Portsmouth athletics stars back in competitive action as new coaching academy stages its first event

The event has been organised by the South of England Track and Field Academy (SETAFA), a new group set up of UKA qualified coaches ‘who want to offer more than a basic club set up’.

Portsmouth-based coaches Paul Jones and Gary Sprake are the founder members, but other top local coaches such as Bronwin Carter and Charlie Craddock are also on board.

This weekend’s event at the Mountbatten Centre - not open to the public - is for field events only and features City of Portsmouth star Serena Vincent.

She is the UK and European No 1 for the shot, having last year won the Under-18 ISF World Championship title in Croatia.

Portsmouth’s Heather Cubbage, ranked No 14 in the UK at discus, is also competing along with Southampton pair Samantha Callaway (ranked sixth in the UK for shot and seventh for discus) and Chris Scott (ranked fourth in the UK men’s discus).

Nick Percy, the new British shot champion from Shaftesbury in Dorset, will also be present.

Jones said SETAFA can offer coaching covering all levels of ability - from beginners through to elite specialist level.

‘We cover everything from nutrition, sports management, mental wellbeing and physio,’ he outlined.

‘We can help clubs stage events, or we can put on our own.

‘We’re aiming to run another field only event later this month or October, and we want to run a track event next year.

‘We want to get ourselves out there so people can see we’re a serious organisation, and hopefully we can attract more officials that way.’

This weekend’s event is the first competitive athletics event to be held in the Portsmouth area since life went into lockdown in mid-March.