Pauline Ash, coach and team manager
Having been with CoNAC since the beginning, and previously with Norfolk Olympiads, my fondest memories in the early years were when I was Team Manager of the Ladies UKWL team and the NJAL girls team, previously the McDonalds League. It wasn’t until the early 2000s that the leagues became jointly male and female, but in the heady days 1996 onwards the ladies/girls teams had a lot of success and fun! We travelled in mini buses to places like Swansea, Liverpool, taking our officials with us, stayed overnight on many occasions and over several years gained promotion in the UKWL to Division 2, narrowly missing promotion to the top division. Our junior ladies team won the Southern Section of the McDonalds league several years on the trot finishing as high as 4th in the National Final on a couple of occasions.
My fondest memories on an individual basis, top of the list must be our version of Super Saturday. It was the English Schools T & F Champs at Birmingham in 2007, within a short period of time Mitch Goose won the senior boys 3000m, Dani Nimmock the senior girls 3000m, the Rachel Stringer the senior girls 800m. A wonderful day.
A special place belongs to Ruth Proctor, who was our first success, also winning the senior girls 3000m at Nottingham in 2002. Ruth went on to represent GB at Cross Country and track.
We have been lucky enough to follow some of CoNAC athletes we’ve coached over the years to places all over the World. Ruth Senior in the 3k chase at the World Juniors in Beijing, Rick Ward in the 800m at the World Juniors in Poland, Rachel Stringer at the Euro under 18s at Belgrade in the 800m. We have also been to many Euro and World Cross Country Champs courtesy of Mitch Goose, Ash Harrell, Ruth Proctor and Hollie Rolland. Latterly of course a wonderful trip to the Gold Coast in Australia to support Iona Lake competing in the Commonwealth Games 3k Chase.
Every one of these athletes were proud to wear the stripes and some continue to do so to this day.
We have been lucky enough to make so many friends during the 25 years of CoNAC and hope to continue doing so for a few more years yet!