Owen Hedges

It is with much sadness that Swansea Harriers learnt of the death of former long serving Sprints Coach Owen Hedges. Our deepest sympathy and thoughts are with his daughter and family. Owen’s funeral is on Tuesday 20th December with a service at 10am at Llanelli Crematorium, SA14 8BX with a burial at Hen Gapel Chapel, Hendy afterwards.

Owen Hedges started coaching as an Assistant Coach with Swansea Harriers as far back as 1969 and progressed via club coach level to become a Senior Coach during a period of 23 years up to 1992. Whilst his work was mainly with club athletes he did spend 2 years coaching sprinters at weekly Welsh squad sessions at Cwmbran organised by Malcolm Arnold. There then came a break in his time from Athletics
until he returned in 1997 and spent a further 14 years coaching club sprinters until his retirement in 2011 at the age of 73 due to ill health. Many of his athletes have gained Welsh championship medals and International honours over the years. His support of his athletes at the events they took part in showed how keen he was for them to progress. Such was his desire to gain more knowledge of Sports Coaching that he enrolled onto a full time 2 year course at Gower College Swansea where he was the only 60 year old among a group of 17 & 18 year old students. Owen was presented with a Welsh Athletics Meritorious Award in 2011 to recognise his 37 years of service as a dedicated coach, he will be sadly missed by all that new him.