England Athletics Volunteer Awards
“Big news from the England Athletics London Region, Volunteer Awards -
We won all 4 of our shortlisted entries....that's right....all four !!!
Massive congratulations to... Alan Agarrat for Services to Athletics, Jen Armson for Unsung Hero Award, Luke Kretschmer for Unsung Hero Award and.... to all of us.... as we won.... Queens Park Harriers Club of the Year. I could not be prouder ❤️🤍❤️”
– Gavin O’Sullivan (QPH Chair)
On Saturday night, in Covent Garden, we assembled at the De Vere Grand, Connaught Rooms, a room full of big-hearted people, volunteer coaches, mentors, team leaders and innovative project creators, all with one thing in common. Volunteering in their own time for the good of others of all ages, creating spaces for young and old to improve and flourish with their running and athletics. Helping people from 4 to 94 years old enjoy better physical and mental health through exercise. Organised by the London Region of England Athletics. After some drinks and a buffet supper we sat down to listen to all the inspiring and heart-warming stories relating to all the nominees. There was a lot of applause and a few tears on the way.
Have a read about why these valued members of our club have been honoured in this way :-
Alan Agarrat gave the best part of his life to Queens Park Harriers, around fifty years as a member, and one of our Life Members. Born in Trinidad in 1948, he came to London in the early 1960s during the Windrush era, and made North West London his home for the next sixty-five years. Sport, and athletics were a constant thread through his life, and his involvement spanned every level. In his younger days he competed for us as a sprinter and hurdler. In time he became one of our most relied-upon volunteers: our Track Captain for well over a decade, the keeper of the shed (our club equipment store), one of our trusted bank-account signatories and, above all, the heartbeat of our evening track sessions, there every single week without fail, whatever the weather, the only weeks he was ever absent being when he was back in Trinidad visiting family.
First to arrive, he kept every session to time on the whistle and was the voice that started each effort: generations of Harriers ran to his count of “3-2-1, off you go!” His engineer’s eye showed in the small, practical things that quietly kept everything running: it was Alan who fitted the equipment shed with lighting, and maintained it himself, so that our track volunteers could see what they were doing through the dark winter evenings. His service reached well beyond us, too. For many years he was our delegate to the Middlesex County Athletic Association, and for decades a familiar face officiating the field events, especially long jump and triple jump, at Middlesex meetings indoor and outdoor, as well as giving many decades of service to the Middlesex Young Athletes League.
His truest legacy, though, is through the countless runners he started, timed and encouraged over the decades, from nervous beginners to seasoned veterans. His dedication did not go unrecognised: in 2024 we named him our Volunteer of the Year (receiving the inaugural Jean Walerych Volunteer of the Year Award), and he had been made an honorary member in acknowledgement of a lifetime of service. We have chosen to remember him not with a plaque but with an annual race day in his name, bringing the whole community together each year in the way Alan always did. After so many years of hearing him start us at the track, it was finally our turn to say to him: “3-2-1, off you go.”
Jen Armson is one of those rare volunteers whose fingerprints are on almost everything we do well, and so much of the work happens “behind the scenes” that many of us don’t even realise the amount of hours that she dedicates. Our Volunteer Lead for Coaching, Jen gives her time across coaching & club strategy week in, week out. It is Jen who writes the club’s weekly track sessions, around fifty a year, the training plans we follow, and she is regularly trackside herself, leading drill sessions, and coaching, several times a month. She is a driving force whenever the committee debates how to make improvements, and she is responsible for better-run sessions, clearer communication and a thoughtful approach to what we offer runners of every level.
Behind every well-coached session, and behind a club that simply seems to run smoothly, is a lot of Jen. She is one of the club’s Road Race Series captains, the point of contact members turn to with questions about the series, and she is also the lead of the Alan Agarrat Memorial Races. In late 2024 she led an overhaul of how the club is run, that moved the club in a more efficient, organised and energised direction, and it strengthened our alignment with the England Athletics Club Standards.
Over the past year Jen’s contribution has touched every part of the club. As a coach she has helped athletes of all abilities train well and improve, and the Couch to 5K coaching plan she created has helped new runners into the sport and onto the track. The governance she put in place continues to pay off, leaving the club more efficient, better organised and more sustainable, and freeing volunteers to focus on running rather than on how things are done. The result is a club that is better coached, better run and better connected, with a membership that benefits every week from work most of them will never see. Jen embodies the spirit of this award: she makes a significant personal contribution and asks for nothing in return.
Luke Kretschmer is the embodiment of a volunteer who simply gets things done, then quietly gets on with the next thing. Not content with being a committed club runner, Luke founded and now leads the Queens Park Social Run, a free, welcoming community run that meets every Wednesday evening from the Wolfpack in Queens Park. He turns up week after week to lead it himself, creating a relaxed, no-pressure way for local people, many of them new to running or unsure about whether joining a ‘club’ would be right for them, to find their feet and feel part of something. In the past 12 months Luke’s Social Run has become a genuine fixture in our week and a friendly front door into running for the local community.
He also created the club’s Weekly Workout, a membership perk he launched and still runs, sharing a fresh training session with members every week. He is also one of our regular trackside coaches, taking drill sessions for our runners multiple times a month, and has invested his own time in formal coaching qualifications, completing his England Athletics Coach in Running Fitness qualification so he can give even more back to our athletes. Luke has also led our efforts to source better kit and merchandise, dealing directly with suppliers to get the best value for members. This work is administrative, time-consuming and invisible, exactly the kind of behind-the-scenes graft this award exists to recognise.
His coaching qualification is already feeding back into stronger, better-supported sessions. He leads by example, too: this year he took up a brand-new event, hurdles, training alongside the Thames Valley Harriers athletes who share our track, helping build a warm relationship between the two clubs and competing at the recent Middlesex County Championships, and will inspire other Harriers to give the event a go in future. Luke makes a real, repeated personal sacrifice of his time, week in and week out, to give other people a better experience of running, and he does it with energy, warmth and zero fuss. That is exactly what makes him an unsung hero.
Last but not least – Queen's Park Harriers – club of the year!
England Athletics recognised the range of offerings the club has from twice weekly track sessions, a Sunday Long Run, Couch to 5km, the Lexi Run and the Queen's Park Social Run. Along with this we have the Summer League races and Cross Country League matches which are all free for members to enter and that encourage all ages and levels of running to participate.
The club is run by a dedicated group of committee members who meet monthly to discuss all manner of matters relating to the successful running of the club. We have a large range of active sub groups, a Coaching team, Road Race Series team, Cross Country team, Summer League team, Website team, Social Media team, Mental Health Champions, Social Committee, Community Engagement, Welfare & Safeguarding, Membership team, Volunteer co-ordinator, Long run organiser, Newsletter team, so many volunteers! This award is for each and every one.
We will be celebrating all the volunteers and these awards at the AGM on Monday 12th October at the Wolfpack at 7pm.
Fancy joining them? We're always looking for new volunteers. It's rewarding, it needn't take much time, and there's a role to suit everyone. Get in touch at newsletter@qph.org.uk and we'll find you something that fits.