The European Endurance Conference

We were delighted to welcome distinguished external speakers to our campus, including world-leading exercise physiologist Prof. Andy Jones (University of Exeter), 2010 European 1500m Champion Dr Arturo Casado (Rey Juan Carlos University, Madrid) and Kenyan Olympic middle-distance coach Bernard Ouma, who joined us live from Nairobi alongside World 1500m Champion Timothy Cheruiyot for an interview with Geoff Wightman, Olympic and World Championship announcer and commentator.

The Conference focus was “achieving excellence in healthy endurance environments” with examples of good practice based on athlete-centred philosophies. These examples included aspects of clean sport, athlete-appropriate strength and conditioning practices, training loads and biomechanical methods.

The topics covered are reflected into teaching on several courses based in the Carnegie School of Sport, including Sport and Exercise Science, Sport Coaching and Science of Sport Performance, largely through the professional development of staff across the School by attending such sessions and learning from coaches and academics.

Students benefit from this type of event both directly (two undergraduate students and one Master’s intern were involved in assisting the conference) and indirectly, such as through the links made with external bodies. We are planning for future research collaborations with several visitors to the conference, and in particular with the Leeds Talent Hub, which is supported by British Athletics and England Athletics.

On the first day, Prof. Sue Backhouse spoke in a keynote address about the work she and the PROSPER research team have been conducting on protecting the integrity of athletics and the welfare of athletes and coaches. Strength and conditioning coach Dane Mitchell enthusiastically brought to life the practical side of working with Olympic distance runners, and was joined by our Head of Athletics Andy Henderson and Olympian Helen Clitheroe (Leeds Talent Hub) in a demonstration of appropriate drills in the Athletics Performance Centre.

On Saturday, Dr Andi Drake explained how each member of the Leeds Talent Hub worked in unison to develop those athletes based at our University and beyond, followed up later by Dane Mitchell joining Helen Clitheroe to explain preparation work for steeplechasers in the CSS Strength and Conditioning facility, and S&C intern Maj Skok conducting a live run-through of performance competency assessment screening in the Carnegie Research Institute building. Dr Gareth Nicholson and Josh Walker delivered a workshop on assessing strength and muscle function in race walkers and distance runners in the Human Movement Laboratory, which included a practical demonstration of the advanced biomechanical equipment we use to test athletes.

In the afternoon, Dr Brian Hanley delivered a talk on the most up-to-date findings from his biomechanical research on the world’s best endurance athletes, with Cara Sloss then presenting her work on nutrition strategies for the 50km ultramarathon alongside World 50km Champion Aly Dixon. A highlight of the conference was Helen Clitheroe’s Q&A session with Leeds Beckett alumna and Olympic 800m finalist, Alex Bell, coached by Andy Henderson, who joined us for the Gala Dinner in the Great Hall of the James Graham building. On Sunday, Dr Andi Drake and Andy Henderson led practical sessions in the S&C facility and on the outdoor athletics track, respectively.

The programme was split between lecture theatres, biomechanics laboratories, the indoor athletics performance centre, 400m athletics track, and strength and conditioning facilities, most of which have additional facilities for conducting research. Visitors to the campus spoke of how impressed they were by our facilities and expertise, and many thanks go to European Athletics, England Athletics and the British Milers’ Club for their support, as well as our conference team who were excellent in their tireless work before and during the event.