Former Villanova great Terrence Mahon will leave his post as head guru at Mammoth Track Club in California to become the new British national distance coach. Mahon and his wife, fellow Villanovan and three-time Olympian Jen Rhines, will be taking up a new residence in the UK at Loughborough. As the article below states, Mahon was recommended for the post by Alberto Salazar, who helped hone British double Olympic gold medalist Mo Farah.
Mahon was an 8-time All American at Villanova, where he won Big East and IC4A individual titles. After graduating in 1993, Mahon was a national class competitor who won a USATF national title at 20 kilometers and qualified for the US Olympic trials five times combined on the track and at the marathon distance. He owns PRs of 4:05.9 (mile), 8:05.9 (3000 meters), 13:33.2 (5000 meters), 28:31.1 (10,000 meters), 1:03:37 (half marathon) and 2:13:02 (marathon).
UK Athletics hires Terrence Mahon as a new national coach for distance running as coaching overhaul continues
by Simon Hart
The Telegraph
31 October 2012
UK Athletics has made a second raid on America’s coaching pool within the space of a month after hiring California-based Terrence Mahon as a new national coach for distance running.
Mahon, 42, is following in the footsteps of compatriot Rana Reider, who arrived from Florida last month to work as a consultant coach for sprints, hurdles and horizontal jumps. Both men will be based at the governing body’s high-performance centre in Loughborough.
A former marathon runner, Mahon has worked with some of the United States’ leading endurance runners in recent years, including 2004 Olympic marathon bronze medallist Deena Kastor, two-time Olympic marathon runner Ryan Hall and Morgan Uceny, who was the fast woman in the world over 1500 metres in 2011. Mahon is also married to Jennifer Rhines, who competed at three Olympic Games in different distance events.
It is understood he was recommended for the job by Alberto Salazar, the American coach who guided Mo Farah to his double Olympic triumph in London, though he is unlikely to have any personal involvement with the Londoner, who will remain based at Salazar’s training HQ in Portland, Oregon.
Mahon’s arrival is part of a major overhaul of Britain’s coaching structure currently being carried out by UK Athletics performance director, Neil Black, before the current cycle of coaching contracts expires at the end of December.
Sports psychiatrist Dr Steve Peters has already been recruited along with two other psychologists while on Monday it was announced that Peter Eriksson was moving from the Paralympic programme to replace Charles van Commenee as head coach.
It has yet to be revealed whether there will future jobs for the current head of Britain’s endurance programme, former athlete Ian Stewart, and long-distance coaches George Gandy and John Nuttall.
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