Thursday 15th May
World’s leading coaches set for Glasgow
scottishathletics has confirmed it will be hosting the 2008 European Athletics Coaches Association Conference in November, supported by the European Athletics Coaches Association, UK Athletics, European Athletics, the Dallas Trust and sportscotland.
The event, which will incorporate the scottishathletics International Coaching Conference, will follow the theme of ‘Learning Faster’ and will feature a number of world-class speakers from across the globe.
Heading the conference line up is legendary American Coach Clyde Hart. Hart, who has coached a number of the world’s top athletes including Michael Johnson and Jeremy Wariner and who is arguably the greatest 400m coach of all time, will fly in especially for the weekend to share his experience with delegates.
The second speaker for the weekend is Sweden’s Yannick Tregaro. The Swede rose to coaching prominence by leading Christian Olsson to Olympic triple jump gold in Athens in 2004. Tregaro has also inspired the likes of double world high jump champion Kajsa Bergqvist and world bronze medallist Emma Green.
A fascinating dimension will be added by the appearance of Chinese Olympic Coach Zhong Bingshu, Director of the IAAF Regional Development Centre in Beijing and Vice-President of Beijing Sport University. Bingshu is internationally respected as an expert on Coach Education and will add some interesting insight following the Olympics Games being hosted by his home city this summer.
Completing the keynote line up is Canadian Ken Porter, who has coached national team athletes in his native Canada, Australia and Great Britain. Porter has held senior positions in organising committees of Olympic and Commonwealth Games as well as directing countless Canadian championships. As a senior course conductor in athletics in the Canadian coaching certification programme, Ken leads the training and mentoring of many younger coaches and is presently a director and coach with the largest and most successful track and field club in Canada.
EACA President Frank Dick OBE said: “I am delighted to have the opportunity of inviting your attendance and hopefully welcoming you to the 2008 EACA Conference in Glasgow. The quality of this year’s conference is quite outstanding with input from the USA, Sweden, Canada and China. Without doubt it is the finest line-up in the history of the EACA and will surely be the largest assembly of athletics coaches we have enjoyed in Europe.”
Ewen Cameron, who is managing the Conference for scottishathletics added: “We have managed to assemble a number of highly respected, world class leaders from the world of coaching and international athletics. This really is an opportunity not to be missed by athletics coaches in the UK and across Europe, and we are delighted to be delivering this prestigious event in Scotland in 2008.”
A number of workshop speakers will be announced on the event website over the summer, including a range of leaders from all event disciplines including combined events.
The Conference will be held at the Marriott Hotel in Glasgow on Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd November 2008. The booking hotline will open at 10am on Monday 19th May and attendees from the 2007 scottishathletics International Coaching Conference will be guaranteed a space if they book by 30th June.
Delegate rates (without accommodation) are priced at £60 for all UKA Licenced Coaches and £100 for International and all other delegates. Further information on accommodation packages will be made available on the event website.
To book places online, please visit the event website at www.eaca08.co.uk from Monday 19th May or telephone the Conference Hotline on 00 44 (0) 131 476 7327.
For further information:
Katy Anderson: Media and Communications Manager, scottishathletics
t: 0131 476 7323
m: 0777 352 9336
e: katy.anderson@scottishathletics.org.uk
w: www.scottishathletics.org.uk
