Feature

Joys and Sorrows

A new American coach has breathed life into Joice Maduaka’s career, writes JASON HENDERSON

WHATEVER happens in Gothenburg next week, Joice Maduaka has enjoyed an amazing turnaround in fortunes this summer. At the start of 2006 she was considered not good enough for Lottery funding and too slow to make the English relay squad, let alone an individual spot, at the Commonwealth Games. Yet last month she scored a sprint double victory at the European Trials and AAA Championships in Manchester and the 100m saw her clock a lifetime best of 11.23.

Aged 32, the Londoner is in the form of her life and her 100m win in Manchester matched Paula Dunn’s record of five AAA titles at the distance. Indeed, it is probably her best form since 1999, when she clocked 22.83 for 200m and graced Athletics Weekly’s cover on the eve of the AAA Championships before living up to our hype and sealing a sprint double at that year’s event too.

It would be even more remarkable if she could continue to improve throughout 2007 and beyond to the 2008 Olympics. Impossible? No, she reckons it is very likely. Why? Because her current coaching partnership has only been in operation since March. “I haven’t even had a winter yet with my new coach,” she explains.

Maduaka’s new coach is Thomas Johnson, whom she met at the World Indoor Championships in Moscow, an event she was only attending because she failed to gain selection for Melbourne’s Games. Johnson, an American coach, guides Maduaka on the phone and via email and works in synchrony with her long-time coach and mentor, Ron Roddan.

Johnson was not at Crystal Palace last Friday, where Maduaka confirmed her domestic dominance with victory over Emma Ania, Emily Freeman and others followed by a 100m defeat in a high-class international race that Marion Jones wasn’t even quick enough to win. Instead, he was busy in his job working at the Pentagon in the States and attempting to catch footage of the action on the internet.

Johnson will not be at the European Championships in Gothenburg either. Yet Maduaka is so full of confidence and enjoying her athletics immensely at present, she hardly seems to care. “I’m actually looking forward to training right now,” she says.

She might not be saying that this winter, though, as she expects to endure the toughest training period of her life. Her new coach, she says, has drastically increased the workload she tackles during track sessions and she feels the worst is yet to come.

“I’ve only been with him since March, but I’ve been like a sponge during that time - soaking it all up,” she says. “I’ve not got all the pieces to the puzzle yet, but I hope to run quicker when I do. He (Johnson) said when I first met him that I had the right attributes ­ firstly I am relatively tall and I’ve also never been seriously hurt, which is important.”

So what kind of training does Maduaka expect? “Well, he’s a 400s and 800s guy, so I expect the sessions to be hard. So far I have run a lot more reps on the track than I would do usually. He’s given me some complete ‘out there’ kind of sessions. And it’s only summer.

“His attitude is that if you want to beat the best in the world you have to train pretty hard. There are no excuses.”

But Maduaka is also doing it the hard way. She was not initially included in the list of athletes asked to sign UK Athletics contracts, although this is understood to have changed. Operating outside of the system, she works full-time as a communications manager for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Yet she could become one of the British team’s most successful athletes next week in Gothenburg, especially if she threatens Kathy Cook’s long-standing UK record of 11.10. At the very least, she should be good enough to scrape into the relay team.

From issue 61-31 (August 3, 2006) of Athletics Weekly , - available in WH Smith and all good newsagents, or on subscription

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