Coaching Voices: Malcolm Arnold
In the latest Coaching Voices interview to feature on the England Athletics Podcast, Malcolm Arnold, the former UK Athletics Head Coach and personal coach to hurdlers including Colin Jackson, Eilidh Doyle, Dai Greene and Andrew Pozzi talks about his life in athletics.
He describes to host Tom McNab about going to Uganda to coach the sport, where he worked with 1972 Olympic 400m hurdles Olympic champion and former world record holder John Akii-Bua.
Malcolm Arnold on his time in Uganda:
"National championships were run on a grass track with some brilliant performances. There was no money. A pair of spikes cost a month's salary for the athletes.
"The one important thing there was that there were brilliant physical athletes with the right mental attitude and I think throughout all my coaching, I've learned that there are athletes with special brains who knew how to compete."
Malcolm goes on to talk about the advent of lottery funding in the late 1990s, before discussing some of the great athletes he has worked with, based in recent years in Bath.
"Between 1998 and 2016, we produced about 80 international medallists at U20, U23 and senior level. It was a 20-year end to a career I thoroughly enjoyed."
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Images by Mark Shearman.