Paul Manning graduates from Ashridge Business School's elite coaching programme

Paul Manning, women’s endurance coach at British Cycling, is one of 12 GB coaches who are set to become the first graduates of the Elite Coaching Apprenticeship Programme at the Ashridge Business School in Hertfordshire.

The 37-year-old turned to coaching after helping Great Britain win team pursuit gold at Beijing, four years after he had won silver in that event, and bronze in the individual pursuit, at Athens.

His participation on the two-year programme at Ashridge which comprises seven workshops, the last of which was held this month and which aims to groom the elite coaches of the future, reflects his growing stature on the coaching side of the sport.

The women’s team pursuit squad won Britain’s only gold medal at this year’s UCI Track World Championships in the Netherlands, with Laura Trott, Wendy Houvenaghel and Dani King beating the United States in the final.

Earlier this month, it was revealed that Manning had cut paralympic champion Sarah Storey from the squad for the event in he 2012 Olympics just days after helping Great Britain win the team pursuit in the World Cup at Cali in Colombia.

Joanna Rowsell, as well as the trio who won the World Championship earlier this year, are the four riders who will go forward and train for next summer’s Olympics which will feature the women’s team pursuit for the first time.

The 12 coaches who have successfully completed the programme are due to be presented with their graduation certificates by Peter Keen, UK Sport Director of Performance.

Mr Keen said: “I congratulate the 12 coaches who are graduating from ECAP this week for the hard work and dedication they have shown over the past two years. I have no doubt that the journey they have been on and lessons they have learnt will aid them enormously as they continue to progress with their coaching careers.

“Ensuring we have a system in place that means we can nurture and develop our best coaches is crucial to the continued success of British Olympic and Paralympic sport and programmes like ECAP enable this to happen.”

Besides Manning, the other coaches on the inaugural programme were Ian Wynne (Canoeing – Flat Water)
, Rob Greenwood (Swimming), 
 Mark Earnshaw (Rowing), 
Nick Smith (Canoe – Slalom), 
James Hillier (Athletics), 
Jonas Tawiah Dodoo (Athletics), 
Mark Rose (Swimming)
, Greg Baker (Disability Table Tennis), 
Steve Jennings (Taekwondo), 
Craig Parnham (Hockey) and 
Luke Preston (Judo).