David Rice

UKA Level 4 Coach Sprints, Hurdles and Combined Events. David Was Bruce’s Performance Manager and Coach Education Manager during Bruce’s period as the BAF North of the Thames National Coach.

“I learnt so much from Bruce, I am delighted to be able to be given a chance of continuing his work.”

Brian Hopkins

Brian began coaching some thirty years ago under the guidance of former GB Coach Tom McNab at St Albans AC. Without doubt Tom instilled in him an enthusiasm for athletics and this was so important to him in his early years of coaching.
Initially he coached middle-distance but subsequently switched to hurdles, both sprint hurdles and long hurdles.
He has been extremely fortunate in being able to guide several talented young athletes to achieve National Gold medals and is also very proud to have instigated the hugely successful 300/400 Hurdles Training Days, which have been sponsored by BLCF since 2013.

Hayley Harrison

My name is Hayley Harrison and I live, work and coach in Ireland. My specialist event (as an athlete and coach) is the 400m hurdles and that is how I first met Bruce – he was involved in the national squad that I was attending as an athlete, many years ago! 4 years later, it was he who led me through my Level 4 (Senior Coach as it was then) 400mH specific, coaching award and at that time I became the first woman in Europe to achieve the award. I have been coaching for over 30 years and during that time I have brought athletes through to major championships at youth, junior, U23 and senior level. I have five 400m hurdlers in the squad at the moment, including Thomas Barr whom I have coached since 2010 (Tom has run 47.97s, was 4^th in Rio 2016 and Bronze medallist in Berlin 2018).

My full-time job is as a coach education officer for Sport Ireland Coaching, based at the University of Limerick, where I train Coach Developers and Trainers of Coach Developers across 60 sports. I also lead the High Performance Coach Support Programme. Internationally I am an ICCE (International Council for Coaching Excellence) Global Expert in Coach Development and am one of their Master Trainers.

Nick Dakin

Director of Athletics Loughborough University, England
Specializes in coaching 400m and 400m hurdles with European medalists and World/ Olympic Finalists in both events.

‘’Just as it was a privilege to work with Bruce himself , it is also a privilege to be able to work with the Bruce Longden Coaching Foundation to help further develop talent in this great sport of ours’’

Peter Sutcliffe

Peter was a UK National Event Coach for many years, as well as a UK Athletics Team Coach and England Athletics Team Coach on a number of occasions.

‘I am delighted to be involved with the Foundation as I have always had the greatest respect for Bruce’s coaching achievements and welcome the opportunity to continue his coaching philosophy.’

Mike Leonard

A member of Bruce’s education team for the BAF North of the Thames Region and a UKA Level 4 Sprints Coach.

Bruce helped me enormously especially as a novice coach finding my way into coaching.
Bruce was someone you could always talk to and ask his advice. It was great to work as part of that team under his leadership. It’s great to have the opportunity to now give something back to the Foundation set up to continue his legacy.

I am currently Regional Lead for Sprints in the South East for England Athletics and was a National Coach Mentor on the England Athletics National Coaching Development Programme. I also tutor on the current coaching courses. I have coached for 30 years at my local club Marshall Milton Keynes and have also coached internationally both as a team coach and with individual athletes.

I enjoy my involvement with both athletes and other coaches and continue to learn from both of these groups.