Hello all,
In Dutch media, the appointment of Charles van Commenee was announced two weeks
ago. So I guess Mr. Jones can be confident of the positive respons of Van
Commenee (also (co-)coach of the highest ranked Dutch athlete at the Sydney
olympics - the young shot putter Lieja Koeman, 9th).
Wilmar Kortleever,
Leiden, The Netherlands
Eamonn Condon schreef:
> Saturday 13 January 2001
> The Electronic Telegraph
> Tom Knight
>
> CHARLES van Commenee, the coach who guided Denise Lewis to the heptathlon
> gold medal in Sydney, is on the verge of becoming British sport's next big
> foreign signing.
>
> As Sven-Goran Eriksson settles into his new role as England football
> manager, it emerged last night that Van Commenee, the 42-year-old Dutch
> national athletics coach, has been offered the job of technical director in
> charge of combined events and jumps at UK Athletics.
>
> Van Commenee applied for the post at the end of last year while he was in
> Britian celebrating Lewis's success.
>
> Max Jones, the UK Athletics performance director, is waiting for Van
> Commenee's response to their offer. "Charles is a gold medal coach and to
> have him in this country working with our athletes would be a real coup for
> the sport," Jones said.
>
> Van Commenee, a former decathlete who was forced to retire at 19 because of
> injury, began coaching Lewis in 1997, three years after they met at a
> competition in Spain.
>
> He guided her to the European and Commonwealth titles in 1998 and a silver
> medal at the following year's World Championships. In a recent interview,
> the man Lewis calls `the Volcano' because of his angry outbursts, said she
> made crucial mistakes in Sydney. "She made a couple of decisions on her own
> and they were not the best decisions," Van Commenee said. "Was I angry? Yes,
> it was the behaviour of a novice."
>
> Paula Radcliffe has made sure she will not be the only female athlete to
> benefit from her new six-figure contract with Nike.
>
> As part of a four-year shoe and kit deal worth £600,000, Britain's top
> distance runner requested that £40,000 of the fee should go towards helping
> emerging young athletes.
>
> Radcliffe, the world half-marathon champion, said she chose Nike because of
> their commitment to promoting running through their Girls In Sport
> programme.
>
> "This is something I'm really interested in and hopefully I can make a
> difference with this money," Radcliffe said. "After myself and Jo Pavey
> there's quite a gap, and I want to do something to help the youngsters come
> through."
>
> A spokesman for Nike said: "The size of Paula's contract reflects her
> stature within the sport and it's certainly not common for athletes to make
> this request as part of the deal."
>
> Radcliffe's gain is Kelly Holmes's loss. Holmes, who won a surprise bronze
> medal over 800 metres in Sydney, has been dropped by Nike after reportedly
> demanding too much money.
>
> Eamonn Condon
> WWW.RunnersGoal.com
