Profiles of Local Sports People
Neil McLellan
Neil 2009 Hopes and aims
My ultimate goal is still London 2012 Olympics. I have represented Stevenage and Hertfordshire for many years now and representing my country in front of a home crowd in an Olympic arena would be amazing.
In the short term I hope 2010 will be my break through year and this winters aim is to continue to improve my fitness, strength and power levels, and learn to use them in competition.
This leads on to my goal for 2010 where I hope to qualify for the Commonwealth games in India. The commonwealth qualifying mark is 75m and my personal best is 74m92, I hope to be passing the 75m mark early next year to make sure the selectors know I'm looking for a space.
Neil 2009 summary
2009 has been a challenging year. I was made redundant in Dec 2008 and I made the most of my free time by increasing the amount of training I was doing. In the gym and on the track I improved my personal bests. I became stronger, faster and fitter. Trying to put all of these in to a technique was difficult. In February, my wife gave birth to my son Tom and my schedule changed for the following month. I fitted in job applications, interviews and time with my new family very well with my training and continued to improve with the training I was doing.
Unfortunately I wasn't able to transfer the time I invested in my training in to competition as I expected to improve my PB distance closer to the 80m mark. Even though I didn't improve my PB I did perform well within the competitions. My best throw of 2009 was 70m75 were I came second at the Intercounty Championships. I became County Champion and South of England Champion again with 68m92 and 68m99 respectively.
I was selected Herts County team twice this year and won both competitions, and finished the season with an open meeting in Sandy and broke the track record.
Neil - February 2009
Through out 2008 I was training every day except Fridays and sometimes Saturdays, however at the moment (snow permitting), I'm training
every day except Saturdays and twice a day Tuesdays, Wednesday, and Thursdays (as long as the rain stayed away). In comparison to 2008 I'm
fitting in about 2 weeks of work in to one week.
Through December I worked on general fitness and general strength and since the beginning of Jan, I've been working on power and specific strength for the javelin. Because of the weather I've found it hard sometimes to train out side (snow etc) but have made the most of it when it's not been raining and get out and do bounding, med ball work and throwing.
The photo with the snow was when I trained in the snow and needed to clear part of the track to do so.
Neil McLellan - December 2008
"In some ways 2008 didn't bring me as many headlines as 2007 but I am very happy with my overall performance. I working with Mark Roberson and Goldie Sayers through out the winter and my training became a lot more intense with a new schedule..... a lot harder.
I travelled up to Cambridge every other week, and felt I improved in most ways. Physically I was stronger and faster so I was confident to PB during the season.
My best throw of the season was 72m19 and I couldn't seem to put all the new speed and strength in to the throw. Technically I felt good but couldn't connect to the throw. This year I ranked 6th and I was 1.5m away from being ranked 3rd.
I really appreciate all the help the Community trust and council have given me, financially and with access to the track.
John McLellan - UKA Throws Coach
"2008 was a very intense year with all athletes trying that extra bit harder to gain recognition for the Olympic year.
I don't recall in all Neil's years in athletics one where he trained harder, with more determination than ever, but things just didn't come together for him. Even Mark Roberson and Goldie remarked how well Neil had done without obtaining the overall result that it deserved.
In saying that, Neil's achievement in gaining a bronze at the British Championship/Olympic Trials was the highlight of his season, which was no mean feat in itself."