MELINDA KEEN TO FOSTER COUNTRY SPRINT TALENT
FORMER Australian track sprint queen Melinda Gainsford-Taylor knows what it is like growing up in the country yearning for some quality coaching.
Gainsford-Taylor was raised at Narromine, a small town out in the sticks west of Dubbo in NSW, where opportunities to learn under the best were rare and mostly done by correspondence.
Which is why the now 46-year-old is heavily into developing young talent from the bush, hoping to perhaps discover a talent such as she had as a teenager.
Gainsford-Taylor runs MELGT Explosive Speed Clinics and will hold a coaching workshop over the border at Kingscliff on Sunday, one organised by Tweed Little Athletics.
“It’d be fabulous to discover someone who can go on and do what I’ve done,” she said.
“My goal is to help kids run faster. My kids are 12 and 15 now and have been involved in all sports and that makes you realise how important running is.
“I want to help them improve no matter what sport they do – to run quicker, to give them technique and skills to do that.
“I feel country kids don’t get the opportunity that kids do in the big cities and this is why I love doing this.
“I get a kick out of it being a country girl myself.”
It took an approach to Jackie Byrnes, NSW Little Athletics coaching director, for Gainsford-Taylor to kick-start her career.
“I contacted her to see if she would coach me and she said she’d come down and watch me run,” GainsfordTaylor said. “I ran at Trangie (36km west of Narromine) because there were no Little Athletics in Narromine.
“She watched me and we were together for 23 years, three Olympics together and two Commonwealth Games together.”
Any parents looking for their children to learn from Gainsford-Taylor can register at melgt.com.au
Sunday’s clinic is to start at 9.15am with registration and will run for three hours.