The Loss of a Legend…
Oct. 9, 2020 — Yesterday, the athletic world lost yet another legendary “teacher”. England’s legendary athletic coach, George Gandy passed away with a heart attack at the age of 80. When I first heard the name, George Gandy, it was in 1980 when I first came to the USA. The year before, we witnessed the emergence of a young “new breed” of middle distance runner, Sebastian Coe. He came from nowhere and set series of world records in the middle distance events, including one-mile. What’s unique about him was that he was not following a traditional endurance training — a la Lydiard. It was reported that he ran maximum 50-miles-a-week. But he did lots of gym workouts. When it was first revealed that Coe did lots of circuit training and heavy weights. There was a picture of Seb Coe doing squats with weights on his shoulder….and there was a man observing Seb right next to him. It was George Gandy.
He was an athletic trainer at Loughborough University where Seb Coe attended. So it was a natural progression that Coach Gandy helped him with the gym routine. Of course, his “circuit training” was viewed as a “secret” of his success. It is the new wave of training for middle distance events; there’s no need for long slow distance work…. Fast forward to 2007; I did the radio interview gig with a British marathon runner, Jon Brown. He finished 4th in 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens Olympics marathon and, at the time, lived in Victoria, BC. We were organizing a Lydiard clinic in Victoria and, as a local celebrity runner, he was invited. At first, I wan’t too keen on the idea; I didn’t want to bring in someone just because he/she is a famous runner…. At the time, I didn’t know anything about what kind of training Jon Brown was doing. That’s when I hear the name again — George Gandy. Jon Brown was already a very good runner — 13:30 for 5000m. But after he teamed up with Coach Gandy, he “improved every distance from 1500m all the way up to the marathon,” Jon said. “And (Coach Gandy) was a big Lydiard disciple,” he added. “So it’s a very good training method,” the lady who was interviewing us said.” “There’s no other way to train,” said Jon Brown.
As a student of the sport, I must admit, I had slackened to learn more about Coach Gandy — I guess I just took Jon’s words!! I had exchanged a few words today with Jon on his coach’s passing. I had asked him to write something about Coach Gandy for Lydiard Training & Academy. Anne Audain is very keen on sharing her stories with John Davies. There are many legendary “Lydiard coaches”. Bill Bowerman, Dick Brown, John Davies…, quite a few more that not too many Westerners know about, Kiyoshi Nakamura, Yoshio Koide…, and now George Gandy. With this Lydiard platform, I would like to share thier legacies as well. After all, they were all a part of the Lydiard family!!
Rest In Peace, Coach Gandy!! — Nobby Hashizume
*To know more about Coach Gandy, click HERE.
