Published: Thursday, 12th June, 2008 08:55
Harriers president sets out his aims
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FORMER British internationalist runner and national endurance coach Chris Robison has become the new president of Carnegie Harriers.
Highly regarded and respected within athletics, Rosyth-based Robison (47) is set to bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to the running of the Harriers following his election at the club’s recent AGM.
As an athlete he finished 10th in the 10,000 metres at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada, and competed in seven World Cross-Country Championships.
After retiring from competitive running he joined the Harriers around three years ago and currently fights Scottish sport’s corner at Holyrood level as policy director of the Association of the Governing Bodies of Sport in Scotland.
“I’m still very much the new boy (at the Harriers),” he told Press Sport this week.
“Not running competitively, I don’t know the club inside out so I’ll be getting more involved and finding out what the strengths are and what we can do to improve.
“I’m really quite excited about it (becoming president). To be honest, it wasn’t something I had thought about.
“Iain Taylor (club secretary) is so impressive with the efficiency with which he runs the club but perhaps with my background, I can help to ensure elements of the constitution, such as paperwork and policies, are spot on.”
After hanging up his running shoes with west coast-based Inverclyde, Robison turned to the Harriers.
“Two reasons,” he explained, “I genuinely like the guys in the club and when I was training extremely hard for my own performances, guys like Iain, Stevie Ogg and the late Graham Clark always welcomed me to join the Harriers for some hard sessions.
“Effectively, I used the guys to make my own sessions harder. I was always welcome and that’s not always the case at all clubs. Some clubs are not too comfortable with non-members.
“Stevie would join me at 6.30 in the morning for a 10-mile run four or five mornings a week. He’s a larger than life guy and we would have such a laugh. To have that sort of company helped me with my running.
“Now I enjoy just recreational running but there’s no pressure on me to turn out which is important for me.”
Looking to the year ahead, Robison added, “By and large, it’s going pretty well but I know Iain is very keen to try to get our better runners to perform better in the more important races and I have some sympathy for that view.
“I’d like to encourage our top five or six athletes to get it together for national events. They do very well locally but don’t really make an impact on the national scene and the potential is there to do that.
“Also, looking at the runners of tomorrow, we don’t have a strong youth section and that’s something we may have a look at.”
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