Coach urges athletes to toughen up

Published on Tuesday 23 June 2009 22:10

UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee has told Britain's athletes they need to be more resilient. Van Commenee pulled Ashlee Nelson, the world junior 100m silver medallist, and Jenny Meadows, one of Europe's top 800m runners, out of the European Team Championships at the weekend with both carrying slight knocks ahead of the World Championships in Berlin, which is less than two months away.

The Dutchman could have risked two potential maximum points scorers in Leiria, although Emily Freeman was a more than adequate replacement for Nelson, winning the 100m title. Meanwhile, Hannah England, although fourth, went under two minutes in the 800m, which Meadows has yet to achieve outdoors this year.

"Athletics is a very injury-prone sport and it's one of those things that you don't like about this sport, because it's very hard to explain to people that one day somebody can't run and the next day they can," Van Commenee said. "It's a very fine line between having a niggle, fitness, taking a risk, being injured and as athletes and coaches you are tired of talking about this thing. But it's the nature of the sport and you want to build athletes who are resilient, who are solid – and we're not solid enough."