Algarve Event Secures Olympian Support
Former Olympic Silver Medalist, Wendy Sly MBE, is the ace ambassador for the New Run Quinta Event.
The Campus at Quinta do Lago will host the Algarve ́s first running festival of its kind with Run Quinta. Sophie Sadler met up with race ambassador Wendy Sly MBE, who won the 10k World Road Race in 1983 and Olympic 3000m Silver Medal in 1984.
When I meet Wendy in the reception of the Quinta do Lago Hotel she looks effortlessly chic despite a hectic start to the morning on the Chris Evans breakfast show, which is being broadcast from the Algarve. She is here to promote a new sporting event in an area where she has enjoyed running for many years.
‘I have been coming to Quinta with my family and friends for over 30 years from when I was still a competitive athlete. The running community here is growing as people are discovering what a great place it is to run, so this event will be a great way for me to share the experience. You can take in the scenery, the people here are lovely, you sample so much of what this place is about when you run.”
Since opening in October 2018, many national and international teams and Olympic athletes have used The Campus to train and prepare for tournaments, and the facilities have received high praise from professional runners such as Lily Partridge and Susie Chan. The Campus has a weekly running club for members and guests and offers triathlon training with champion triathletes. People participating in Run Quinta can use any of their state of the art facilities by purchasing a day pass to plunge into an ice bath, enjoy a yoga class or book a massage.
Wendy won Silver in the 1984 LA Olympics in the same race as the infamous Zola Budd vs Mary Decker controversy, the 35 year anniversary of which was last weekend. Barefoot runner Zola Budd, who was running for team GB, seemed to trip the US favourite Mary Decker who fell out of the race. It’s highly regarded as one of the most incredible moments in sport in the UK and had been ranked in top 100 sporting moments on Channel 4.
Wendy came from a sporty family and had an abundance of energy as a child. At 11 she enrolled in Feltham athletics club in February in the middle of the cross country season and found she was good at it. Feltham became her social club and she met her life-long best friend on the first day. At 16 started to date an older guy from the club and stepped up her training to keep up with him! As a result, she came 2nd in national championships, from that point, it took over her life.
“Club athletics is fantastic but then it started to come 2nd to national trials, although I kept my club coach Neville Taylor through to the Olympics.” She was also coached by the father of her friend and later work-colleague, Sebastian Coe.
In 1980 she just missed out on the Olympics so she felt that 1984 was her year, “If I hadn´t made it I would have been very angry. So I wasn´t so much excited as the feeling that I deserved it. Your whole day and life revolve around running, train morning and evening and gym, running 12 to 13 times a week but resting is also very important and eating the right thing.”
There was no financial backing in those days, she went to the US in winter months and earned prize money on the road-racing circuit in order to fund her summer race season. She was surely entitled to feel that she had earnt her place on the starting block in front of the 84,000 in the stadium.
“LA was a huge crowd but you have tunnel vision and the sad thing is that you don´t take in the details, its all just background.” She didn´t go to the opening ceremony as she had at the ´82 Commonwealth Games, where it took so much out of her that she got silver, which she thought should have been gold.
Is she annoyed that race is famous for the wrong reasons? “At the time I took it badly as no one wanted to talk about the silver medal or wanted to say well done, all anyone was asking was if I saw what happened. Now in hindsight, I know that my performance was unaffected by events. Decker was a lot more vulnerable than she had been 12 months previously, she had been injured and beaten in US trials. We felt Romanian Maricica Puică, who got gold, was always the favourite. Budd wasn't in our thoughts in terms of medal positions, when we watched the heats. If I had not won a medal we would have been very disappointed.”
Decker now admits that she was not tripped but inexperienced at running in a pack. Sly concurs with this, “she had never been in an event like this, she had always been running on her own. When you have people of equal ability you have to keep your head about you and you see people fall over the whole time in the pack. Sly beat Budd again on the road later that year, so feels she would still have achieved the silver if circumstances had been different.
“To get silver is an emotional moment and one you all dream of, my parents got a colour TV especially for the 1972 Olympics and I was in awe of the athletes then and still am now.” She keeps the medal in a safe and got it out to mark the 35 year anniversary which she celebrated by going out to lunch with her coach Neville to remember the event.
Sly married long-term partner Andrew, who she met through working for Seb Coe, in 2013 they have one son, Max who is now 22. She still ranks in the UK all-time top-ten lists in the 3000 m, 10,000m, 10k road and 15 k road. She has been involved in the British team management for Cross Country for 13 years and likes to meet the young athletes coming through, many who she counts as friends and says it is nice to feel still involved.
Wendy was given an MBE in the 2015 New Years Honours list for services to athletics, she is also the manager of Athletics Weekly magazine in which her name started appearing when she was just 11-years-old.
Why are runs like this important? “It is one of the easiest ways of keeping fit and being out in the fresh air, good for you. It is good for women of my age for bone density, muscular strength and keeps heart and lungs healthy. There is also a great sense of camaraderie and a chance to make friends at the social events, which I didn´t have in my career when I was out to win! There is a big uptake in the UK to go to a venue abroad and enjoy a running experience, incorporating fitness and fun. Running in a different environment gives you a break from your normal training conditions and a chance to see a new place with a different climate.”
She hopes she will run at Run Quinta but is recovering from an injury inflicted on training for London marathon but at the very least will participate in the 5k.
“Chris Evans was telling me this morning how he is a fun runner and loves it, I have a real appreciation of just how much I love the sport and I love Quinta do Lago and Chris told me this morning that he is going to participate which is a great endorsement.”
If you want to join Wendy and Chris, there will be three events starting on Saturday 9th November there is a half marathon with two loops of 10.5 k on the road and around the lakeside. On Sunday 10th you can participate in the 10k or 5k where you will run through the dunes and along the beachfront. Don´t let the fun stop there! A Saturday night charity dinner includes an auction, live music and a Q&A with former Olympians. On Sunday night the post-race party will be at The Shack with live music and a chance to meet fellow runners. A day package is €25 for race entry or you can take part in multiples races on the €40 weekend pass, both include post-race entertainment.
You can also enter as part of the Run Quinta festival package, including accommodation at Quinta do Lago’s four-star boutique Magnolia Hotel. As part of the package, transfers are offered to all races as well as The Campus and the resort’s three award-winning golf courses and beach. 3-night packages start at €299.
Run Quinta looks set to become a fixture of the Algarve calendar and if you can see yourself making an Olympian effort and taking part then all details can be found on their website.
www.runquinta.com
