Legends

Ian Stewart

Ian is an Olympic medallist from the Munich 1972 Games where he won the bronze medal in the 5000m. He was one of the leading distance runners of the 1970’s when he also won the 5000m Gold medal at the 1970 Commonwealth Games where he beat the then world record holder, Ron Clarke nad the Olympic 1500m champion Kip Keino, He was also the European Champion in 1969 and the World Cross Country Champion in 1975. Ian is now the UK Head of Endurance.

Denise Lewis

Denise’s career in athletics culminated in her winnng the Gold medal for the heptathlon at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She won many other medals at major championships inlcuding a bronze medal at the 1996 Olympics. She was twice runner up in the heptathlon at the World Championhips and she also won both the European and Commonwealth titles. Her pb of 6831 points remains the highest score by a GB athlete.

Denise was awarded an OBE in 2001 and now works in the media.

Zoe Derham

Zoe took up athletics as a discus thrower at the age of 13 with her local club in Yate near Bristol. She first picked up the hammer in a league match to cover for a team mate getting married and then decided it was her best event. Zoe who has been a member of Birchfield Harriers ten years has represented England at the last two Commonwealth Games. As a 21-year old, she finished eighth with a 59.57 metres throw in a competition won by her long time coach, Lorraine Shaw.She advanced three places to fifth in Melbourne in early 2006.Zoe has now graduated from the University of Gloucester after combining training at 6:30 in the morning, studying and a full time job with a courier company. Zoe won the hammer at the Olympic Games Trials in 2008 and a few days later, she secured her selection for Beijing with a career best distance of 68.63 metres. This performance took her to second on the UK All Time rankings.

Mickey Bushell

Mickey made his impressive Olympic debut in Beijing winning a surprise 100m silver at the Paralympic Games in a European record of 14.86. Mickey was born with a very rare medical condition called Lumbar Sacral Spinal Agenesis Congenital Paraplegia, which means he is ‘missing’ seven vertebrae from the lower part of the back.

Mark Lewis-Francis

Mark was originally coached by the late Steve Platt and set UK age group 100m records at 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18, and turned down the chance to run in the Sydney Olympics to chase World Junior Championship gold in Santiago, which he achieved. In 2001, having set a world junior record indoors over 60m to win world bronze at age 18, he then ran a scintillating 9.97 in the quarter-finals at the World Championship, but was denied a World Junior record as the wind gauge malfunctioned. In 2004 Athens Olympic Games he ran a truimphant anchor leg in the 4×100m relay to hold off USA’s Maurice Greene and take the British team to gold in the 4×100m at the Olympic Games – making him the youngest British Athletics Olympic champion since 1936. He was awarded the MBE in the 2005 New Year Honours. He is now coached by Linford Christie and has recently begun competing again follwoing an inkury that caused himt o miss the entire 2008 summer season.