Athletics: Injury-free and loving it

Donna Young
Donna Young
Donna Young had the running world at her feet until she was derailed by a harsh training regime while on scholarship in the United States.

Nearly 20 years later, Young (41) has regained her running mojo and is about to tackle the Dunedin marathon for a second time.

She began running as an 8-year-old, competing for Scottish club Kilmarnock Harriers, progressing through the junior grades to represent Scotland as a junior and at under-21 level in cross-country and middle distance (3000m and 5000m).

''I ran cross-country, track and a wee bit of road right up until I left for university,'' Young said.

While at Loughborough University, in Nottingham, Young gained selection for Great Britain's under-21 track team and came under the arm of George Gandy, who coached the great Sebastian Coe and was working with a promising distance runner called Paula Radcliffe.

Young and Radcliffe, the future marathon star, became good friends, training and racing together.

Under Gandy, Young's middle-distance career took off, and Commonwealth and Olympic selection seemed to beckon. But an offer of a scholarship in the United States was too tempting for her to turn down.

''I must admit that I was advised against accepting it. But when you're that age, it's such an exciting opportunity, for someone to pay for you. It's like a job - they're paying everything. And you're doing something you enjoy.''

Young believes her running career was derailed at the University of Arkansas due to the college's approach to training, which put stress on her lower back.

She was forced to put her career on hold due to severe back pain and referred to that time as ''just a disaster''.

''I was suddenly running twice a day and doing weight sessions. I was doing way too much mileage, to be honest. But I just didn't have enough knowledge behind me then.''

Young returned to Britain to complete a degree in sports science at Loughborough University and a masters, to become a teacher.

It was only after meeting future husband Richard Young, a Commonwealth Games and Olympic track cyclist for Canada, at the International Olympic Academy conference in Greece that she began to consider running again.

The couple later moved to Bath, in the south of England, where Young contested her first two half marathons, establishing an impressive personal best of 1hr 17min.

Their path to New Zealand was prompted by Richard's desire to return to a country he fell in love with while representing Canada at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland.

''A group of us just loved it here and we all planned not to get on the flight back to Canada,'' Richard said.

He jumped at the chance to become a performance director with Sparc (now Sport New Zealand) in Auckland 10 years ago, before a transfer to Dunedin, where they are raising four children, in 2007.

''We were always conspiring a way to come south,'' Donna Young said.

''We would drive around, wanting to see everywhere that was now our new home. We did the South Island - went to Central and loved it.''

 

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