2009 News
- News Archive
![Kelly Holmes with student athletes]](../2009-photos/kelly-holmes-kitchen1.jpg)
St Mary's Athletes Eat for Success
With Christmas just days away the nation will prepare for enjoying an enormous Christmas dinner and all of the extra treats that come along with the festive season. However, for St Mary's University College, Twickenham's star middle distance athletes Suzi Boast, Charlotte Purdue, Linzi Snow, Mitch Goose, Simon Horsfield, Ben Lindsay, Ross Murray, Andrew Osagie and Rick Ward there won't be any partying or Christmas binging, as it will be training as normal for the 2012 hopefuls.
Many of the athletes had impressive 2009 track campaigns and they will be looking to make a big impression in 2010. They are all part of double Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes' 'On Camp with Kelly' mentoring initiative, supported by Aviva.
'On Camp with Kelly' aims to help talented young middle distance runners become successful international athletes, providing them with support from Kelly herself as well as giving them the opportunity to take part in educational get-togethers with the other athletes on the scheme.
Recently, the talented St Mary's bunch attended an 'Eat for Success' cookery get-together hosted at University College Birmingham, where Dame Kelly teamed up with celebrity chef Ainsley Harriott, to give her protégées a practical nutritional master class.
The aim of the weekend was to give the athletes a better understanding of how to cook nutritious meals, enabling them to refuel more effectively after hard training sessions. As we enter the time of year when eating well flies out of the window, Ainsley showed the athletes that it's not hard to make tasty and healthy meals quickly.
All of the athletes thoroughly enjoyed the experience and Linzi Snow has vowed to put her new cooking skills into practice: "I thought the weekend was so enjoyable and by far one of the best get-togethers. It really benefited me because even though I know how to cook, I generally eat the same things and it was good to get such a variety from breakfast to healthy desserts.
"The thing I enjoyed the most was being able to actually cook the meals Ainsley taught us. I definitely feel more confident about cooking now and not afraid to mix things up and try my own things. With Christmas coming I will stick to eating well and not pig out on bad foods as I like to eat healthy foods anyway and I need to stay focused if I want to achieve my aims."
