Raising the Bar – WAIS Coach wins prestigious honour

Paul Burgess is helping athletes to reach new heights, and watching him up close it’s easy to see how. The WAIS Pole Vault Head Coach was recently announced as the 2022 Athletics Australia Coach of the Year following a remarkable fourth year at the helm.

Burgess coached athletes to three international medals in 2022 with Nina Kennedy clinching gold at the Commonwealth Games just weeks after becoming the first Australian to win a medal at the World Athletics Championships, as well as Kurtis Marschall who successfully defended his Commonwealth Games title.

Watching Burgess, a three-time Olympian in pole vault (2000, 2004, 2008) up close, it’s easy to see why he’s considered a leader in his field. As Head Coach, he has a genuine care for his athletes that reflects a relaxed but focused training environment. His star pupils, Kennedy and Marschall, attribute his caring nature and deep knowledge of the sport from his perspective as both an athlete and coach for their outstanding recent results.

“The most important aspect of coaching elite individual athletes is staying true to what is best for the athlete. It’s their life and their career and they only get one of them,” Burgess said.

“The coaches I look up to don’t present as gurus, they are comfortable saying they don’t know or that they were wrong about something,”

Burgess says the highlight of 2022 was during the World Athletics Championships, watching Kennedy recover from missing her first two jumps of the final to win Bronze with a clutch first-attempt clearance at 4.80m. Burgess believes there is no blanket approach to helping athletes manage adversity  “I’ve got better at picking up on what the athlete responds well to and adjusting things accordingly, I don’t think good coaches feel the need to have all the answers”.

Upon presenting the award, Chair of Athletics Australia’s Special Awards Committee Jane Flemming OAM said:

“We have a strong cohort of athletes, coaches and officials and we know this is only going to lift over the next decade on our way to Brisbane 2032. I’d like to congratulate each of our winners on their achievements, and I look forward to seeing what can be achieved as we look ahead to another international season ahead, punctuated by the World Athletics Championships in Budapest and the World Para Athletics Championships in Paris.”

More gold could be on the horizon with Australia’s best coaches continue to raise the bar on the long road to Paris.

Kurtis Marschall and Paul Burgess