Four local sprinters take up baton to develop Gibraltar’s future runners

Four of Gibraltar’s sprinters this past week took a major step towards providing athletics with a lifeline for the future.
Three of them, former sprinters who have now hung up their spikes, and a fourth who continues to represent Gibraltar, returned from Manchester this weekend after completing a coaching course that will allow them to pass on their experience to young runners.
Jerai Torres, Sean Peñalver, and Lyzanne Olivero — already part of the Lourdians coaching team — travelled to the UK to complete an Athletics Coaching Course in Manchester run by England Athletics.
The course, designed to streamline the process of becoming a coach for former athletes, will enable them to contribute to the growing development of the sport locally as athletics continues to attract large numbers of young runners.
However, with only two clubs currently offering opportunities for youth runners, the sport has seen many young athletes drop out at key stages due to a lack of an adequate coaching structure.
Atlas Europa mainly caters for a small group of elite athletes, while Lourdians register several hundred children for their coaching sessions. Many have to wait to join because of a shortage of qualified coaches, as clubs try to comply with the legal “coach-to-athlete” ratio.
The latest step taken by the four Lourdians athletes marks the beginning of a new era, strengthening the club’s and the GAAA’s coaching capabilities.
The course acknowledges that athletes already possess much of the technical knowledge and understanding needed to become effective coaches.
“As such, we completed ten hours of online modules and assessments to cover the Assistant Coach qualification before attending a three-day in-person training course,” explained Sean Collado. “We’ll now complete further online modules — including Safeguarding, First Aid, and Equality and Diversity — before our in-person assessment in December, which will allow us to qualify as Level 2 Athletics Coaches.”
“The course will enable us to become licensed coaches through England Athletics to teach the fundamentals of athletics through to the Event Group stage across all disciplines — long jump, triple jump, sprinting, endurance, javelin, shot put, and high jump. This level is just below the elite and performance categories, with our focus specifically on sprinting. We’ll also have the opportunity to pursue further training to coach performance and elite athletes or to specialise in other disciplines in the future.”
“However, this course has not only allowed us to start gaining long-overdue coaching qualifications, but also to network and share coaching practices with a group packed with current and former elite international athletes from Portugal, the Bahamas, and Great Britain. We built personal relationships with figures such as former triple jump world record holder and current GB record holder Ashia Hansen MBE, five-time World Triathlon Champion and marathon runner Michelle Dillon, former Olympic sprinter Philipa Arnett-Willie, and several prominent Team GB athletes — many of whom expressed interest in using Gibraltar’s facilities for warm-weather training and in future collaboration to share coaching experience and knowledge.”
A void had developed within the sport during its years at Victoria Stadium, when countless issues affected its growth. That gap is now beginning to close as athletics looks forward to a brighter future with the new facilities at Lathbury.
Still, a lack of coaching depth remains, with much of the local focus having leaned towards senior and veteran runners. The Road Runners League, for example, highlights a significant age gap, with most participants in their late thirties or older and only a few youth runners making the transition to senior races.
Similarly, track events have often seen small fields, limiting competitiveness at local level.
With clubs such as Lourdians attracting over two hundred junior athletes in each category, the sport continues to draw attention at a young age but struggles to maintain momentum into senior competition. Several of Gibraltar’s top names — including the four sprinters now turning to coaching — have already stepped away from competition, hanging up their spikes.
Encouraging former athletes to move into coaching, therefore, represents a significant and much-needed step forward. This past week’s achievement provides a major boost for the future of athletics in Gibraltar. Adding to the work already being undertaken by the likes of Sharon Celecia, Avellino Baldachino, Roy Torres and the other handful of coaches presently working with grassroots runners.