The Mark Ellis Blog

The World Transplant Games came to Newcastle/Gateshead and I was delighted to volunteer, both as a general volunteer plus as an athletics volunteer on the competition days at Gateshead Stadium. The Transplant Games is a special event and none more so as we know a Transplant athlete. That athlete is Louise McLellan and we first got to know her back in 2014 when she joined our training group. Now at the time, all Wor Bri (who coached us back then) told us was that we had to be careful as she'd had an operation. The bit we only found about following Louise appearing on GMTV in the build up to 2015 British Transplant Games, was that the operation had been a heart transplant ! So since then, Transplant sport has always been on our radar. F or the first three days of volunteering, I was based at Gateshead Stadium with the duties on the first day involving directing competitors and spectators at the Archery & Football competitions which was interesting, although the Archery wa...

Appreciating that it's a couple of weeks since my trip on one of the new LNER Azuma's, but it's still worth writing a few words on as it was an impressive experience. For once, I was lucky as this was the last train to get out of London during the power cut that brought Kings Cross to a standstill for some hours. It was noticeable that the train switched from electric to diesel power during the first few moments of the journey, which just shows the flexibility that the new trains bring. I'd read about the acceleration and braking on the Azuma and this was exactly as I'd read as they really do take off. In a way, I'd been fortunate as the work trip I'd been on had featured trips on GWR 802's so it was good to compare the two. The interior in the Azuma is much better than that in the GWR equivalent and the seating is much more comfortable. It's a much brighter interior too and one very handy feature are the lights above the seats that indicat...

As is customary at this time of the year, it's time to look back at what the kids have been up to on the track and field as well as having a look forward to what 2019 might bring. Following tradition, we'll go in child order, so it's Dominic first.  2018 has been a year where there's been another club as he's now an athlete (as well as coaching) at Warrington AC following his move to the North West.  He's done a lot of officiating again in 2018, including UKYDL fixtures for his new club as well as the usual stuff in the North East.  He's also started his Level 4 qualification on the track and is having a dabble amongst the start team. Meanwhile, on the track, there's only been a couple of performances this season and that was the Great North Run plus an outing in the Cheshire League.  The highlight has to be his 3.77m long jump, which was actually a pb, beating his 2015 performance of 3.46m in Houghton's senior team.  He does though maintain hi...