|
Ciaran McDonagh in Training With
Olympic Champion Dwight Phillips
13 January 2005
National long jump record holder
Ciaran McDonagh has recently begun training with Olympic Champion
Dwight Phillips as he looks to regain the form that saw him become
the first Irishman over eight metres and a World Championship
Finalist in 1999. The following is an excerpt from an article which
appeared on the IAAF website on January 12th 2005:
---------------
He (Dwight
Phillips) has also joined forces with a new coach, Paul Doyle, and
has begun training with his close-knit group of athletes in
Marietta, Georgia. The group includes three rising stars of U.S.
hurdling; Danielle Carruthers who clocked 12.56 for the 100m Hurdles
in 2004, LaBronze Garrett the 5th place finisher in the 400m hurdles
at the 2004 Olympic Trials, and Robby Hughes who placed 6th in the
highly competitive 110m Hurdles at the Trials. Phillips also has a
new “pit partner” with Irish Long Jump record holder Ciaran McDonagh
joining him on the practice runway.
The question people may be asking
is, why change an already successful formula?
“I’ve always made good decisions
where my jumping is concerned and I still have a lot of goals left
to achieve in this sport,” states Phillips with a quiet assuredness
and trademark ear-to-ear smile. “I feel I have only begun the
business end of my career. I want to jump a lot further and I
believe this new situation will facilitate my ambitions perfectly.”
For a guy who can respectably
sprint with the best of them (10.16 100m pb) he has no trace of the
brashness or arrogance usually associated with the sprinting breed.
“It’s
great for me to get a chance to train with the best in the
business,” enthuses new training-partner McDonagh, “but the fact
that Dwight is such a class act off the track too has made it a real
pleasure.” McDonagh is no slouch himself having been a World
Championships Finalist in Seville in 1999 before injuries slowed his
progress. “Dwight’s arrival has given me a new spark to get back out
there and jump far.”
-----------------
Full article can be found at:
http://www.iaaf.org/news/Kind=2/newsId=28199.html
|