Sammy N Rashid

I have been part of the University of Sheffield Athletics Club since September 1998 (25 years at the time of writing). I arrived as a student and have represented the University at BUSA (now BUCS) championships on the track (both indoor and outdoor and cross country). I also competed in the South Yorkshire cross country league as a student and as a member of staff until injury curtailed my running career just before the pandemic. I competed in distances ranging for 3000m to marathons over track, cross county and road. The older I became the longer the distance.

As well as being the distance coach, my “day” job is as a statistician in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University. I am also responsible for the history and club record pages on the club website.

During my time at Sheffield, I have obtained Run Leader and coaching qualifications. I have taken track sessions for the club, lead group runs and held about 20 couch to 5k courses (mainly for staff).

I was honoured to be asked to coach the distance athletes for the club starting in September 2023. I know that students will come from varying backgrounds in terms of ability, experience, preferences in distance and surface (track/road/cross country etc) and will have varying reasons for joining the club. I will aim to cater for everyone who attends my sessions.