George Sinclair Coach
It is with deep regret that we have to report the passing of George Sinclair, George was a top Coach and major driving force behind Edinburgh Southern Harriers.
George was one of the best – and at the same time one of the least known – coaches in the country, he had worked with several of the very best athletes the country has produced.
As an announcer, his voice has been heard and listened closely to by almost everyone in Scottish athletics: he was employed in that capacity at the Commonwealth Games.
A pupil at George Heriot’s School all the way up from primary to secondary level George competed for them as a sprinter and high jumper. In 1971, his enthusiasm for the sport, led to him being one of the founders of the very successful Octavians Athletic Club.
Octavians was formed in 1962 andwas an amalgamation of eight of the Edinburgh fee paying’ schools, formerpupils athletic clubs. Due to falling numbers and a consequentdrop in standards, representatives of George Heriot’s School , Royal HighSchool , Daniel Stewart’s College, Trinity Academy , George Watson’s College,Edinburgh Academy, Boroughmuir High School and Melville College met and theclub was formed. George was the club president. Members were toinclude two Olympians (David Stevenson and David Jenkins), CommonwealthGames athletes (add John Jones and Ian Grant), GB internationalists (add BobHay, Adrian Weatherhead, Gordon Rule and Frank Dick) and many Scottishinternationalists.
George ran the Post Office atGoldenacre and coached many internationalists from Edinburgh Southern Harriersclub at Saughton and Fernieside as well as advising many young members.
The success of the club can be easilyseen by checking out the ranking lists and international team personnel of theperiod. There was an emphasis on the explosive and technicalevents. George’s athletes contributed strongly to these performances
When the Octavians folded members of the club then went in the main to one or other of the two big clubs in the capital, with George joining up with Edinburgh Southern Harriers.
Edinburgh had many athletic clubs at this point but two big ones: the newer Edinburgh AC (established in 1962) challenging the dominant Edinburgh Southern Harriers which was one of the very best Scottish clubs. When Octavians went out of business their funds went to Edinburgh AC and their name was perpetuated in the very successful but now defunct Octavian Relays Meeting run by EAC.
George continued to coach athletes very successfully and one of the very best was Helen Golden, British and Scottish sprinter of very high quality indeed right from the very start as a girl running for ESH in 1965 until she retired from sprinting in 1980. The range of George’s coaching talents has already been indicated – sprints, hurdles, middle distance, long and triple jumps have all been mentioned already and another top class athlete who came under his influence was Anne Purvis
Shesays, “I started training with George when I was 14 in 1973. He was then Head Coach of Edinburgh Southern Harriers. He coacheda number of athletes from sprints to Middle Distance. The athletes Itrained with then were Helen Golden, Mary Munroe, Annie Littlejohn, ElaineDouglas and Fiona Macaulay.
Georgedid not believe in over-training young athletes, so I only trained at a maximumof 3 times a week which gradually increased over the years eventually 6 days aweek often twice a day. His training was always specifically targeted forcompetition either club, championships or international. George wasalways keen to learn as a coach and apply new ideas to your training. Healways attended the Coaches Conventions organised by Frank Dick and wouldlisten to other coaches.
Hewas also happy for you to train with other coaches as he arranged trainingsessions for me with Donny McLeod’s squad for elastic strength workin the winter and Bill Walker’s squad for quality sessions in the summer. Over the years a number of other athletes came to him for coachingincluding, Katherine Shepperd and Fiona Hargreaves. All the athletes I have mentioned became Scottish Internationalists, somealso competing for Great Britain.
As acoach he was always very fair giving advice equally when he had two athletes inthe same event. He always expected you to compete for the Club as it wasextremely important to him. If things were not going well he looked for ways toencourage you and keep you interested in the sport. Finally I remember healways said that sport was only a part of your life and that first and foremostyou should enjoy it.”
That contribution tells us a lotabout George and what made him such a good coach:
How did that philosophy show up inpractice? In athletics the yardstick must be quality of performance. Taking the 1975 athletics yearbook as an example we can look at the 1974season. The women mentioned by Anne above all performed superbly well.
* Helen Golden had to be the stand outperformer – the top 21 performances over 100m by a Scot, the top 21performances by a Scot over 200m plus competition success for her club, forScotland and for Britain winning races in all these colours. First yearintermediate that season
* Elaine Douglas was third ranked in 100m andsecond in 200m.
* Anne Littlejohn had the top six 400m times andseven of the first eight.
* Anne Clarkson was also an Intermediate and had 5 ofthe top 20 400m performances, and was also ranked at 100m and 200m butmade a major breakthrough at 800m when she ran 2:08.8 at the age of 15.
* Fiona McAulay was fourth fastest Scottish woman –and she was also an Intermediate that year.
* Fiona Hargreaves had pb’s of 23.8 for 200m, 53.34 for400m, 2>11.1 for 800m. She ran in the ’86 Commonwealth Games in the 400m and 4 x 400mrelay.
* Kathryn Shepherd was a top talent at events from 800mupwards and won the SWAAA 3000m in 1982 and was third in 1984.
TheInters all went on to excellent careers in the sport – Anne Clarkson’s was maybe particularly noteworthy. George was also known to bea top class coach for relay teams. His work with the sprinters andrelays – the ESH time of 45.2 secs when they won the WAAA title at CrystalPalace in 1970 is the standout: it was faster than the Scottish team managed inthe Commonwealth Games later that year (although the order was changed and oneof them which wasn’t selected).
His credentials as a coach were wellestablished but like all talented individuals he worked well on club committeesand also represented the club on other bodies. Like most coaches andofficials with an interest in the good of the sport, he was a man of strongopinions .
George was also a member of Edinburgh Sports Forum.2007, a body involved in athletics provision and government not only in Edinburgh but at a national level as well. After much re-organisation and various club combinations, there was at last a single club for Edinburgh which is currently Edinburgh AC and it encompasses both the former Edinburgh AC and Southern Harriers. In recognition of his contribution to the club George was made an honorary life member in 2002.
(from an article on Anent Scottish Running, with thanks to Brian McCauslan Author)
Our condolences to his wife Pat and all the family .
George’s funeral will take place at 1:00pm Monday 16th August at the Lorimer Chapel, Warriston crematorium in Edinburgh.