History of the club:

Lourdians Athletics Club was founded in 1964 shortly after both Hector Romero BEM and Douglas Rodriguez left Our Lady of Lourdes School in 1963 of whom the former is still active today as one of the local club’s coaches as well as the GAAA National Team Head Coach. Hector Romero BEM is considered the face of Lourdians AC due to his unquestionable passion and dedication for the sport following more than half a century of commitment to the club as an athlete, coach, mentor and above all an example to all past and existing athletes. Some of his lifelong career achievements include the following:

• Winning a number of local Track/Road Racing Leagues
• Winning the Gibraltar Marathon on 3 occasions
• Representing Gibraltar in a number of International Competitions
• Selected as GAAA National Team Head Coach in 1985
• Awarded the Governor’s Certificate of Honour in 1992
• Awarded the European Coach of the Year Award in 2012
• Awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) in 2013

The club started off recruiting local runners and competed mostly locally in Road Racing leagues until eventually becoming the first and only local athletics club to have competed abroad in Tangier in 1967. This build-up of competition continued to spread out to the likes of Spain and Portugal both in Road and Track & Field events which continue to be a common theme today for our junior and senior athletes. Nowadays Lourdians AC frequently compete locally in a host of events including the yearly GAAA “Rock Runners” League, Youth Road Runners League, Winter & Summer Youth Track League and so much more catering for all ages.

Achievements:

In our over 55-year history we have had a vast number of athletes proudly wear the Gibraltar vest and compete internationally at various top tier competitions such as the Island Games (where many records and medals have been achieved); Youth and Senior Commonwealth Games; World Youth, Junior and Senior Championships; European Youth, Junior and Senior Championships and the list just goes on and on. Lourdians AC are also proud to have had among their ranks the first Gibraltarian woman to have taken part internationally in the Commonwealth Games back in 1970 at Edinburgh, Scotland.

We are proud to boast the fact that the majority of Gibraltar’s current Track and Field official National Records belong to an active or ex Lourdians AC athlete across all age categories both at Indoors and Outdoors respectively. Some of these records have now stood for almost 40 years since they were last established, further cementing the standards and benchmark our athletes have been putting into place throughout the years for our up-and-coming younger generations to try to push for in years to come.

Training involved:

Lourdians AC coach children from the age of 6 and upwards with no limit whatsoever. We regularly train at the Victoria Stadium track and at our current club facility with gym behind the Youth Centre located in Line Wall Road. The club every year have between 130 to 200 athletes registered where we pride ourselves as a huge family organisation.

We offer a number of training plans ranging from Road Racing endurance training (focusing more on long distance runners) to Sprint training on the track combined with strength & conditioning work more tailored for our shorter distance athletes. We also provide Field Events training such as Long jump, Hurdles, Shot put, and High jump.

The club’s coaching system is split up in different groups starting with our Grass Roots for kids aged 6 and 7 years old. We then have our Youth Academy consisting of children aged 8 to 12 years. Following from this we have our Teenage Youth Setup aged 13 to 15 and last but not least we have our Senior training group where breakthrough Under 18 athletes are also welcome (minimum 15 years of age).

Both our junior and senior runners use our club facility as a meeting point on certain days. The juniors have detailed training programmes and use the gym and weight facilities for much needed core work. We aim our training methods to try and achieve standard timings and performances for upcoming major competitions as well as try to compete in as many Track and Field events as we can abroad. We also attend friendly Athletics meetings for all ages with our neighbours in the La Linea Athletics Club.

The emphasis we strive to give is for our Lourdians AC Youth Academy to slowly but surely progress in the children’s fitness while at the same time making the sport a fun environment giving the children confidence to grow as individuals and believe in themselves no matter their ability.

In total we are seven coaches who give up their spare time to develop the sport of Athletics locally and pass on our knowledge and experience gained from different backgrounds. Our Grass Roots and Youth Academy has been established for over 20 years now and is growing in numbers every year.

Above everything, we have great respect to all who practice and enjoy athletics and our main philosophy is not about winning but rather taking part.