Former Olympic athlete, Jenny Meadows delivered a guest lecture at Leigh College for Foundation Degree Sports Coaching students.

The 2009 World Championships 800m bronze medallist and Wigan Harrier talked about her career in athletics and gave a great insight into elite level performance.

The 2011 European 800m Indoor champion was joined by her coach of 18 years and husband, Trevor Painter, who is the British Athletics Pathway Coaching Team Leader.

The University Centre Wigan & Leigh students received a privileged insight into coaching processes from the duo and learnt about the differences between coaching development athletes and elite level athletes.

Jenny certainly fell into the latter category, and the eager degree learners soaked up her experiences from junior athlete to competing at the highest stage as well as hearing how Jenny and Trevor would tailor her training plan leading up to a major competition.

Jenny said: “It was brilliant coming to Leigh College as I go around the country a lot so it’s really nice to be more local and the facilities here are very impressive.

“The students were really respectful and you could see they were absorbing all the information and the questions they gave showed they had great insight and coaching knowledge.”

The pair both gained their masters at the University of Central Lancashire, with Trevor receiving his MSc in Elite Coaching Practice and Jenny achieving hers in Sports Marketing and Business Management.

Having spent time among the students at Leigh College, Trevor and Jenny both added: “We would have loved to have done a course like this when we were younger.”

Sports Lecturer and Quality Co-ordinator, Rebecca Armstrong said: “We’d like to thank Jenny and Trevor for visiting us to deliver a unique insight into the relationship between an elite athlete and coach and our students will certainly benefit from this experience.”

It was a busy day for the 800m runner, who after staying to answer questions from the sports coaching students, headed off to Salford to film an edition of Celebrity Mastermind with her specialist topic being Wigan Warriors in the Challenge Cup from the 90’s to present day.