Life in the fast lane

Game Dame: Holmes passes on tips

I think it's healthy for kids to learn to lose and discover how to pick themselves up again and try to be the best next time.

Dame Kelly Holmes
Quotes of the week

LIVE ON SKY SPORTS
English Schools Athletics
2pm, Sat, Sky Sports 2 & HD2

Dame Kelly Holmes believes grass-roots athletics in Britain is on the right track to produce the Olympic champions of tomorrow.

The double Olympic gold medallist hopes her faith will be rewarded with some stunning displays at this week's Aviva English Schools Athletics Championships.

The cream of England's most promising young athletes will compete for their respective counties in the Grand Prix style event at Sheffield's Don Valley Stadium on Friday and Saturday, and they have some tough acts to follow.

Many members of the current GB & NI team, including triple jumper Phillips Idowu and sprinter Mark Lewis-Francis, competed in the Championships as youngsters as did Holmes who back in 1983 won the 1,500m at the age of 13 while running for Kent.

Now she wants today's talented teenagers to use the event as a springboard to success.

"These Championships help to give kids at school an ambition and provide a pathway that shows them there is a bigger picture," Holmes told skysports.com. "The young people I know thrive on taking part in events like this just as I did when I was younger.

"To represent your county is a huge achievement; by then you are probably part of a club as well and it's a reward for all of that work that they do at such a young age.

"It shouldn't be too serious and focused. Of course, they will take the competition seriously but it should also be an event where they enjoy the camaraderie and atmosphere.

"That way it becomes a learning curve, an opportunity to grow in confidence and an exercising in learning how to maximise performance at big Championships.

Experience

"At school you always know your rivals, who you are up against; you probably come up against the best in your county on a regular basis but doing it at an English Schools level does give you a sense of the atmosphere and energy that surrounds a Championship.

"Tactics come from experience and you also learn how to deal with failures in your mind so if you have a goal and you don't quite achieve it you learn how to respond, even if it's a horrible thing to deal with. I think it's healthy for kids to learn to lose and discover how to pick themselves up again and try to be the best next time."

Holmes admits that athletics faces a battle to retain the best teenage talent around and believes that the Aviva UKA Academy, which aims to provide opportunities for every child in the UK to get active by 2012, has a key part to play if that battle to increase participation is to be won.

"As there are so many different activities for young people to participate in - particularly team orientated sports - it can be difficult for athletics to compete against those, particularly if they want to spend time with their friends.

"But athletics does have some really good programmes, such as Star Track Athletics and Sportshall Athletics, and if we can link everything together we can provide a pathway for young people to follow and keep them interested.

"English Schools has always been a brilliant event but I don't think it has always had the profile it deserves; if it gets that then schools and PE teachers will look at athletics as a sport that has a development pathway, which is the beginning of the tunnel.

Talented

"Hopefully we are going to see some stars emerge from this year's competition, people with natural ability and something special who will hopefully go on to become our Olympic and World athletics champions of tomorrow.

"The message is finally getting through that we must keep these people in the sport, we must retain the talented athletes and not lose them to other sports. You don't get the elite product without the grass-roots. A lot of parents and coaches give up their time and energy to support young people and that effort shouldn't be allowed to go to waste."

Meanwhile Holmes' own commitments continue to grow - last month she was named as the new President of Commonwealth Games England - and she remains fiercely patriotic whether championing London 2012 or roaring on England in the Ashes.

"I was at the Oval when we won the Ashes in 2005 - the atmosphere was outstanding," she said. "I want to feel that again. British people are very proud about their sport, we love getting behind our teams, and we want to have more of these big moments to inspire people to get involved."

Dame Kelly Holmes is an Ambassador for this week's Aviva English Schools Track and Field Championships.