Global award for Mallow’s Bro. Colm O’Connell
BR COLM O’CONNELL RECOGNISED FOR HIS CONTRIBUTION TO ATHLETICS
THE Mallow man dubbed ‘ the Godfather of Kenyan running’ has been honoured with one of the most prestigious accolades the world of athletics can confirm on an individual.
A former pupil of the Patrician National School, Brother Colm O’Connell, a native of Caherduggan, outside Mallow, received the IAAF World Athletics Coaching Achievement Award by one of his protégés, three-time world champion and former 800m world record holder Wilson Kipketer at the 2019 World Athletics gala, which was held in Monaco.
THE Mallow man dubbed ‘ the Godfather of Kenyan running’ has been honoured with one of the most prestigious accolades the world of athletics can confirm on an individual.
Brother Colm O’Connell received the IAAF World Athletics Coaching Achievement Award by one of his protégés, threetime world champion and former 800m world record holder Wilson Kipketer at the 2019 World Athletics gala in Monaco.
Other world-beating athletes the 71-year-old has coached over the years include the 1988 Olympic 1,500m champion Peter Rono, 1992 Olympic 3,000m steeplechase champion Matthew Birir and multi- Olympic, world champion and 800m world-record-holder David Rudisha.
Most recently, he coached Rhonex Kipruto to bronze in the 10,000m at this year’s IAAF World Championships in Doha.
Born William O’Connell in Caherduggan, outside Mallow, to the late Maurice and Kitty, Br O’Connell went to Patrician National School in Mallow, and at the age of 14 joined the Christian Brothers Juniorate in Tullow, County Carlow. before obtaining a BA in university college in Galway.
After being professed a brother he taught for two years at the Patrician School in Newbridge, Kildare and in 1976 left Ireland for Kenya taking up a teaching post at St Patrick’s High School in Iten in the Keiyo District of the Rift Valley province.
In a 2012 interview with The Corkman, Brother O’Connell recalled how his vocation and passion in teaching were not his only interests.
“Like most young people growing up in Ireland, I had a great interest in sports, especially hurling and football. I was an avid follower of my native Cork and still am,” he said.
“I also followed, and had a kind of passive interest in other sports, including athletics, and gradually became aware of the running and cycling tradition of North Cork in early part of the last century.
“People like Pat O’Callaghan, the Murphy’s of Bells Cross, the Leahy’s of Cregane, Charlevelle, the Coughlan’s of Kilclusha, Buttevant and others.
“Like most kids growing up in Ireland in the 1950s, who hadn’t heard of Ronnie Delaney?”
Despite expecting to stay at Iten for just three months, Bro O’Connell said he instantly felt “at home” and remains there to this day.
A small village situated 8,000 feet above sea level, Iten is populated by small scale, largely subsistence, peasant farmers.
“For me, coming from a rural farming community in North Cork, it wasn’t, in one sense, such a huge transition. I settled in quite quickly and enjoyed the quiet isolation of this rural area,” said Br O’Connell.
“Schools were few and far between at the time, and St Patrick’s was the first secondary school in the county. There were some teachers on the staff who inspired and helped me to get involved in the coaching programmes, not that I needed too much encouragement; one couldn’t but get involved.”
As with many sports trainers in those days, Br O’Connell learned his coaching skills “on the job” by watching how others coached and through trial and error.
“I learned it largely from the athlete and became a keen observer of the sport. This is still an important part of my approach to coaching. It wasn’t until some four or five years later that I learned the more formal side of the training, the techniques, tactics, identifying and treating injuries, etc,” said Br O’Connell.
“I was given the opportunity to attend some coaching courses and qualify as a coach under the sponsorship of a German aid programme to Kenya.”
From these humble beginnings, Br Colm has built up a formidable catalogue of success.
In fact the achievements are truly awe inspiring. Over more than four decades he has coached an incredible 25 world champions and four Olympic gold medallists.
Br Colm attributes this tremendous catalogue of success to his focus on the individual athletes.
“I usually identify the upcoming talents when they are in primary school. Most of these young student athletes come from the local primary and secondary schools,” he said.
“Having started my career in coaching athletics with little or no knowledge of the technical or, indeed, scientific side of the sport, my approach depended on having a keen sense of observation, a close connection with my athletes and an element of trial and error and an openness to learn and deal with every individual as I found them.
“Perhaps, if I knew a lot about the sport originally, I would be more ‘programme’ oriented and more concerned about the technical side than a concentration on the ‘ person of the athlete’.
“I always remember that it’s often more important what the athlete brings to me rather than what I’ve to give to the athlete. All I often do is put shape to, refine and channel what the athlete already has.
“It’s a lot to do, also, with encouraging and motivating the athlete, especially remembering that you are dealing with young people. A programme is for the athlete, not an athlete for the programme”.
Among those to congratulate Br O’Connell on his award was former classmate and Cork Person of the Year of the Year Awards founder and organiser Manus O’Callaghan.
“Colm has had a truly remarkable career as an athletics coach, working with some 25 World champions and four Olympic gold medallists. It’s no coincidence that he is know the world over as the Godfather of Kenyan running,” said Manus.
He recalled one of his “most embarrassing moments” with Br O’Connell, when he flew him back to Ireland for the 1996 Cork Person of the Year Awards lunch.
“I assumed, he quite rightly thought, he must have won the overall Cork Person of Year, but alas our judges didn’t pick him. He must also have thought we were a very rich award scheme, to go to all that trouble and expense. The hard reality is we work on a completely voluntary basis on our awards scheme,” laughed Manus.
The background to the story was that Manus met a businessman who was starting an air route from Africa to London and offered a free trip, which he duly passed on to Br O’Connell.
“Anyways, since then, the remarkable Br Colm O’Connell has picked up much more important world awards and honorary degrees, and Mallow should be rightly proud of this latest award bestowed on him,” said Manus.