AUGUST 2024 may well turn out to be the second busiest month in terms of readership since we launched in July 2013.

For the record we have had (as of Aug 1 to Aug 23-470,000 page views). Our busiest month was January 2021 at the height of Covid.

By contrast, August 2023 may also make the lowest ever number of sports stories published since July 2013.

In fact, it was a sad landmark that we had no stories submitted for the whole of the period the Olympics took place.

You may have also noticed that after the Olympics, there were homecoming celebrations across the country. Middle-distance gold medalist Keely Hutchinson in Leigh. Teenage middle-distance runner Phoebe Gill at St Albans. Trampoline star Bryony Page in Nantwich. Rower Imogen Grant had a standing ovation as she started her new job at Wexham Park Hospital. The list goes on.

It seems a dim and distant memory since Harlow Athletic Club’s Andrew Osagie reached the 800 metre final in 2012.

When we ask the question: where were and/or are Harlow’s Olympians?, we feel we are met with a wall of indifference. In fact if there was an Olympic event for excuses then Harlow just might take the Gold.

Gold Medal: What you have to understand is…….

Silver Medal: Yeah but kids today….

Bronze Medal: It’s not all about winning etc etc

Sometimes, we feel that there has developed a mentality that you can’t do both in Harlow. When was that decided?

Some of the people who have borne witness to this are those parents who have taken their children out of a club in Harlow.

There are many many teenagers (and some older) who on many mornings and evenings, with their parents, travel to swimming clubs in Romford, netball in Hertford, rugby in Bishops Stortford, athletics in Woodford.

For many (and others) they are simply going where the best coaches are. We know of a boxer who fights out of the Rainham Club, a BMX biker who has found a club and coach in Braintree. Footballers join academies. Look at Passmores Ronnie Edwards (Southampton) and QPR’s Elijah Dixon Bonner.

Indeed, going back to Olympian Andrew Osagie. He eventually changed coaches to Craig Winrow out in West London to get to the next level.

But there are others who feel aggrieved that the club was not ambitious enough.

But we just feel that so much more could be done. And yes, it may be a matter of political support and financial help.

I am sure that all schools would love to have more PE staff, more time on the timetable and more resources.

Many do a remarkable job balancing their other duties in school. We are reluctant to mention names so we won’t mention the great work Ms Webster does with Netball at St Mark’s.

However, how can it be that year in and year out the Essex Schools Cross Country Championships take place with just one or two representatives from state schools in Harlow. That will be 2,000 plus runners from Colchester, Southend, Thurrock, Basildon, Saffron Walden etc.

Again, when we have asked, we get the ‘kids today” excuse.

The same applies to the Track and Field Champs. Harlow has its own. We have been asking for the results for eleven years but we get the impression that they are covered by the Official Secrets Act.

We feel that Harlow needs some form of Harlow Sports Council. Not sure that will be a solution and it may end up as a talking shop but it may give a collegiate feel. It may be a start. It may allow for people to look at good practice.

This could also have members from a whole raft of other professions and pastimes.

This reporter left Harlow in 1981 to go to the University of Stirling, You may have heard that name a lot during the swimming finals at the Olympics. There is a great set up there. The university football team have made it to the fourth round of the Scottish FA Cup. But the team is a success due to an apprentice and education scheme.

That is a fantastic example of good practice. But for this student, it was seamless. In the seventies, this student was a member of Harlow Athletics Club. The Harlow Sportscentre was a wonderful hub for sports participation as well as sporting excellence. You could rub shoulders with world class athletics, judo practitioners and trampolinists as well as people just playing a game of cricket, squash or badminton.

That has been replaced by the Harlow Leisurezone. There are many who question whether it has continued to carry the torch that burned so brightly at the Harlow Sportcentre. We would give them the right to reply but they have not responded to a query in over four years.

We do want the coaches at clubs throughout the town to feel appreciated. From Harlow Gymnastics at Sumners to Harlow Judo Club at Fold Croft.

Across the town on any given Sunday, the parents running the line for Tekkers or the volunteers at the Harlow parkrun.

We see some people every week, who are promoting physical activity. If you get a chance meet Mirka at Find Your Active. She is a beacon of positivity.

We hope we don’t upset or demotivate people with an article such as this. We want to take this opportunity to apologise to the Harlow Running and Tri Club. Some of our recent articles have been tone deaf to say the least.

We should also return to the question of financial help. Many will say, that participation in sport is expensive. Netball skirts at £90; football boots at £80 and Judo kits at £100. Then there is travel. It must be very expensive when children’s football teams have to travel around the M25.

We also appreciate that there is a much wider participation in pastimes such as dance for example. But there is in Leigh and Nantwich and Stirling and St Albans.

You may also ask: where was the press release after the Olympics saying: If you saw a sport from Archery to Wrestling and want to find out more, then here are the details of your nearest club. There was absolutely nothing.

Funding may be on the horizon. A few months ago, we went to this event hosted by Harlow Rugby Club.

It really did feel it had all the key stakeholders in the room. We hope the Sport England Place Partnership in Harlow may be part of the solution. If they can harness all the energy and goodwill in that room.

https://www.activeessex.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Harlow-Stakeholder-Networking-1_compressed.pdf

This reporter is 62. He ran his first athletics race in July 1971. He lost. His parkrun on Saturday was, well, underwhelming. However, in those 53 years in between, he has watched sport all across the world. From presenting a pen to Glenn Hoddle on the day he signed for Spurs to interviewing Raging Bull’s Jake La Motta.

To watching the world-beating Apex Trampolinists such as Carl Furrer and Stewart Mathews to having Steve Ovett jog past his 800 metre race and realise that there was another world that I didn’t have a chance of competing with but I might have half a chance of writing about.

Harlow should and could have a chance of aiming for the top. The young people of Harlow should have access to the facilities, funding and faith to turn their dreams into a reality.

This philosophy has to be an integral part of the growing Harlow. The Harlow of 2047 and 2061 has to have this as part of its credo, its belief system and its physical and emotional infrastructure.

Michael Casey

August 2024.