Rachael Franklin finishes 2nd in her 800m heat in Rhodes, behind Claire Wilson (Shetland) and ahead of Martine Scholes (Guernsey). Photo - Ian Astin
Gail Griffiths pictured in the early stages of the Half Marathon in Rhodes, in which she finished 11th. Photo - Ian Astin
Gail and Rachael pictured by Murray Lambden just after the 2009 Easter Festival 5k race on Douglas Prom. Rachael narrowly beat her IOM teammate in that race!
The final two athletes to be featured in the ‘Second Time Around’ category are middle distance runner Rachael Franklin and long-distance specialist Gail Griffiths, both of whom made their Island Games debuts in Rhodes 2 years ago. Both absolutely love running; both work extremely hard to make the most of their ability; one is 27 years older than the other!
17 year old Rachael Franklin has been competing in running events of all types since she was very young, and it was always obvious that she had masses of talent. Whether it was cross country, hill races, track or road, she was good at them all, but initially it looked as if she was most likely to favour the longer distance events. About 3 or 4 years ago she developed much more basic speed, and that combined with building up her physical strength has seen her develop into an outstanding middle distance runner. The 800m is probably Rachael’s best event now, but she is also a very strong 1500m runner and has enough speed to be an important member of the 4x400m relay team too. She will be busy in Aland – and very competitive in all 3 events!
Rachael’s performances in Rhodes at the age of 15 were brilliant. She was 7th in the 1500m, and took a superb 4th place in the 800m. The times she recorded in each event would have won medals in most previous Island Games, but the standard in the women’s middle distance events in 2007 was extremely high. Over the past 2 years, Rachael has worked exceptionally hard and shown real dedication to improving as an athlete. She has always loved running and being in the company of other athletes, but she is much more focussed these days. Being part of Di Shimell’s training group has brought her on a lot, particularly being able to train regularly with Sarah Dowling who sets such a great example to all the other athletes. Two of Rachael’s targets are an Island Games gold medal and the Isle of Man 800m record (currently 2.13), and I think she will achieve both – perhaps not this year, but she will achieve them in the not-too-distant future. If Rachael continues to work hard, enjoy her running and stay injury-free she can dominate the local athletics scene for many years.
In 2005, a few months after her 40th birthday, Gail Griffiths travelled to Shetland for a holiday to support the Isle of Man’s athletics team in the Island Games without the slightest thought of competing in the event in the future. She had no athletics background, and had taken up running 2 years earlier to improve her fitness for racing her motorbike in the MGP. Gail started competing in cross country and road races, but initially stuck to the short courses - anything over about 2 miles was out of the question at that stage. During the second half of 2005 she started increasing her training, and began to rapidly improve. By early 2006 she was running 10k in under 44 minutes and was considering trying a Half Marathon later that year. After a discussion with Andy Fox at Easter that year she decided to commit to a serious and structured training programme with the aim of getting to the 2007 Island Games. This she achieved, with two excellent runs in her first two Half Marathons gaining her selection for both the Half Marathon and 10000m races in Rhodes.
Gail was far from her best in Rhodes, largely because she suffered a series of niggling injuries as she increased the mileage in training on the build-up to the Games, but also due to the worry of her Mum being critically ill in hospital after being involved in a TT marshalling accident only a couple of weeks before the Games. There have been no such problems this time, and 2 years of extremely hard work (including injury prevention measures) have been rewarded with regular terrific performances and substantial pb times across all her distances. Gail will be giving it everything to try and challenge for an individual medal in both the 10000m and Half Marathon, but if she doesn’t make it this time she intends to still be around for another go in 2011!
Rachael’s performances in Rhodes at the age of 15 were brilliant. She was 7th in the 1500m, and took a superb 4th place in the 800m. The times she recorded in each event would have won medals in most previous Island Games, but the standard in the women’s middle distance events in 2007 was extremely high. Over the past 2 years, Rachael has worked exceptionally hard and shown real dedication to improving as an athlete. She has always loved running and being in the company of other athletes, but she is much more focussed these days. Being part of Di Shimell’s training group has brought her on a lot, particularly being able to train regularly with Sarah Dowling who sets such a great example to all the other athletes. Two of Rachael’s targets are an Island Games gold medal and the Isle of Man 800m record (currently 2.13), and I think she will achieve both – perhaps not this year, but she will achieve them in the not-too-distant future. If Rachael continues to work hard, enjoy her running and stay injury-free she can dominate the local athletics scene for many years.
In 2005, a few months after her 40th birthday, Gail Griffiths travelled to Shetland for a holiday to support the Isle of Man’s athletics team in the Island Games without the slightest thought of competing in the event in the future. She had no athletics background, and had taken up running 2 years earlier to improve her fitness for racing her motorbike in the MGP. Gail started competing in cross country and road races, but initially stuck to the short courses - anything over about 2 miles was out of the question at that stage. During the second half of 2005 she started increasing her training, and began to rapidly improve. By early 2006 she was running 10k in under 44 minutes and was considering trying a Half Marathon later that year. After a discussion with Andy Fox at Easter that year she decided to commit to a serious and structured training programme with the aim of getting to the 2007 Island Games. This she achieved, with two excellent runs in her first two Half Marathons gaining her selection for both the Half Marathon and 10000m races in Rhodes.
Gail was far from her best in Rhodes, largely because she suffered a series of niggling injuries as she increased the mileage in training on the build-up to the Games, but also due to the worry of her Mum being critically ill in hospital after being involved in a TT marshalling accident only a couple of weeks before the Games. There have been no such problems this time, and 2 years of extremely hard work (including injury prevention measures) have been rewarded with regular terrific performances and substantial pb times across all her distances. Gail will be giving it everything to try and challenge for an individual medal in both the 10000m and Half Marathon, but if she doesn’t make it this time she intends to still be around for another go in 2011!
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