ContinueAs part of a new series called 'Home Town Heroes' sponsored by Alfa Romeo, we will be featuring videos of Team GB athletes as they head back to their roots before the curtain is raised for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Episode four feathers World Championship bronze medallist hurdler Andy Turner who took time out from his 2012 training schedule to pay a visit to his old athletics club in his home town of Nottingham and lead a unique hurdles master class for a group of club members.
The master class, courtesy of Alfa Romeo, the official car supplier to UK Athletics (UKA), gave Turner the opportunity to pass on advice to help the up and coming young hurdlers at the Notts Athletics club, teenagers who are in just the same position he found himself in a little over 15 years ago.
Turner, who met up with his old coach Alan Bower on his return to the club, said: “The club has a lot of great memories for me. As a kid this was kind of my playground. I really do miss it”.
“My dad used to come here years ago when he was a kid, but he gave it up early and I think he wanted to relive his track and field life through me. He’d drop me and my brother off on a Tuesday and Thursday night, so we had no alternative but to train. I grew to love it”.
The master class evening saw 15 of the Notts Athletic’s club junior hurdlers get taken through a series of exercises by Turner, who then observed them putting it all into practise on the club’s indoor running track.
Turner continues his preparations for the summer having suffered an achilles injury at the start of the year which affected his training and competition schedule. “We had to tailor training around my recovery from injury. I was hoping to get over it quickly and have a decent indoor season, but because of the injury I had to wrap up the indoor earlier than I’d hoped. But that’s all part and parcel of being an athlete”.
