Six ‘On Camp with Kelly’ athletes took part in an Aviva sponsored ‘media day’ at Battersea Park Athletics Track in London on Wednesday 11 March.  Journalists and television cameras from different areas of sport, health and fitness and women’s media were in attendance, with the aim of the day being to give them an insight into the way in which the initiative set up by Dame Kelly Holmes with the support of Aviva has helped improve athletes’ performances and reduce drop out rates amongst females in athletics.

Charlotte Best, Tara Bird, Dani Christmas, Hannah England, Alison Leonard and Emma Pallant spent the morning being photographed alongside Kelly before taking part in a short training session which involved a 10 minute jog, some warm up drills and some turnaround runs. Several members of the media took part in the training session as well, giving them a better idea of the work that Kelly does with the athletes.

The afternoon saw a presentation to the media by Kelly about the initiative and how it has grown year by year, now aiding 45 girls and 15 boys with their athletic careers. Sports psychologist Anna Waters had conducted interviews with the six girls in attendance prior to the media day and she presented her findings. Her discussions with the girls coupled with statistics showed that on the whole ‘On Camp with Kelly’ has significantly reduced the drop out rate of talented females in sport and also showed that in comparison to their sporting peers the progression of OCWK athletes is far superior. OCWK physiotherapist Alison Rose backed up Anna’s points by highlighting the fact that if many of the OCWK athletes had not had access to good medical treatment they would be far more prone to injury, thus perhaps causing them to fall short of their potential and perhaps drop out of the sport altogether.

Following the presentation by Kelly, Anna, Alison and the athletes all carried out interviews with various members of the national media, including newspapers and magazines, as well as some phone interviews for their local media.  They were also able to have physiotherapy appointments with Alison Rose and a catch up with Kelly.

By Tara Bird