Coaches

Emma Hooper - Senior Sprints Coach

Emma is a fully qualified UKA Level 3 coach, specialising in sprints and hurdles. She is also a committee member of the Achilles club and held the women’s Varsity 100m record for over 25 years while racing for Cambridge. However, since 2015 she has fully committed herself to the dark blue cause, having thrown herself into the development and wellbeing of the squad. She trains our OUAC short sprints squad and in August 2019 also started coaching our women’s long sprints squad.

Emma sets and supervises a series of parallel sessions at the track on Tuesdays and Thursdays for OUAC short and long sprinters and works with the squad to plan their other weekly sessions. Her dedication to the club is clear as she often spends many hours at the track working with her athletes and setting individualised sessions. She also oversees and coordinates rehab sessions working with health professionals where needed. Her results speak for themselves!

Bridget Wheeler - Consultant Sprints Coach

Lesley Bryant - Technical Throws Coach

Lesley has been involved with athletics for many years as an athlete, teacher, technical advisor and soft tissue therapist. She comes with a huge amount of throwing experience and pedigree. As an ex International discus thrower she held the English record! Lesley was Athletics GB Team Manager at the Sydney and Athens Olympics as well as a competitor at four World Championships, two European Championships and a Commonwealth Games.

Lesley has been working with Oxford University athletes since 2007 as a Soft Tissue Therapist and as a throws coach for the last 5 years. Her passion and dedication have had a big impact on our throws squad who were crucial in our recent Varsity victories. As well as honing the skills of our experienced throwers, she always has time for beginners, bringing athletes through the ranks to compete in our Seconds and even Blues teams.

Daniel Hooker - Horizontal Jumps Coach

Daniel, a former Oxford Captain himself, is an experienced athlete and coach. He came 7th for England at the Commonwealth Games in the T37 100 metres at Glasgow 2014. He also came within 13cm of qualifying for the 2012 Paralympic Games in the F37 Long Jump.

Daniel began coaching in 2013 and started coaching at Oxford in 2014, specialising in the horizontal jumps but also at times coaching sprints, hurdles and high jump. He has coached 3 athletes to National Indoor Championship medals in the Triple Jump, as well as routinely having athletes winning medals and reaching finals at the BUCS Championships and National U20 and U23 Championships. Alongside these high-level performances, he also enjoys seeing less experienced athletes achieve results they didn’t think they could - especially when it involves beating Cambridge!

Kay Reynolds - Hurdles Coach

Kay became a sprints and hurdles coach over 25 years ago and has coached many athletes to reach their full potential and to junior and senior national championships. She is a Level 3 speed coach and was on the England Athletics National Coach Development Programme (NCDP) before its funding ceased - learning a lot from some of the best coaches from across the world. Kay has helped the OUAC hurdlers to many great performances, with an unbeaten run at FEAR and many strong Varsity results.

As an athlete Kay was a mainly a sprint hurdler, racing in many National Championships. She maintained her standard of performance for many years - clocking 14.1s at both U20 and Masters level for 100mH and doing her last major championship at the Commonwealth Trials in 2008. She was still top 50 in the UK and running a 12.4s 100m up until injury ended her serious competition endeavours at the age of 42 in 2010.

Ailsa is a fully qualified UK Athletics coach. She is an Achilles Club trustee and former OUAC captain. As a high jumper, Ailsa won multiple welsh senior titles and GB age-group medals. She competed for OUAC in all the jumps (even pole vault!) winning blues in high jump and triple jump. After injury brought her sporting career to a close, she took up coaching and has since been dedicated to helping Oxford jumpers reach their potential.

Ailsa held the Oxford high jump record for a number of years and is delighted to have helped current students towards their own record-breaking performances both as individuals and as a team at FEAR. She welcomes athletes of all levels and experience into her group - all you need is enthusiasm!