Training tips from the best on menu

Jan 30 2008 by Andrew Flynn, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

TOP sprinter Jamie Staff is unlikely to be giving away many of his early training secrets when he speaks as guest of the Huddersfield Star Wheelers at their dinner and prize presentation next month.

The 34-year-old, who was Great Britain’s former world champion BMX rider before breaking onto the track scene, is due to speak to the Wheelers at Huddersfield Rugby Union Club on Saturday, February 9, and admits he didn’t know how to train in the early years of his career.

“There wasn’t a BMX coach years ago so you had to educate yourself and that took years of experimentation. It was very much trial and error,” said Staff (far right).

“It is a little frustrating in that I was probably 28 before I had a really structured training programme. My results have been a lot more consistent since then.”

The track cycling world champion, from Ashford in Kent, is on excellent form ahead of the UCI World Track Championships in Manchester, from March 26 to March 30, and has come a long way since he won the BMX world title in 1996.

“This year is probably one of the most structured years I have had,” said Staff. “I have been super dedicated.

“That young talent is creeping through and I am trying to keep the lid shut until after the Olympics in Beijing.”

Staff helped the GB team to win two gold medals in the three-man team sprint events in Copenhagen and Los Angeles.

He won bronze in the team sprint in Palma at last year’s championships but only thousandths of a second separated him from winning another rainbow jersey. Staff also won gold in the tough Keirin event in Melbourne in 2004. He is under no illusions that it will be tough to get a place in a British spot for the team sprint.

Young British sprinter Jason Kenny will be just 20 when the Worlds start in March, but the multiple European and World Championships junior gold medalist raised more eyebrows when he recorded 10.1sec in sprint competition last month.

“Jason is a great young kid and super talented,” said Staff.

“He has got a really bright future. We have good strength in depth in the team now.

“I would like to ride in the Kilo time trial in Manchester but there has been no decision yet.”

“I am feeling confident because I am still doing personal bests at the age of 34 at the gym and on the track, so from that I have got to remain pretty positive.”

Staff will be joined in Copenhagen and for the World Championships in Manchester by former Holme Valley Wheeler Ed Clancy, who will be bidding for gold at both events with the GB team pursuit squad.

John Ginley, of Shelf, a member of the Brighouse-based Condor RC (inset), won bronze in the Over 60s category at the UCI World Masters Championships in Mol-Zilvermeer, Belgium.

Bingley’s Three Peaks’ specialist Rob Jebb was the best-placed British rider in Sunday’s World Cyclo-cross championships in Treviso, Italy, finishing in 52nd place, 4min 45sec behind the event winner Lars Boom, of Holland.

Most of the riders are full professionals so Jebb was among the handful of amateurs gridded at the back of the field, making it difficult to pass other riders. Still Jebb worked his way through many of the backmarkers to finish ahead of 13 other riders.

Huddersfield Star Wheeler Ivan Boyes took a third in the 20-lap points race and was fourth and fifth respectively in the 20-lap scratch and 1km in group two of the Friday night track league at Manchester Velodrome – this in a very competitive event.