Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Peter’s perfect proteges
Having worked with Canterbury athletes Matthew Stonier and Alex Millard in their younger days, Invicta East Kent AC coach Peter Mullervy is thrilled to see them beginning to realise their potential.
Both middle-distance runners enjoyed fine 2022 seasons. Sturry’s Stonier completed a rapid rise to compete at a home Commonwealth Games and also earned a fifth-placed European Athletics Championships finish in Germany.
Millard impressed last year, too, winning a bronze for Great Britain in the under-23 race at the SPAR European Crosscountry Championships in Italy. She has already been victorious at this year’s BUCS Cross-country Championships at Pembrey. Millard also helped the senior Great Britain and Northern Ireland team earn a sixth-placed finish in the mixed relay event at the World Crosscountry Championships in Bathurst, Australia.
But Mullervy recalls it was during a Covid lockdown where both started to shine. “The truth is that Covid is where Matthew found his form because there was no competition,” he said.
“His last year of the English Schools Track Championships, he couldn’t do it. English schools didn’t happen because of Covid. “But they invited athletes to send their times in and sort of did a virtual English schools’ event. I remember going down the track and meeting them both. We fixed up some pacesetters, along with the Small brothers (Louis and Jack) from Ashford. “Matthew proceeded to run 3min46sec which - as a time trial on a windy and cold evening on the track - was just completely off the scale!
“But because he was too honest, when he submitted his time, he told them when he did it - and he did it two days too early. You had to do your time trial between certain dates so he didn’t get into the English Schools’ virtual event. “But they did sort of make a note that Matthew Stonier, two days earlier, did run this time. I think it would have been good enough to win it.
“Alex, that same evening, attempted to do her time. They both opted to do the 1,500m race. “Because she had seen the excitement of Matthew running 3.46, she was running faster than she had ever run before. But she just panicked.
“She got a little past 800m and stopped so I asked ‘What have you stopped for?’ Then she just dissolved into tears and said ‘I don’t know, I don’t think I can do it’.
“Anyway, we had a walk around the track. The tears dried up and we calmed her down, and I said ‘Tell you what, let’s come back on Saturday. We won’t have anybody else here. It’ll just be you and me. I’ll time you then’.
“Up until then, I think she’d run 4.29 over 1,500m and, that day, she ran 4.23.” Stonier and Millard aren’t the first athletes he has coached to compete internationally, but Mullervy thinks it’s the dedication and commitment both have shown which has allowed them to reach the impressive levels they’re now at. He suggested: “The truth is of all the athletes I’ve ever coached - and I think I’ve coached 22 or 23 internationals to date - they’re rare.
“They didn’t have exciting talent right at the beginning but they just kept working and kept building.
“As each season went by, we’ve aimed a little bit higher until now.
“Matthew has made the Great
Britain team as an under-20 and Alex got an England vest as an under-20. Then they’ve both got Great Britain vests as under23s and, although they’re still under-23s, they’ve now got full senior vests.”
Both study at Loughborough University on athletics scholarships.
“The potential was always there,” Mullervy added. “Once they got to Loughborough and they could devote a great deal more of their time to training, that has allowed them to take that extra step.”
And the couple’s relationship extends off the track, too. Mullervy said: “There’s a fantastic social connection as well. They’re actually boyfriend and girlfriend.” Millard is coached by Bill Foster at Loughborough while Stonier is under the guidance of Chris and Sonia Mcgeorge. But the two 21-year-old athletes still maintain contact with Mullervy and Invicta East Kent. There are sporting genes in Millard’s family with dad Leigh, who works at St Edmund’s School, a former Hastings Town footballer.
Millard intends to move up to 5,000m this year after her time of 15.47.78 was good enough for second last May in Birmingham at the BMC Grand Prix. She’s shown in 2023 already she’s not bad when it comes to cross-country, either, with her appearance at the World Cross-country Championships Down Under her first senior appearance.
Mullervy said: “Alex thought about moving up in distance. Myself and the coach at Loughborough said ‘No, you need to stay at 1,500m and develop your speed as long as possible’.
“In theory, this is her last year at university but, in fact, both of them have opted to do their last year over two years which is a scheme Loughborough do. “Alex is now going to make the move to 5,000m. She had a little taste of it last year.”
The Broad Oak talent represents sports manufacturer New Balance while Stonier has landed a five-year Nike contract. Mullervy admitted: “Nike seem to think Matthew’s got huge potential.” Undoubtedly, though, Stonier’s finest hour to date was when he came seventh in the 1,500m race in front of a packed house at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium in August at the Commonwealth Games. Mullervy said: “There’s nothing that was going to make me miss that! I’ve had 22 or 23 international athletes to date but never one running in a major championship that I could actually go and watch.” They could both be runners to look out for years to come.