From racing up Ben Nevis to coaching Britain’s best
Steve Fudge opens up on his tough journey to the peak of UK Athletics
RACING up Ben Nevis with his brothers and playing hooker for Lochaber and North Schools seem an unlikely introduction to a track and field career, yet those are the roots from which Steve Fudge has blossomed as UK Athletics’ National Institute coach for sprints.
His childhood home overlooked Fort William and Loch Linnhe. “I had a lovely view of The Ben from my bedroom, woke up to it every morning,” says Fudge whose stable of sprinters includes sub-10 second men Adam Gemili and James Dasaolu; World and Paralympic 100m gold medallist Jonny Peacock; and World youth 100m champion Asha Philip.
This far-from-traditional pathway “sounds impossible,” he acknowledges.
At university rugby aspirations “fizzled out”. He continues: “But that [rugby] was my main passion growing up, and I tried to take it as far as it could. I never set out to coach athletics, or sprints. Sprinting sort of chose me later. You meet certain people and get into certain environments.
“When I decided rugby was not going to happen for me, I connected on running at the athletics club in Fort William – The Ben race, things like that – not sprinting. Throughout the summer I’d run up four or five times – very demanding on the body. Knowing what I now do about athletics preparation, I’d have done it a bit differently.
“I’d run the half Ben and Meall-an-TSuidhe to get ready for the Ben Race. I enjoyed that process. My twin, Barry, and older brother Gareth, all ran it together. We got into fell-running as a family.”
Steve twice got under two hours, the benchmark of respectability.
He graduated from Edinburgh University in sports science in 2003, completed an internship at the University of Washington as a strength and conditioning coach, then a similar role at the Australian Institute of Sport. He was still considering career options while working with Queensland Reds, the Brisbane rugby team, when London was awarded the 2012 Olympics.
This opened fresh opportunities, and he joined UK Sport’s apprentice coach programme at Cardiff Institute of Sport. “I was around sprinters and coaches there, and that’s when it caught my imagination,” he says.
Jock Anderson (the Border coach best known as mentor of Christian Malcolm, the European and Commonwealth 200m silver medallist) and Dave Lease, ex-Scottish national coach and mentor of Olympic relay gold medallist Jason Gardner, were an influence.
“And American coaches brought different science and medicine ideas which made sense in my head,” he adds. “They all helped point me in the right direction.”
He spent three years with the Sports Council for Wales, moved to Welsh Athletics, and finally joined the British Athletics apprentice coach scheme. He has been a full-time UKA coach since 2012.
His Loughbrough group includes Gemili, the world’s 100th man to break 10.00 seconds and only British sprinter below 10.00 and 20.00 for 100 and 200m (9.97 and 19.98). He won 2012 World junior gold in a meeting record of 10.05, is reigning European 200m champion, and Commonwealth 100m silver medalist. He ran his season opener at Bottrop yesterday, crossing the line in 10.19.
Dasaolu is European 100m champion and Britain’s fastest drugfree 100m runner at 9.91 (behind Linford Christie). He opened his 2016 campaign last Sunday with 10.14, his sixth Olympic qualifying time for Rio.
Philip, first UK woman to win a World sprint title, also won World gold on mini trampoline but quit that following a cruciate ligament injury. Since her return she has won European relay gold, and last weekend clocked 11.27 – her fifth Olympic qualifying standard.
I observe that given optimum form they, and defending Paralympic champion Peacock, are all potential finalists and podium athletes in Brazil. “That’s not unreasonable,” he says. Yet he is guarded about predictions, wary of promoting undue expectation.
Of Gemili he says: “He’s a special talent, an exceptional competitor. The team’s job is to get him to Rio. If we do, he has a chance of getting as close as possible to the final.”
And of Dasaolu: “He has learned how to get to finals and win medals. No doubt if we put him in the position, he has every chance of getting to the final.”
Philip meanwhile is described as “an awesome competitor, making consistent year-on-year improvement. If she does that this year she will be in a position to compete with the best in the world.”
It’s pertinent to note that eight men have already broken 10.00 this year, and 25 did so last season.
“From a global population of eight billion, only 110 men have ever beaten 10 seconds,” Fudge says.
“It’s an exceptional achievement for the human body. Our job is to push guys to the absolute limit, and maybe now and again we are going to go over the limit. It’s about attention to detail, with the science we put around the guys, keeping them injury-free and as consistent as possible.
“The best we can do is put them out ready to perform to their best. Every single part of their physical and mental preparation has to be optimum. Everything is connected. It’s a jigsaw puzzle and every bit is important to get right.”
The GB men’s relay squad is such a hotbed of mistakes and destructive rivalries that they have got the baton round just once in a global final since 2008. “It is important we are able to switch from individual to team focus, and work as a team,” insists Fudge.
With Jamaica and the US on optimum form, barring baton-guddling, Britain would be left chasing bronze. “All we can do is focus on our own preparation, using the best science and medical resources to get the absolute best out of our guys,” says Fudge. “If we do all that, we have a chance of being in the Olympic final with a chance of competing for a medal.”
He will not be the only member of the family chasing medals in Rio. His twin, Barry – also a Lochaber rugby man – gained his degree and PhD in physiology at Glasgow University. Now UKA head of endurance, he is a key figure in helping Mo Farah’s defend the titles he won in London.