The Newcomers

It's always an exciting but slightly nervous time before your debut in any big sporting event, and I'm sure the 5 debutants among the team of 20 will be feeling a mixture of both emotions at the moment.


The two youngest members of the team are 15-year-old sprinters Ciara McDonnell and Danielle Ross (Danielle will be 16 shortly before the Games). They will both be competing in the 100 metres and the 4 x 100m relay team, and Ciara is also likely to be in the 4 x 400m relay team. They have both achieved great success in the junior age groups in the sprints events over the last few years and are both members of Di Shimell's very successful training group.


Two years ago, Danielle won a gold medal in the English Schools Track & Field Championships as part of the Merseyside Junior Girls team who won the 4 x 100m relay. That event was televised live, and I remember Danielle featured prominently on the TV coverage as the 1st leg runner. She and her younger sister Alexandra - who is an excellent all-round athlete - have been part of the Manx athletics scene pretty much all their lives as their parents Wendy and Garry have been regular competitors in local events for many years. Danielle has had a couple of injury niggles recently and has not reached top speed yet this season, but her performance in the 200m during Wednesday night's Manx Harriers track league suggests she is getting back into good form at just the right time.


Ciara is an extremely talented athlete who in the future I think has the potential to be an outstanding 400m runner, but at the moment she is focussing on her age group distances of 100m, 200m and 300m. She was absolutely flying at the start of this season, but had the desperate bad luck to suffer a hamstring injury in the last few strides of a 100m race during the second Manx Harriers track night in early April. It really was an awful moment for everyone there that night. Thankfully, after several weeks of treatment, being very careful and doing all the right things, Ciara is now getting back to full training and I was delighted to hear that she came through a 200m race in the Inter Schools championships today with no alarms. Onwards and upwards for the next few weeks hopefully for both Ciara and Danielle!


The next two debutants are middle distance runners Tom Richmond (17) and Ryan Fairclough (19). With the 800m and 1500m events at the Games likely to be shared between Tom, Ryan and Andy Duncan it is not clear yet exactly who is going to do what. My guess is that Tom and Ryan will both do the 800m, with Ryan partnering Andy Duncan in the 1500. Both will also be vying for places in the 4 x 400m relay team - a team which is likely to be extremely strong with fierce competition for places.


Such has been Tom's progress over the last 3 years that it may come as a surprise to some that he is an Island Games debutant. His spectacular improvement in 2007 under the guidance of his coach Di Shimell came just too late to gain him selection for the Rhodes Games, but this only spurred him on to greater things in 2008. His time of 1.55.81 for an 800m race at Stretford last year cemented his place in the IOM team for the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India last October - certainly the highlight of his career so far. Before travelling to India, Tom took some time out to do an interview with me for the Manx Harriers website, which left no doubt about his passion for the sport and his hunger for success. This is still online at http://www.manxathletics.com/manxharriers/mhtomrichmond.htm#Commonwealth2. Tom has not quite reached last year's levels so far this season (although 1.59 for 800m is still extremely impressive!), but he is training really hard and I'm sure he will be at his best when it really matters at the end of June.


Ryan's great talent as an athlete has been obvious for many years, and he has achieved a lot of success both on the track and at cross country. For a guy who specialises in the 800m and 1500m events he really is a very good long-distance cross country runner, and he certainly has no worries as far as endurance is concerned. He has been in cracking form at the start of this season, his long and relaxed stride making it all look very easy and giving the impression that he always has a little more to give - which I think he has! Over the past few months he has put his football career on hold (he plays for Ramsey) and joined Andy Fox's training group, both of which have helped him focus more on athletics than he has probably ever done before. I think Ryan will make a big impression in Aland this year, and hopefully well beyond.


The final debutant in the team is thrower Marit Zahkna. Marit has had a slightly different route into the team than the others, as she is an Estonian national. She moved to the Isle of Man to work about 3 years ago and is now eligible to represent the island in the Island Games. I first came across Marit when she started coming to Chris Quine and Graham Davies' training sessions a couple of years ago, and she did the odd cross country and road race. What I didn't know at the time was that she was a champion hammer thrower back home, although she hadn't competed for a few years. That all changed last summer when she joined Manx Harriers and competed in the Northern League and Lancashire Championships. It would be fair to say that she was a sensation! She smashed the Lancashire Track & Field Championship record by 10 metres, and finished the season with a best throw of just under 50 metres - yet such are her standards she still wasn't happy! She is also likely to be competing in the discus event at the Games and is probably good enough to compete in 2 or 3 other events as well. Oh, and if any of the younger members of the team are struggling with their maths, Marit is just the person to help - she is a maths teacher at King William's College!