Olympic spirit athlete, Derek Redmond, comes to RHS

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400m, athlete, Derek Redmond, Olympic

One of Britain’s greatest ever 400m athletes, Derek Redmond, came to speak to Middle School pupils at the Royal Hospital School. During his career, Derek held the British record for the 400 metres sprint, and won gold medals in the 4×400 metres relay at the World Championships, European Championships and Commonwealth Games.

Derek Redmond with Chris Graham, Head of Middle School, and some Year 11 pupils.

However, his career was blighted by a series of injuries. At the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona he tore his hamstring in the 400 metres semi-final but continued the race limping and, with assistance from his father, managed to complete a full lap of the track as the crowd gave him a standing ovation. The incident has become a well-remembered moment in Olympic history, having been the subject of one of the International Olympic Committee’s ‘Celebrate Humanity’ videos and been used in advertisements by Visa as an illustration of the Olympic spirit and featured in Nike’s “Courage” commercials in 2008.

After giving up racing, Derek played on the Great Britain basketball team and also took up rugby. Today, he spends most of his time as a motivational speaker but he is also the Director of Development for Sprints and Hurdles for UK Athletics, an assistant referee on Gladiators, commentator for Eurosport and presenter for a basketball programme on ITV.

Pupils at the Royal Hospital School were captivated as Derek outlined his main principles for life during his talk.

• Goals: Before you can set yourself on any path to success you must first have a clear vision of exactly what it is you want to achieve. Equally important is an ability to change goals while remaining focused. Life can never be fully predicted and sometimes it becomes necessary to handle the unexpected.
• Team Building: How best to organise, operate and succeed as a cohesive team. Also how to function to full personal potential and bring individual talents to a team unit.
• Application: What it takes to achieve pre-determined goals. How to work out the most efficient and effective ways and means to achieve those goals.
• Overcoming Obstacles: No matter how meticulous the preparation, how dedicated the team and the individual, life has a habit of delivering the unexpected. When that happens it is vital to stay focused, adjust objectives and goals as necessary and maintain the drive for success.
• Performance: Objectives can only be reached if individuals and teams perform. However, behind a winning performance lies careful, structured preparation and planning. Only by getting this right can people attain the kind of performance required to compete and succeed.

It’s Plain Sailing into the GBR World Team for Joe

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420 Dinghy, GBR, GBR International 420 Class Dinghy World team, Joe Butterworth, Olympic, RHS, rhs sailing, royal hospital school, rya, Sailing, success

Following his recent success in the Class Selectors, Joe Butterworth has sailed his way into second place at the World Selectors after battling off competition in 24 races over 3 events. This selection means that he will join the GBR International 420 Class Dinghy World Team in Valencia in August for the World Championships.

In addition to this exciting achievement Joe has also been selected for the GBR A team who will be competing in Pwhelli, North Wales, as part of the GBR International 420 Class Dinghy Junior European Team.

To further his sailing career, he is also hoping to sail in the Kiel International Regatta after finishing his exams this term and the UK Nationals in August. This will mark the close of his 420 dinghy sailing as he hopes to be moving on to 470 in the autumn when he will combine university with a place on the Olympic Development squad.

Joe Butterworth Represents Great Britain

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420, Championships, European, GBR, Great Britain, Helm, Italy, Joe Buttersworth, Ladies Champions, Lake Garda, National Youth Squad, North Wales, Olympic, Regatta, RHS, royal hospital school, RYA 420, Sailing, Scottish Elite Squad, Silver Fleet, Squads, Torch, World, Youth, Youth Championships

Joe Butterworth, an RHS sailing scholar has been busy with National Youth Squad and Scottish Elite Squad sailing training during 2012. This has demanded a very high level of commitment with constant travelling most weekends to attend training up and down the country.

Over the Easter holidays Joe took part in the RYA 420 Youth Championships, which was a week’s racing in North Wales.  This qualified Joe’s team to the GBR 420 squads for the World and Junior European Championships which took place in Belgium back in July.  The Team took part in the Flanders Youth Regatta [420 fleet] where they finished 6^th overall, third GBR boat and first under 18 GBR boat in what was regarded as a tough international field in demanding sea conditions.

Later on in July Joe was then asked to sail alongside the Olympic Torch as it crossed Fairlop Water, This was of huge importance to Joe as the sailing school was where he had first learnt to sail. The same day he then travelled to Austria to take part in the 420 World Championships where 28 nations were taking part. The first week was intense training in preparation for the championships. Unfortunately Joe did little sailing as his Helm had to be recalled to the UK unexpectedly. Despite this the Joe and the team achieved their goal and made Silver Fleet finishing 67/108, placing them fifth out of seven GBR boy boats but still the first under 18 GBR boy boat.

The day after the Worlds he then travelled with the team to Lake Garda in Italy to take part in the Junior Europeans where 29 nations took part. Their Goal was to make the Gold fleet and following on from the success at the Worlds combined with fewer distractions, they sailed exceptionally well and easily made the Gold fleet. By the end of the competition Joe and his team were 9^th out of 113 boats. This made them the highest finishing GBR Boat, even finishing above the Ladies Champions.

To round up the intensive summer of sailing Joe travelled back to the UK for the National Championships where once again his team exceeded expectations. Their goal was to finish in the top 5 out of 50 boats and their actual placing was 4^th along with the top under 18 boat. As if this was not enough due to coming the top under 18 boat, they have gained a place in the RYA Targeted Support Programme which will take place in France during the Autumn half term and Italy in December.

The Royal Hospital School is a coeducational Independent boarding and day school for 11 to 18 year olds set in 200 acres of Suffolk Countryside. http://www.royalhospitalschool.org/