Arnie's Final Chapter - 3 : 2004 - 2007
History - Page4 - Page3 - Page2 - Page1
 

This period was one of great turmoil for the club as TNS FC decided to re-develop the Park Hall Stadium and we discovered that the sale of the stadium, by the Town Council to TNS, did not incorporate any security for the Olympians. The plans for the new football stadium, therefore, did not include any provision for a track and nothing the Olympians could say would change the minds of the TNS owners.
So by 2006 the majority of the club's junior athletes had to do their Summer training on the playing fields of The Marches School as TNS were due to start their demolition of the stand early in the year. As it turned out, the work on Park Hall didn't begin until late August so the older long jumpers and hurdlers were able to use the back straight and long jump runway until September.
Although the club members were very grateful to be able to train at The Marches, the lack of proper facilities led to a decline in attendance and membership, and the future began to look bleak. For a brief period it looked like a proposed new sports development, to replace the aging leisure centre in Oswestry, might incorporate a running track but as hopes for this faded The Marches suggested that they would be willing to incorporate a track into their facilities, provided the Olympians paid for it!
So, in 2007, a small task group was formed to look at how this could be pursued and fund raising continued with bag packing at Sainsbury's, a sponsored marathon run and a race night. Funding was also obtained from England Athletics to transport junior athletes to Shrewsbury's new track once a week during the summer. The other training night continued at The Marches.
With some financial support from the Town Council, the County Council and the Rotary Club, work began in the summer holidays to lay a "polymeric" athletics surface on the tar-mac of The Marches tennis courts. This new training area was the beginning of the club's partnership with The Marches and consisted of a surface approximately 65m x 30m for training in sprints, hurdles, long jump and high jump and incorporated a double long jump pit at one end.
Now, at the end of 2007, fund raising is moving up a gear, with support from the Mayor and a number of well known national figures, in order to lay a full running track at The Marches.
However, despite all this disruption to training, Oswestry athletes continued to excel in a number of areas.
In 2004/5 Olympians won the overall trophy in the SYAL x-country league, Gemma Weetman won the Midlands U20 indoor long jump and the combined events and Sian Davies won the Midlands U17 indoor and outdoor high jump. Gemma went on to represent England at an indoor meeting in Glasgow.
In the summer of 2005 four Olympians were selected for the English Schools finals; Gemma and Sian were joined by Charlotte Roberts and Toby Griffiths. Gemma went on to compete in the finals of the English Schools combined events and won gold, Oswestry's first English Schools gold since Susan Furlonger in 1999.
The greatest frustration at this stage was lack of coaches, an on-going problem for the club, but Tracy Bathers, whose daughter had just joined the club, took a level 1 coaching course and was to become a vital member of the team.
A new indoor training facility opened at Deeside at this time and I took groups there to train during the Christmas holidays.
 
During the winter of 2005/6 Ollie Blake, one of the Olympians best ever x-country runners, finished 45th in the senior boys x-country champs in Mansfield, Shropshire's best performance. Gemma, meanwhile, began her most successful year ever by finishing 2nd in the AAAs U20 indoor combined events champs which led to her first GB vest and a performance in France which placed her 5th in the UK all-time Junior Women's rankings. She went on to win the English Schools Long Jump in the summer, at Gateshead, where she was joined by Olympians Charlotte Roberts, Cherida Lauriello, Ben Richards, Toby Griffiths and Ollie Blake.
Gemma also gained her 2nd GB vest, competing in the heptathlon in Switzerland and went on to retain her English Schools heptathlon title in Derby which led to being added to the "World Class Talent" programme and invitation to the National Squads for Long Jump and Combined Events. Hannah Wood was chosen to represent Wales in both high jump and long jump.
A number of our Y8 athletes were selected for the newly formed county squads (CAPS), after an assessment day in Shrewsbury. Hannah Wood and Cherida Lauriello were selected for the West Midlands Regional Long Jump squad and Charlotte Roberts for the hurdles squad.
At this stage U11 athletes were being coached by Kathy Wray, with support from parents, Under 13s by Tracy Bathers with support from Andy Fenn and parents; Nick Blake took sprints groups in the summer and John Roberts looked after cross country. Gemma has also coached when she wasn't training herself. I coached hurdles, high jump, long jump and triple jump with Under 15s and above, mainly in a corner of Park Hall but also at Shrewsbury and Deeside.
The composite club, Border Olympians, was proving a great opportunity for U20 Olympians to gain competition and ended the season competing in the Midlands promotional match.
 
And so to 2007.
The year in which Doug Morris, a founder member of the club and Lifetime President, died while out on a training run. Doug contributed an enormous amount of time and energy to the Olympians and to road racing in particular. He will be sorely missed.
The new training facility wasn't completed until October so was no use for training this year. Nevertheless, Josh Ogden took the U17 men's x-country title in the N. Wales x-country league and in the Shropshire x-country championships Toby Griffiths and Alison Lavender took the titles for their age groups.
In the summer, seven Oswestry athletes were once again selected for the English Schools finals; Alison Lavender, Charlotte Roberts, Hannah Wood, Michael Pugh, Toby Griffiths, Leila-Armstrong Green and Laura Elliott, Gemma no longer being eligible having left school. Toby and Leila went on to represent the West Midlands at The UK School Games, Charlotte represented the Midland Counties in Antwerp and Olli and Laura represented the Midlands in Copthall, London. Five Olympians were again selected for regional squads : Leila Armstrong-Green, Hannah Wood and Laura Elliott for long jump, Michael Pugh for triple jump and Ben Richards for throws.
Club Records, remarkably, continue to be broken with 21 new records this year, despite the lack of training facilities.
Gemma continued her impressive progress into the Under 23 age group, competing internationally on three more occasions and shattering the senior hurdles and long jump county records in 2007. She has now moved to Brunel University and is training with a new group in London. She is the most successful junior Olympian of all time and it is a great credit to the club that until this year she did all her training here in Oswestry, most of it on an outdated redgra track at Park Hall.
 
And so to my own farewell. My wife Kathy and I have been involved with Olympians for 17 years and now we are moving to Shrewsbury. Kathy will continue to look after Under 11s until the summer and will continue with her roles as county sports hall athletics organiser and x-c team manager.  I will continue to coach my older athletes in Oswestry and Shrewsbury as well as developing my county coaching role and helping at the Shrewsbury club. We will both, however, be relinquishing all other responsibilities at the Olympians. We wish everyone at Oswestry Olympians all the very best for the future.