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The Long Road to Gold - Part One

The Long Road to Gold – Tom and Yvonne’s story of Commonwealth Games success – Part One.

Ahead of the Commonwealth Games starting tomorrow, we spoke to Tom Mooney who is one of our Session Workers in Scotland helping with the smooth running of our clubs.  Tom is married to Yvonne Murray who needs no introduction but in case, dear reader, you might be too young to recall, smashed the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Canada with a stunning golden 10,000 meters run!  We should also add at this point that Yvonne is one of our Patrons and frequently visits clubs sharing her memories. 

(Yvonne taking part in Dunfermline’s Summer Sports Day)

We asked Tom to share his recollections of 1994 and were quite taken aback at the sheer volume of work and preparation that went into an elite athlete’s performance even 30+ years ago.  

Toms’ Story 

For the general public watching athletes compete at grand prix athletics meetings and major championships each year, they only see the competition side of the sport. 

They don’t see the countless hours spent training, covering mile after mile, out in all weathers, missing many family and social events to keep to the training regime. Don’t forget to also include weight training, circuits and the worry of steering clear of injury. The stresses and strains over the year to be able to be competitive over the athletics season and more importantly the major championships of the year are an immense team effort. 

For every athlete competing at the highest level, a training and race plan is set out at least a year in advance. The date of the major championship event is noted and the method of training is worked back to the present day. Base work including the heavy endurance sessions till late December and then the development of speed training and specific sessions leading up to the track season and the main target championship race for the season. 

The Goal: 10K 

Yvonne was concentrating on the 10,000m at the Commonwealth Games in 1994, moving up distance from the 3000m that she usually ran. 

Yvonne’s training over the winter months included an increase in the number of miles run per week and changing the faster road runs and track sessions to include more endurance-based work. 

Training had been going exceptionally well over the winter, and Yvonne’s first race was the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA) Championships at Sheffield in May.  Yvonne won her heat and was running against fellow GB internationals Kelly Holmes and Ann Griffiths in the 1500m Final. A race well below her new distance of 10,000m. Yvonne’s strategy was to lead from the gun as she had lost some speed due to her running more endurance sessions. Yvonne kept the lead until a lap to go when Kelly Holmes took over. Yvonne moved in behind Kelly Holmes and with 100m remaining, Yvonne just about drew level with Kelly all the way to the finish line! Kelly just won by three hundredths of a second. Kelly and Yvonne’s finishing times were in the top three leading times in the world at that time of the season. So, it was an excellent start of the new season for Yvonne. 

More records broken 

Yvonne was then racing very well all over Europe, running a Scottish record at the Mile, going under the World Best for 2000m behind Sonia O’Sullivan and then running the second fastest time in the World that year over 3000m. 

Although Yvonne’s training that year had been geared towards the Commonwealth 10,000m, she still wanted to defend her European 3000m title at Helsinki, Finland. 

She made a brave defence of her European title but lost out in the last 200m to her main rival Sonia O’Sullivan of Ireland. 

While Yvonne was competing at Helsinki, I was getting ready to travel to Vancouver and made sure everything was in place for her stay on Vancouver Island, prior to her race at Victoria.  

With that, we will leave Tom today and here more next week about the actual event in Vancouver and the journey to Gold!