted to learn how to understand programming, you appear to know it. Liv got to no1 here training for 2 1/2 hours a week, Warren kept her improving and at her first World Youth she was the only Aust athlete to run pb’s.

Up until recently I was coaching a young man 23, if I had not called it off he would have won the 400m at Perth this weekend, he is waiting for me to call him with a time and place. I don’t want to go there again, on the bright side it appears he is on way to being a member of the Somalian National soccer team.

KK what else is news.

[sady]

@Charlie_Francis

Sorry to hear all that. As an outsider, I have only the snapshot of the time I was there.
Ideally, the athlete who develops an athlete is in the best position to stay with them with support from whoever can or will help.
There’s an old saying: "Managers (read coaches do) while administrators (read federations) control. All federations live to drive a wedge between coaches on the outside and towards those they have control over. I experienced the same shit myself.

Guess you are right, nothing but shit.

I have uploaded some photos have a look,

[sady]

Both J.S & O.T. in the finals.

Heat 3: 1, John Steffensen, NSWIS, 46.20Q. 2, Yoshihiro Horigome, JPN,
46.71Q. 3, Andrew Boudrie, VIC, 47.18q. 4, Paul Cummings, NSW, 47.79. 5, Clay Watkins, SASI, 48.22. 6, Mitchell Cromb, VIC, 48.40. 7, Alex Glorie, WA, 48.47. 8, Andrew Giam, VIC, 48.64.
Women 400 Metres Open
Heat 1: 1, Joanne Cuddihy, IRL, 53.05Q. 2, Tamsyn Lewis, VIC, 53.49Q. 3, Olivia Tauro, NSW, 54.88Q. 4, Stephanie Mollica, VIC, 55.36q. 5, Angeline Blackburn, AIS, 55.84. 6, Joanne Stannard, WA, 56.14. 7, Shayleigh Gould, QLD, 56.94. 8, Caitlin Stanley, SA, 57.18.

[robin1]

Steffensen (probably) qualified for the Commonwealth Games:

1 Ben Offereins 86 WAIS 45.17 CA
2 John Steffensen 84 NSWIS 45.72 CB
3 Joel Milburn 86 NSWIS 45.75 CB
4 Sean Wroe 85 VIS 45.98 CB
5 Kevin Moore 90 NSW 46.72
6 David Burke 89 VIC 47.03
7 Andrew Boudrie 85 VIC 47.11
8 Yoshihiro Horigome 81 JPN 47.26

What happened to Clay Watkins? 48.22 in his heat. Matt Lynch also disappointed running 47.97 and not making the final.
BTW: Tom Burbidge (Stawell gift winner) ran 48.29 in the heats.

Olivia Tauro didn’t run the 400m final, after running 54.88 in her heat.

100m Finals
1 Aaron Rouge-Serret 88 VIS 10.32 CB 0.4 (10.17 on the same track this season)
2 Matt Davies 85 QAS 10.44 0.4 (10.23 on the same track this season)
3 Jacob Groth 85 NSW 10.45 0.4
4 Patrick Johnson 72 QAS 10.47 0.4 (10.18 on the same track this season)
5 Isaac Ntiamoah 82 NSW 10.52 0.4
6 Kota Sakuma 85 JPN 10.56 0.4
7 Tim Leathart 89 NSW 10.59 0.4
8 Liam Gander 88 NSW 10.63 0.4 (10.41 on the same track this season)
9 Tim Rooke 86 VIC 10.68

What happened to the super fast track in Perth? Have they made it longer?

[mikeh]

@kitkat1

Show Eric something special even if it is not particularly fast, but perhaps a set of 6x200m all in 23sec or under with 200m jog recovery.

That set sounds extremely difficult. What would be the rest interval? Michael Johnson, at his peak, did 3x200 in 23 seconds with one and a half minutes rest.

[Sharmer]

4 Sean Wroe 85 VIS 45.98 CB 4th, I wonder if that p rick Eric saw that coming, ironic that his own man meets the fate which he thought Steff would get. Finishing 4th = no individual spot.

[sady]

I never thought JS would not make it just like I thought OT wouldn’t. I have seen them both at training recently (not with me). Sometimes a fairy godmother isn’t enough.

[W3D]

If selection is right then SW will only be a relay runner and BO, JS, JM will be the individuals.
Wonder how much power a national head coach can sway a 3rd spot to be left open for his athletes (I am sure there will be others from that group who miss the boat).

100m times.
Maybe having an IAAF official there may have zerod in the starting gun and timing? Maybe it was never set right.

Can any one explain the time differences from the past 3 mths to now. I assume athletes are peaking for this meet and not already in training for CG later in the year after posting an A qualifer early in the season:confused:

[stilljd_5]

We will never know but on the upside we got a bit of publicity, got to be a plus. Still makes more sense to hold the Nats later then the top 3 go and no 4 is in the relay.

[Mudmaker]

Have you guys read the selection criteria, only first and second matter coming third and fourth mean nothing. The selection committee will go back and look at the times Milburn and Wroe have run and pick from there, coming third does not = a single spot. Have a look at the times and the A qualifiers each has done.

400m
A (45.65) 44.86 Ben Offereins (W) Sydney AUS 27/02/10
[45.32 Offereins (W) Canberra AUS 30/01/10]
[45.53 Offereins (W) Perth AUS 15/01/10]
45.28 John Steffensen (N) Rome ITA 10/07/09
[45.37 Steffensen (N) Berlin GER 18/08/09]
45.31 Sean Wroe (V) Berlin GER 18/08/09
[45.40 Wroe (V) Sydney AUS 27/02/10]
[45.63 Wroe (V) London GBR 25/07/09]
45.56 Joel Milburn (N) Berlin GER 18/08/09

Based on performance I would pick Wroe ahead of Milburn and I think the selectors will do the same, nothing to do with Hollingsworth.

[Dazed]

Sharmer, what makes you think EH has it in for JS? JS got his pass just the same as other athletes, he just realized that he could get knocked out whereas JP-R and SMcL don’t have the same depth in their event so there was no threat to them. Eric did not appear to harbour any malice towards John in the interviews.

Do you suggest JS receive some special treatment that is not afforded to world and Olympic medalists?

[kitkat1]

@Dazed

Sharmer, what makes you think EH has it in for JS? JS got his pass just the same as other athletes, he just realized that he could get knocked out whereas JP-R and SMcL don’t have the same depth in their event so there was no threat to them. Eric did not appear to harbour any malice towards John in the interviews.

Do you suggest JS receive some special treatment that is not afforded to world and Olympic medalists?

To be honest, I think the right decision has been made with the selection committee (of which Eric Hollingsworth is ex-officio) picking Ben Offereins, John Steffensen (both automatic) and Joel Milburn for the third discretionary spot on the individual men’s 400m team.

I realise exactly why John Steffensen is upset with AA and Eric, but if this were the US trials - and the US culture seems to have been something close to John’s heart and psyche - he would also have been ordered to “perform or perish”. There is no discretionary selection, no encouragement award in the USA. You compete, you qualify or you miss the team. It’s the same in Aussie swimming, except you actually must do the qualifying time in the pool at the Trials. What you clocked last meet, much less last year (!) doesn’t mean squat. They are a brutal bunch in the pool.

So when you get an event with some depth, as is the case at this time in history with the world championships 4x400m bronze medal Aussie squad, then by necessity (IMHO) the first over the finish line is often (not always) the fairest way to select because it takes politics and favouritism out of the frame.

I do feel sorry for Sean Wroe who has been troubled this summer. Remember he was in the small Aussie team to compete at the world indoors in Doha, but after a lacklustre run for second in the Melbourne Track Classic he withdrew from that team.

I would say Eric is a pragmatist, a realist and knows that what he dishes out he must also cop in return. Milburn’s coach, Penny Gillies, also swallowed the poison when she had to drop him from the Berlin 4x4 medal contending (and ultimately, winning) side when his form simply didn’t warrant his inclusion last year.

So the men’s 400m scene in Oz is quite interesting at the moment and a bit of a soap opera at times but always entertaining, genuinely world class and for those reasons worth following …

[Sharmer]

@kitkat1

To be honest, I think the right decision has been made with the selection committee (of which Eric Hollingsworth is ex-officio) picking Ben Offereins, John Steffensen (both automatic) and Joel Milburn for the third discretionary spot on the individual men’s 400m team.

I realise exactly why John Steffensen is upset with AA and Eric, but if this were the US trials - and the US culture seems to have been something close to John’s heart and psyche - he would also have been ordered to “perform or perish”. There is no discretionary selection, no encouragement award in the USA. You compete, you qualify or you miss the team. It’s the same in Aussie swimming, except you actually must do the qualifying time in the pool at the Trials. What you clocked last meet, much less last year (!) doesn’t mean squat. They are a brutal bunch in the pool.

So when you get an event with some depth, as is the case at this time in history with the world championships 4x400m bronze medal Aussie squad, then by necessity (IMHO) the first over the finish line is often (not always) the fairest way to select because it takes politics and favouritism out of the frame.

I do feel sorry for Sean Wroe who has been troubled this summer. Remember he was in the small Aussie team to compete at the world indoors in Doha, but after a lacklustre run for second in the Melbourne Track Classic he withdrew from that team.

I would say Eric is a pragmatist, a realist and knows that what he dishes out he must also cop in return. Milburn’s coach, Penny Gillies, also swallowed the poison when she had to drop him from the Berlin 4x4 medal contending (and ultimately, winning) side when his form simply didn’t warrant his inclusion last year.

So the men’s 400m scene in Oz is quite interesting at the moment and a bit of a soap opera at times but always entertaining, genuinely world class and for those reasons worth following …

do you think that they will add to the mens 100 or 200 ? - there’s a good chance that PJ will run A Q for both the 100 and 200 again this season.

[kitkat1]

@Sharmer

do you think that they will add to the mens 100 or 200 ? - there’s a good chance that PJ will run A Q for both the 100 and 200 again this season.

YES, I do. They’ve named something like 69 people today and I read somewhere that EH was quoted saying he is hoping that by Delhi the Oz team will number close to 100 - so I think that anyone who shows good form (I mean, runs an AQ) would be entitled to feel outrage if they were left out.

I was in Perth following the progress of the NSWIS 400m FastTrack members and had the chance to see Steffensen and the sprints.

John looked to be running “low” but by god he’s got guts. On his background this season he had no business even making the final, yet he gets the automatic done! He’s a real asset to the sport, a “live wire” into the hip-hop/rapper generation. I do love him, but I still reckon he needs to filter some of the stuff he instinctively feels like saying because maybe it does him more harm than good. I also suspect he has that sort of mentality that he needs a bit of hatred to get himself fired up sufficiently to drag the best out of himself. He’s too nice a guy to hate on his opponents, so he targets “the bureaucrats” as the soft option.

I mean, I can totally understand his frustration but at times I think he just needs to make sure he doesn’t come across like a raving lunatic. lol. but you’ve gotta love his passion and his poise under pressure

[Sharmer]

@kitkat1

YES, I do. They’ve named something like 69 people today and I read somewhere that EH was quoted saying he is hoping that by Delhi the Oz team will number close to 100 - so I think that anyone who shows good form (I mean, runs an AQ) would be entitled to feel outrage if they were left out.

I was in Perth following the progress of the NSWIS 400m FastTrack members and had the chance to see Steffensen and the sprints.

John looked to be running “low” but by god he’s got guts. On his background this season he had no business even making the final, yet he gets the automatic done! He’s a real asset to the sport, a “live wire” into the hip-hop/rapper generation. I do love him, but I still reckon he needs to filter some of the stuff he instinctively feels like saying because maybe it does him more harm than good. I also suspect he has that sort of mentality that he needs a bit of hatred to get himself fired up sufficiently to drag the best out of himself. He’s too nice a guy to hate on his opponents, so he targets “the bureaucrats” as the soft option.

I mean, I can totally understand his frustration but at times I think he just needs to make sure he doesn’t come across like a raving lunatic. lol. but you’ve gotta love his passion and his poise under pressure

that’s good that the door is still open- I think JS is low 44s man who has been hurt lately, now he is healthy no doubt he will run inside 44.5.

[DMA]

It was interesting to read and look at results of the sprints. All my mates had PJ medalling and in top 2, I thought he would finish outside of placing (I think he doesn’t cope well win he is favourite or fastest qualifier), I hop MD is okay if he is injured has been a bright light this season. The men’s 400m has to be the best men’s track event on quality numbers for Australia, along with 1500m and above.

I think having the Nationals now can only help JS, as he wasn’t fit and still nearly did the business of winning. If he can stay injury free between now and the Commonwealth games he may be untouchable at least against the Aussies.